The minute I heard my first love story
I started looking for you, not knowing
how blind that was.

Lovers don't finally meet somewhere.
They're in each other all along

~

We are the mirror as well as the face in it.
We are tasting the taste this minute
of eternity. We are pain
and what cure pain, both. We are
the sweet cold water and the jar that pours.

~

I want to hold you close like a lute,
so we can cry out with loving

You would rather throw stones at a mirror?
I am your mirror, and here are the stones

~Rumi


"I am aesthetically obligated to show the world beauty not out of vanity and not because I want to be beautiful, but because the world needs beauty--even when the world is no longer aware of its profound longing for it."

Meret Oppenheim, Surrealist

...........
I have recently really began to understand this on a gut level..
"One day in retrospect the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful."
- Sigmund Freud

-Just imagine rolling off the lovely lips of Nina Simone...

I wish I knew how
It would feel to be free
I wish I could break
All the chains holding me
I wish I could say
All the things that I should say
Say 'em loud say 'em clear
For the whole round world to hear
I wish I could share
All the love that's in my heart
Remove all the bars
That keep us apart
I wish you could know
What it means to be me
Then you'd see and agree
That every man should be free
I wish I could give
All I'm longin' to give
I wish I could live
Like I'm longin' to live
I wish I could do
All the things that I can do
And though I'm way over due
I'd be starting a new
Well I wish I could be
Like a bird in the sky
How sweet it would be
If I found I could fly
Oh I'd soar to the sun
And look down at the sea
Than I'd sing cos I know - yea
Then I'd sing cos I know - yea
Then I'd sing cos I know
I'd know how it feels
Oh I know how it feels to be free
Yea Yea! Oh, I know how it feels
Yes I know
Oh, I know
How it feels
How it feels
To be free


Do not dare to live without some clear intention toward which your living shall be bent. Mean to be something with all your might.
- Phillips Brooks

"Focus,
not on the rudenesses of others,
not on what they've done
or left undone,
but on what you
have & haven't done
yourself."

-The Buddha, Dhammapada, 4, translation by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. "

And more words.....


Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that scares us most.

We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?
Actually, who are you NOT to be?
You are a child of god.

Your playing small doesn't serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.

We were born to make manifest the glory of god that is within us.
It's not just in some of us, it's in ALL of us.

And when we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

~Marianne Williamson~

**Some may believe that it was Nelson Mandella who first quoted this BUT he actually quoted Marianne Williamson

And yet, even more words...

The Ts'an T'ung Ch'i')
by Shih T'ou

The Great Sage of India conveyed
True Mind from West to East.
Among human beings are wise ones and fools

But in Truth there are no Patriarchs,
north or south.
From the clear, bright subtle Source
Tributary streams flow through the darkness.
Attaching to things is delusion
And meeting the Absolute is not yet
enlightenment.
Within and without relate, yet are independent,
Working in different ways, but together.
Form differs in substance and appearance.
Sounds distinguish pleasure from pain.
In darkness, high and middle merge;
But in light all things are revealed.
The four elements return to the Source
Like a child to its mother.
Fire's hot, wind moves,
Water's wet, earth's hard.
Eyes see, ears hear,
Nose smells, tongue tastes salt and sour.
Each is independent
While in accord with its relations.
The root gives rise to many leaves
Yet root and branch return to One.
High and low are relative.
In light there is darkness
Confronted, it cannot be fathomed.
Within darkness there is light
One-sided, it cannot be found.
Light and darkness are paired
Like a foot before and a foot behind
when walking
Each thing has intrinsic value
Related to other things by function and place.
Absolute and ordinary life fit together
Like a box and its cover.
Absolute works with relative
Like two arrows meeting in mid-air.
Hear and know the Great Reality.
Do not judge by your own standards.
Overlooking the Way right before you
How can you see it where you're walking?
Enlightened, the Path is neither near nor far.
Deluded, you are mountains and rivers away
With respect I say to you who seek the goal
Do not waste a moment, night or day.