…and artichokes

Even
a small purple artichoke
boiled
in its own bittered
and darkening
waters
grows tender,
grows tender and sweet
patience, I think,
my species
keep testing the spiny leaves
the spiny heart
Jane Hirshfield, My species

Lessons from foxes…

What is this message that wild animals bring, the message that seems to say everything and nothing? What is this message that is wordless, that is nothing more or less than the animals themselves- that the world is wild, that life is unpredictable in its goodness and its danger, that the world is larger than your imagination.

Rebecca Solnit, A Field Guide to Getting lost

Sunday Quote: Beautiful

In difficult times carry something beautiful in your heart. 

 Blaise Pascal 

Comparing, rehearsing, regretting

The effect of life in society is to complicate our existence,

making us forget who we really are,

by causing us to become obsessed

with what we are not

Chuang Tzu, 4th Century BC, Inner Chapters

Why I am happy

Make yourself a refuge…

There is a lake somewhere
so blue and far nobody owns it.
A wind comes by, and a willow listens
gracefully.

I hear all this, every summer…
That lake stays blue and free; it goes
on and on.

And I know where it is.

William Stafford, Why I am Happy

Sunday Quote: A day of rest

I sense that striving for wholeness is, increasingly, a countercultural goal,

as fragmented people make for better consumers.

Kathleen Norris