Two wings

God turns you from one feeling to another and teaches you
by means of opposites, so that you will have two wings
to fly - not one.
Rumi

Inner knowing

The most sacred place dwells within our heart, where dreams
are born and secrets sleep, a mystical refuge of darkness and
light, fear and conquest, adventure and discovery, challenge
and transformation.
Our heart speaks for our soul every moment while we are alive.
Listen...as the whispering beat repeats: be...gin, be...gin,
be...gin. It's really that simple. Just begin... again.
Royce Addington

Life by Henry Van Dyke

Life
by Henry Van Dyke

Let me but live my life from year to year,
With forward face and unreluctant soul;
Not hurrying to, nor turning from the goal;
Not mourning for the things that disappear
In the dim past, nor holding back in fear
From what the future veils; but with a whole
And happy heart, that pays its toll
To Youth and Age, and travels on with cheer.

So let the way wind up the hill or down,
O'er rough or smooth, the journey will be joy:
Still seeking what I sought when but a boy,
New friendship, high adventure, and a crown,
My heart will keep the courage of the quest,
And hope the road's last turn will be the best.

Nature quote

If we do not permit the earth to produce beauty and joy,
it will in the end not produce food, either.
Joseph Wood Krutch

Earth and soul

Look at the earth crowded with growth, new and old bursting
from their strong roots hidden in the silent, live ground,
each seed according to its own kind¦each one knowing what to do,
each one demanding its own rights on the earth.
So artist, you too from the depths of your soul...
let your roots creep forth, gaining strength.
Emily Carr

Rose and flower :beauty and sense

Butterfly quote

But these are flowers that fly and all but sing:
And now from having ridden out desire
They lie closed over in the wind and cling
Where wheels have freshly sliced the April mire.
Robert Frost, "Blue-Butterfly Day"

Connection quote

Rob Hefferan Art

The life I touch for good or ill will touch another life, and
that in turn another,until who knows where the trembling stops
or in what far place my touch will be felt.
Frederick Buechner

Inspirational picture

I am a part of all that I have met.

When I have Fears That Cease To Be by by J.Keats

When I have Fears That Cease To Be
by J.Keats


When I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has glean'd my teeming brain,
Before high - piled books, in charact'ry,
Hold like rich garners the full-ripen'd grain;
When I behold, upon the night's starr'd face,
Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,
And feel that I may never live to trace
Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;

And when I feel, fair creature of an hour!
That I shall never look upon thee more,
Never have relish in the faery power
Of unreflecting love;then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think,
Till Love and Fame to nothingness do sink

Friendship quote/art by Iman maleki

Art of Iman Maleki


Do not keep the alabaster box of your friendship
sealed up until your friends are dead. Fill their lives
with sweetness. Speak approving, cheering words
while their ears can hear them, and while their hearts
can be thrilled and made happier. The kind of things you
mean to say when they are gone, say before they go.
George W. Childs

Mother quote

In the sheltered simplicity of the first days after a baby is born,
one sees again the magical closed circle, the miraculous sense of two
people existing only for each other.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Tenderness and kindness

Tender Words
Rumi

Tender words we spoke to one another
are sealed in the secret vaults of heaven.

One day like rain,they will fall to earth
and grow green all over the world.





If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin Into his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.
Emily Dickinson

Earth delights quote by Khalil Gibran

And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare
feet and the winds long to play with your hair.
Khalil Gibran

LIfe quote

You must understand the whole of life, not just
one little part of it. That is why you must read,
that is why you must look at the skies, that is
why you must sing and dance, and write poems,
and suffer, and understand, for all that is life.
J.Krishnamurti

Weerzien by Anna Enquist

Weerzien
Anna Enquist


Hoe de mensen, hoe deze mensen, hoe
een man en een vrouw na jaren elkaar –
hoe na jaren deze mensen elkaar zullen
zien, harnas van vroeger over het sleets
lichaam, hoe in hun botten moeheid
en deceptie jaar na jaar kerven.

Hoe mensen, door afscheid op afscheid
gestriemd en geslagen, het kijken
verdragen in de laatste smalle kier
die de tijd hen laat, in laat licht
ontluisterd. Dat ligt aan de ogen;
genadig wrikt tovenaar geheugen
aan de deur van de tijd; ontzien
in het zien (weggeblazen heupen,
dood haar). Die daar staan ont-
staan voor elkaar bedrieglijkerwijs
in vijvers van vroeger. Zij bieden
elkaar een diep water, hier.

