
If you begin to understand what you are
without trying to change it,
then what you are undergoes a transformation.
Krishnamurti
Another Atlantic storm passed over the country overnight, with strong winds and heavy rain. After the winds the stirring becomes quiet.
I go among trees and sit still.
All my stirring becomes quiet
around me, like circles on water.
My tasks lie in their places
where I left them, asleep like cattle.
Then what is afraid of me comes
and lives a while in my sight.
What it fears in me leaves me,
and the fear of me leaves it.
It sings, and I hear its song.
Wendell Berry
You are not making a gift of what is yours to the poor man, but you are giving him back what is his.
You have been appropriating things that are meant to be for the common use of everyone.
The earth belongs to everyone, not to the rich.
[Non de tuo largiris pauperi sed de suo reddis. Quod enim commune est in omnium usum datum, tu solus usurpas. Omnium est terra, non divitum.]
Saint Ambrose, c. 339 – 397, De Nabuthae 12, 53