Our song

The sun shines not on us but in us.
The rivers flow not past, but through us,
thrilling, tingling, vibrating every fiber and cell of the substance of our bodies,
making them glide and sing.
The trees wave and the flowers bloom in our bodies as well as our souls,
and every bird song, wind song, and tremendous storm song of the rocks
in the heart of the mountains is our song, our very own, and sings our love.

         John of the Mountains: The Unpublished Journals of John Muir

 

 

 

 

 

How to change someone's mind

The best arguments in the world won't change a person's mind.
The only thing that can do that is a good story.

                                    Richard Powers, The Overstory

 

 

 

 

 

Farewell to Summer

Ah, when to the heart of man
Was it ever less than a treason
To go with the drift of things,
To yield with a grace to reason,
And bow and accept the end
Of a love or a season?

        Excerpted from Reluctance, by Robert Frost

 

 

 

 

Who's speaking?

I went up to the U.N. in February 1993, as the ambassador of the United States. Most of the meetings don’t take place in that fancy room but in a room farther back. They’re kind of informal.

I get in there, and I see there are 15 members of the Security Council, and I’m the only woman. Fourteen men from all different parts of the world are sitting there looking at me and I think to myself,

Okay, so, I’ll just see who’s who, and if they like me, and what the mood of the room is.

And all of a sudden I look and I see this sign in front of me that says, “United States.”
I thought to myself,

If I don’t speak today, then the voice of the United States will not be heard.

So I spoke.

                                    Madeline Albright, The Cut

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The highest of arts

To affect the quality of the day,
            that is the highest of arts.

                 Henry David Thoreau, Walden

 

 

 

 

 

Poem: Smart Cookie

(after Wallace Stevens)

The fortune that you seek is in another cookie,
was my fortune. So I’ll be equally frank—the wisdom
that you covet is in another poem. The life that you desire
is in a different universe. The cookie you are craving
is in another jar. The jar is buried somewhere in Tennessee.
Don’t even think of searching for it. If you found that jar,
everything would go kerflooey for a thousand miles around.
It is the jar of your fate in an alternate reality. Don’t even
think of living that life. Don’t even think of eating that cookie.
Be a smart cookie—eat what’s on your plate, not in some jar
in Tennessee. That’s my wisdom for today, though I know
it’s not what you were looking for.

                                    Richard Schiffman

 

 

 

 

 

The path

For a master, the rewards gained along the way are fine,
    but they are not the main reason for the journey.

Ultimately the master and the master's path are one.

And if the traveler is fortunate -
    that is, if the path is complex and profound enough -
        the destination is two miles farther away
            for every mile he or she travels.

                                    George Leonard, Mastery