Zo zien een man en een vrouw na
jaren elkaar of niet of anders. Vuur

Arte poética /Pablo Neruda

Arte poética
Pablo Neruda


ENTRE sombra y espacio, entre guarniciones y doncellas,
dotado de corazón singular y sueños funestos,
precipitadamente pálido, marchito en la frente
y con luto de viudo furioso por cada día de vida,
ay, para cada agua invisible que bebo soñolientamente
y de todo sonido que acojo temblando,
tengo la misma sed ausente y la misma fiebre fría
un oído que nace, una angustia indirecta,
como si llegaran ladrones o fantasmas,
y en una cáscara de extensión fija y profunda,
como un camarero humillado, como una campana un poco
ronca

como un espejo viejo, como un olor de casa sola
en la que los huéspedes entran de noche perdidamente ebrios,
y hay un olor de ropa tirada al suelo, y una ausencia de flores
-posiblemente de otro modo aún menos melancólico-,
pero, la verdad, de pronto, el viento que azota mi pecho,
las noches de substancia infinita caídas en mi dormitorio,
el ruido de un día que arde con sacrificio
me piden lo profético que hay en mí, con melancolía
y un golpe de objetos que llaman sin ser respondidos
hay, y un movimiento sin tregua, y un nombre confuso.

Half life by Stephen Levine

Half Life
Stephen Levine

We walk through half our life
as if it were a fever dream
barely touching the ground
our eyes half open
our heart half closed.

Not half knowing who we are
we watch the ghost of us drift
from room to room
through friends and lovers
never quite as real as advertised.
Not saying half we mean
or meaning half we say
we dream ourselves
from birth to birth
seeking some true self.

Until the fever breaks
and the heart can not abide
a moment longer
as the rest of us awakens,
summoned from the dream,
not half caring for anything but love.

Pain and hope by Kim Schilling

Dvorak Franz

Pain and Hope
Kim Schilling

Pain
cannot
be erased
with a single
waving of a hand.
Rotting, settling deep
within the core of the heart
until it bores holes to your soul,
pain imprisons your mind ruthlessly
leaving you defenseless against yourself.

Obscured in darkness, festering blindly,
reaching outward for signs of living
in a world filled with decayed rot;
soft whispers enter your head
and hands lay upon you.
As ache peels away
you recognize,
at long last,
there is
hope.

Mystery

Mysteries are feminine; they like to veil themselves but
still want to be seen and divined.
Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel

Compassion quote

Have compassion for all beings, rich and poor alike;
each has their suffering. Some suffer too much, others too little.
Buddha

Mystic emotion

The finest emotion of which we are capable is the mystic emotion.
Albert Einstein

Nature quote and pictures

Keep your sense of proportion by regularly, preferably daily,
visiting the natural world.
Catlin Matthews

Das Lied der Freiheit von Hoffmann von Fallersleben

Das Lied der Freiheit
Hoffmann von Fallersleben

Es lebe, was auf Erden
nach Freiheit strebt und wirbt
von Freiheit singt und saget,
für Freiheit lebt und stirbt.

Die Welt mit ihren Freuden
ist ohne Freiheit nichts
die Freiheit ist die Quelle
der Tugend und des Lichts.

Es kann, was lebt und webet
in Freiheit nur gedeihn.
Das Ebenbild des Schöpfers
kann nur der Freie sein.

Frei will ich sein und singen,
so wie der Vogel lebt,
der auf Palast und Kerker
sein Frühlingslied erhebt.

Die Freiheit ist mein Leben
und bleibt es immerfort,
mein Sehnen, mein Gedanke,
mein Traum, mein Lied und Wort.

Es lebe, was auf Erden
nach Freiheit strebt und wirbt,
von Freiheit singt und saget,
für Freiheit lebt und stirbt.

Fluch sing ich allen Zwingherrn,
Fluch aller Dienstbarkeit!
Die Freiheit ist mein Leben
und bleibt es alle Zeit.

You Are Me by Thich Naht Hah

You Are Me
Thich Naht Hah

You are me and I am you.
It is obvious that we are inter-are.
You cultivate the flower in
yourself so that I will be beautiful.

I transform the garbage in myself so
that you do not have to suffer.
I support you you support me.
I am here to bring you peace
you are here to bring me joy.

The Soul's Expression by Elizabeth Barret Browning

The Soul's Expression
Elizabeth Barret Browning

With stammering lips and insufficient sound
I strive and struggle to deliver right
That music of my nature, day and night
With dream and thought and feeling interwound

And inly answering all the senses round
With octaves of a mystic depth and height
Which step out grandly to the infinite
From the dark edges of the sensual ground.

This song of soul I struggle to outbear
Through portals of the sense, sublime and whole,
And utter all myself into the air:
But if I did it,--as the thunder-roll
Breaks its own cloud, my flesh would perish there,
Before that dread apocalypse of soul.

