The fire of Spring

Come, fill the Cup, and in the fire of Spring
     Your Winter-garment of Repentance fling:
The Bird of Time has but a little way
     To flutter—and the Bird is on the Wing.

          Edward Fitzgerald, Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Safe assumption

You can safely assume
you've created God in your own image
when it turns out that God
hates all the same people you do.

              Anne Lamott

 

 

 

 

Responsibilities and trusts

We have an obligation to one another,
responsibilities and trusts.
That does not mean we must be pigeons,
that we must be exploited.
But it does mean that we should look out for one another
when and as much as we can;
and that we have a personal responsibility for our behavior;
and that our behavior has consequences
of a very real and profound nature.
We are not powerless.
We have tremendous potential for good or ill.
How we choose to use that power is up to us;
but first we must choose to use it.
We're told every day, "You can't change the world."
But the world is changing every day.
Only question is...who's doing it?
You or somebody else?

                 J. Michael Straczynski 

 

 

 

Friend

When we honestly ask ourselves
which person in our lives means the most to us,
we often find that it is those who,
instead of giving much advice, solutions, or cures,
have chosen rather to share our pain
and touch our wounds with a gentle and tender hand.
The friend who can be silent with us
in a moment of despair or confusion,
who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement,
who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing,
and face with us the reality of our powerlessness,
that is a friend who cares.

                  Henri Nouwen, Out of Solitude 

 

 

 

 

Pesach

Sharing food is the first act through which slaves become free human beings.
One who fears tomorrow does not offer his bread to others.
But one who is willing to divide his food with a stranger
has already shown himself capable of fellowship and faith,
the two things from which hope is born.
That is why we begin the Seder by inviting others to join us.
That is how we turn affliction into freedom.

                Rabbi Jonathan Sacks

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Through

The best way out is always through.

    Robert Frost, A Servant to Servants
    Born March 26, 1874

Tolkien Reading Day

Every morning I wake up and think good,
another 24 hours' pipe-smoking.

     J. R. R. Tolkien, 1966 interview

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A good wish

If you live to be a hundred,
I want to live to be a hundred minus one day,
so I never have to live without you.

        A. A. Milne, The House at Pooh Corner

 

 

 

 

Movie star wisdom

• I think that the most important thing a woman can have - next to talent, of course - is her hairdresser.

• Love is a fire. But whether it is going to warm your hearth or burn down your house, you can never tell.

• If you have an ounce of common sense and one good friend you don't need an analyst.

                    Joan Crawford, born March 23, 1904

UN World Water Day

Thousands have lived without love,
not one without water.

         W. H. Auden, First Things First

Poem: When This is Over

When this is over,
may we never again
take for granted
A handshake with a stranger
Full shelves at the store
Conversations with neighbors
A crowded theater
Friday night out
The taste of communion
A routine checkup
The school rush each morning
Coffee with a friend
The stadium roaring
Each deep breath
A boring Tuesday
Life itself.

When this ends
may we find
that we have become
more like the people
we wanted to be
we were called to be
we hoped to be
and may we stay
that way — better
for each other
because of the worst.

        Laura Kelly Fanucci

 

 

 

 

Poem: A Light exists in Spring

A Light exists in Spring
Not present on the Year
At any other period —
When March is scarcely here

A Color stands abroad
On Solitary Fields
That Science cannot overtake
But Human Nature feels.

It waits upon the Lawn,
It shows the furthest Tree
Upon the furthest Slope you know
It almost speaks to you.

Then as Horizons step
Or Noons report away
Without the Formula of sound
It passes and we stay —

A quality of loss
Affecting our Content
As Trade had suddenly encroached
Upon a Sacrament.

       Emily Dickinson 

So true

I think women rule the world,
and that no man has ever done anything
that a woman either hasn't allowed him to do
or encouraged him to do.

       Bob Dylan, Rolling Stone, June 1984 

 

 

 

 

 

Keep going

Like most of the others,
I was a seeker, a mover, a malcontent,
and at times a stupid hell-raiser.
I was never idle long enough to do much thinking,
but I felt somehow that my instincts were right.
I shared a vagrant optimism
that some of us were making real progress,
that we had taken an honest road,
and that the best of us would inevitably make it over the top.
At the same time, I shared a dark suspicion
that the life we were leading was a lost cause,
that we were all actors,
kidding ourselves along on a senseless odyssey.
It was the tension between these two poles —
a restless idealism on one hand
and a sense of impending doom on the other —
that kept me going.

      Hunter S. Thompson, The Rum Diary

 

 

 

 

 

The Rune of St. Patrick

At Tara today in this fateful hour
I place all Heaven with its power,
And the sun with its brightness,
And the snow with its whiteness,
And fire with all the strength it hath,
And lightning with its rapid wrath,
And the winds with their swiftness along their path,
And the sea with its deepness,
And the rocks with their steepness,
And the earth with its starkness
All these I place,
By God's almighty help and grace,
Between myself and the powers of darkness.

      Derived from The Lorica, translation by James Clarence Mangan

 

 

 

 

 

 

The right instructions

. . .you mustn’t wish for another life.
You mustn’t want to be somebody else.
What you must do is this:
"Rejoice evermore.
Pray without ceasing.
In everything give thanks."
I am not all the way capable of so much,
but those are the right instructions.

        Wendell Berry, Hannah Coulter

 

 

 

 

 

The Ides of March

Fere libenter homines id quod volunt credunt.

In most cases men willingly believe what they wish.

                Julius Ceasar, De Bello Gallico