and...

via

leap into the ripe air

image source unknown

now

"Life exists only at this very moment, and in this moment it is infinite and eternal. For the present moment is infinitely small; before we can measure it, it has gone, and yet it exists forever. . . . You may believe yourself out of harmony with life and its eternal Now; but you cannot be, for you are life and exist Now."

~Alan Watts

heart center

pic via 

 

"Through division there is also creation, just as cells divide to create and form new life.  It is interesting that after the first 512 cell divisions in a fetus, the shape that is created ultimately becomes the heart.  So it is our heart, which is vital to our blood pumping and breathing life that takes shape first and foremost.  It is then our heart, an organ that is created from divisions but is itself unanimous, that begins pumping before the brain is even formed, our brain, which is divided into two sides.  So while we as humans are always going to have divisions we first come into being through something that is central and steady.  In this way our heart is a type of sushumna." ~ C. Miltimore

NOTHING

pic via

TO GO YOU'VE GOT TO GO THE WHOLE TRIP
ALL THE WAY TO THE BACK
BEFORE YOU GET TO THE PLACE
WHERE YOU SEE THAT BEHIND ALL THIS
THERE IS ALL THIS IN IT'S
OM
IN ITS UNMANIFEST FORM
ALWAYS
ETERNALLY
YOU PERCEIVE THAT
NOTHING
IS REALLY HAPPENING AT ALL
NOTHING
EVER HAPPENS
NOTHING
IS GOING TO HAPPEN
THERE'S
NOTHING
YOU'VE GOT TO DO
THERE'S NO DOER
TO DO IT ANYWAY

~Be Here Now by Ram Dass

Einstein and Tagore

from my wonderfully wise and witty friend Matt...

its drinkers

"that bitter beer that tastes so sweet to its drinkers,

provided they always chew fresh distractions with it..."

~Rainer Maria Rilke, 'The Duino Elegies'

winter...

"once in the midst of a seemingly endless winter, I discovered within myself an invincible spring"

~Albert Camus
another translation: here

finish each day...

"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense."

 ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

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daydream

All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible."

~T.E. Lawrence

photos via ROYGBIV

our heart...

"Our heart endures between the hammers

as the tongue endures between the teeth

and in spite of everything continues to praise."

~excerpt from The Duino Elegies, by Rainer Maria Rilke

...

"Experience is not what happens to a man [woman]; it is what a man [woman] does with what happens to him [her]." ~Aldous Huxley

a perpetual journey...onward to 2011!

I tramp a perpetual journey,
My signs are a rain-proof coat and good shoes and a staff cut from the
woods;
No friend of mine takes his ease in my chair,
I have no chair, nor church, nor philosophy;
I lead no man to a dinner-table, or library or exchange,
But each man and each woman of you I lead upon a knoll,
My left hand hooks you round the waist,
My right hand points to the landscapes of continents, and a plain public
road.

Not I, nor any one else can travel that road for you,
You must travel it for yourself.

It is not far...it is within reach,
Perhaps you have been on it since you were born, and did not
know,
Perhaps it is every where on water and on land.

Shoulder your duds, and I will mine, and let us hasten forth;
Wonderful cities and free nations we shall fetch as we go.

If you tire, give me both burdens, and rest the chuff of your hand on
my hip,
And in due time you shall repay the same service to me;
For after we start we never lie by again.

This day before dawn I ascended a hill and looked at the crowded
heaven,
And I said to my spirit, When we become the enfolders of those orbs
and the pleasure and knowledge of every thing in them, shall we
be filled and satisfied then?
And my spirit said No, we level that lift to pass and continue
beyond.

You are also asking me questions, and I hear you;
I answer that I cannot answer...you must find out for yourself.

—Excerpt from Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

(thank you Jules for reminding me of this beautiful passage)  

 photo found: here