Monday, June 26, 2006

The life waiting for you

We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.

Joseph Campbell (with hat tip to Mr. Melpomene)

Sunday, June 25, 2006

Music cleanses the soul

Music washes away from the soul the dust of everday life.

Berthold Auerbach

Sunday, June 11, 2006

On Joy and Sorrow

Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.
And how else can it be?
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.
Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter's oven?
And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?
When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.
When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.

Some of you say, "Joy is greater than sorrow," and others say, "Nay, sorrow is the greater."
But I say unto you, they are inseparable.
Together they come, and when one sits, alone with you at your board, remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.

Verily you are suspended like scales between your sorrow and your joy.
Only when you are empty are you at standstill and balanced.
When the treasure-keeper lifts you to weigh his gold and his silver, needs must your joy or your sorrow rise or fall.

Kahlil Gibran
(Related: The Prophet, online edition via Cornell University).

Love's salvation

Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope.

Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith.

Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we must be saved by love.

Reinhold Niebuhr (quoted in Thomas Cahill, How the Irish Saved Civilization).

Saturday, June 10, 2006

As above

As above,
So below.

Bumper sticker.

Life is music

Many say that life entered the human body by the help of music, but the truth is that life itself is music.

Hafiz, 14th-century Persian poet, quoted in Studs Terkel, And They All Sang: Adventures of an Eclectic Disc Jockey.

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Favor disposition

Choose friends and lovers not for money -- you can always earn more; not for knowledge -- you can always learn more; not for looks -- we grow older by the season; favor disposition, that's the best reason.

Grandma Lillian, via Joe Paris, New Orleans Pentimiento