Monday ~ October 19, 2020

 Sweet are the uses of adversity

Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,

Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;

And this our life, exempt from public haunt,

Finds tongues in trees, books in running brooks,

Sermons in stones, and good in everything.

William Shakespeare, 1564 - 1616

Tuesday ~ October 13, 2020

 No one will bring back the year; no one will restore you to yourself. Life will follow the path it began to take, and will neither reverse nor check its course. It will cause no commotion to remind you of its swiftness, but glide on quietly. It will not lengthen itself for a king's command or a people's favor. As it started out on its first day, so it will run on, nowhere pausing or turning aside. What will be the outcome? You have been preoccupied while life hastens on. Meanwhile, death will arrive, and you have no choice in making yourself available for that.

Seneca, 4 BCE - 65 CE

Thursday ~ October 8, 2020

 Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is:

What if my leaves are falling like its own!

The tumult of thy mighty harmonies

Will take from both a deep, autumnal tone,

Sweet though in sadness. Be thou, Spirit fierce,

Wednesday ~ October 7, 2020

Generosity with strings is not generosity; it's a deal. 

Marya Mannes, 1904 - 1990

Sunday ~ May 31, 2020

Joy, in Nature's wide dominion,
Mightest cause of all is found;
And 'tis joy that moves the pinion,
When the wheel of time goes round.

Friedrich Schiller, 1759 - 1805

Friday ~ May 29, 2020

When I care to be powerful - to use my strength in the service of my vision - then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.

(Audre Lorde, 1934 - 1992)

Wednesday ~ May 27, 2020

Whosoever wishes to know about the world must learn about it in its particular details. Knowledge is not intelligence. In searching for the truth, be ready for the unexpected; change alone is unchanging. The same road goes both up and down. The beginning of a circle is also its end. Not I, but the world says it: all is one. And yet everything comes in season.

(Heraclitus of Ephesus, 535 - 475)