Character quote

To be nobody but yourself in a world
which is doing its best
day and night to make you like everybody else
means to fight the hardest battle
which any human being can fight
and never stop fighting.
E.E. Cummings

House by the Side of the Road

House by the Side of the Road
Sam Walter Foss
Music:
Secret Garden:Sometimes When it Rains


There are hermit souls that live withdrawn
In the place of their self-content;
There are souls like stars, that dwell apart,
In a fellowless firmament;
There are pioneer souls that blaze the paths
Where highways never ran-
But let me live by the side of the road
And be a friend to man.

Let me live in a house by the side of the road
Where the race of men go by-
The men who are good and the men who are bad,
As good and as bad as I.
I would not sit in the scorner's seat
Nor hurl the cynic's ban-
Let me live in a house by the side of the road
And be a friend to man.

I see from my house by the side of the road
By the side of the highway of life,
The men who press with the ardor of hope,
The men who are faint with the strife,
But I turn not away from their smiles and tears,
Both parts of an infinite plan-
Let me live in a house by the side of the road
And be a friend to man.

I know there are brook-gladdened meadows ahead,
And mountains of wearisome height;
That the road passes on through the long afternoon
And stretches away to the night.
And still I rejoice when the travelers rejoice
And weep with the strangers that moan,
Nor live in my house by the side of the road
Like a man who dwells alone.

Let me live in my house by the side of the road,
Where the race of men go by-
They are good, they are bad, they are weak, they are strong,
Wise, foolish - so am I.
Then why should I sit in the scorner's seat,
Or hurl the cynic's ban?
Let me live in my house by the side of the road
And be a friend to man.





A Portrait With A Soul
Bertrand Russel

Three passions have governed my life:
The longings for love, the search for knowledge,
And unbearable pity for the suffering of humankind.

Love brings ecstasy and relieves loneliness.
In the union of love I have seen
In a mystic miniature the prefiguring vision
Of the heavens that saints and poets have imagined.

With equal passion I have sought knowledge.
I have wished to understand the hearts of people.
I have wished to know why the stars shine.

Love and knowledge led upwards to the heavens,
But always pity brought me back to earth;
Cries of pain reverberated in my heart
Of children in famine, of victims tortured
And of old people left helpless.

I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot,
And I too suffer.
This has been my life; I found it worth living.



Children's Eyes
By Tom Krause

What kind of world is it my friend
the little children see?
I wonder if they see God first
because they just believe?

Do they see strength in caring eyes
who watch them as they play--
or maybe love through gentle hands
that guide them on their way?

Do you think they dream of future times
when they would be king--
or just enjoy their present life
while with their friends they sing?

Do they see the acts of kindness
done for people who are poor?
Is the very best in everyone
what they are looking for?

And when the day is over,
as they close their eyes to sleep,
do they look forward to tomorrow
with its promises to keep?

If this is what the children see,
then it should be no surprise,
the world would be a better place
if we all had children's eyes.

A Woman's Question by Joshua Harris

Art by Eugen De Blass

A Woman's Question
Joshua Harris

Do you know you have asked for the costliest thing
Ever made by the Hand above?
A woman's heart, and a woman's life---
And a woman's wonderful love.
Do you know you have asked for this priceless thing
As a child might ask for a toy?
Demanding what others have died to win,
With a reckless dash of boy.

You have written my lesson of duty out,
Manlike, you have questioned me.
Now stand at the bars of my woman's soul
Until I shall question thee.
You require your mutton shall always be hot,
Your socks and your shirt be whole;
I require your heart be true as God's stars
And as pure as His heaven your soul.

You require a cook for your mutton and beef,
I require a far greater thing;
A seamstress you're wanting for socks and shirts---
I look for a man and a king.
A king for the beautiful realm called Home,
And a man that his Maker, God,
Shall look upon as He did on the first
And say: "It is very good."

I am fair and young, but the rose may fade
From this soft young cheek one day;
Will you love me then 'mid the falling leaves,
As you did 'mong the blossoms of May?
Is your heart an ocean so strong and true,
I may launch my all on its tide?
A loving woman finds heaven or hell
On the day she is made a bride.

I require all things that are grand and true,
All things that a man should be;
If you give this all, I would stake my life
To be all you demand of me.
If you cannot be this, a laundress and cook
You can hire and little to pay;
But a woman's heart and a woman's life
Are not to be won that way.

Growth quote

I think that one's art is a growth inside one. I do not think one can
explain growth. It is silent and subtle. One does not keep digging
up a plant to see how it grows.
Emily Carr

War quote

Borders are scratched across the hearts of men
By strangers with a calm, judicial pen,
And when the borders bleed we watch with dread
The lines of ink across the map turn red.
Marya Mannes, Subverse: Rhymes for Our Times