Two Random Quotes: A Question and An Observation, and Arthur C. Clark: the rest is silence.

Posted on March 19, 2008 by randomyriad
The Star-Child into whom Dr. Bowman is transfo...

Star Child

“Why is it that people who cannot show feeling presume that that is a strength and not a weakness?”

May Sarton

“Concepts create idols; only wonder comprehends anything. People kill one another over idols. Wonder makes us fall down on our knees.”

Saint Gregory of Nyssa

Arthur C. Clark died today. I read many of his books (Childhoods End, Rendezvous with Rama, 2001: A Space Odyssey). He was a brilliant scientific thinker, who thought beyond his time and wrote those thoughts in clear words so that non-scientific people like me could feel the wonder of it. I have not read anything by him for 20 years, but his ideas are with me.

Posted in Check this out, Other peoples words, Questions and riddles, thinking in words, wonder world | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Look for the Light, Listen for the Song

Posted on March 17, 2008 by randomyriad

Here is something to try in the world as you go through it.

If a person annoys you or seems out of sorts, think this, “You have a light. You have a song.”

And ask yourself, “Can I help them find their light? Can I hear the faint whispering of singing deep inside this person?”

Each of us has a light to shine.

The light may be covered by pain or worry, but it is there. You may see a glimmer of it as if through a dark woods.

Each of us has a song that sings from within our spirit.

The song may be muffled or stifled or picked up angry discord through years of abuse or neglect, or it may just be lost in the jumbled noise of machinery and inane babble of the shallow stream of thoughts the runs through the world without direction or meaning or passion, just the yammering of greed and loneliness. “Look at this!” “You really need one of these!” “You can really have it all!” while pointing big flashing neon signs at the void.

You may need to find your light to see where the light is hidden in others.

You may have to learn your song again in order to hear the sound of a real voice above the clamor.

You may need to sit quietly shining and humming in a field on a warm day with a soft breeze moving the leaves of nearby trees. Or, maybe in a room with people who care for you just listening to soft conversation. or, maybe on a beach with the waves whispering and crashing about. or maybe in a car on your way to work when the noise of the day has not begun to drown you out.

There really is nothing more important to be doing or thinking. Nothing else will matter by the time it is too late.

Posted in developing relationships, discovery and recovery, make your own world, music, paying attention, philosophy, Questions and riddles, Self-Experiments, Teaching and Learning, whereever you go there you are | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

No Transient Pulse

Posted on March 11, 2008 by randomyriad

A dark cloud of pain,

she swept in

disturbing the rhythm of the current

leaving eddies

swirling ghosts with open mouths yawning

Her body shrinking

in knots of fury

The child, I released into that storm

was immediately lost in the tide.

she followed, carelessly

“It is the only life I know how to live,”

she shrugged with her last look back.

I sat alone

swallowed by a trailing ghost.

This happened last week, and it is haunting me. It is the dark side of being a teacher to see future suffering, and do all you can to mitigate it, but in the end know you can’t solve all the problems. You can only shine a light and hope it begins to shine a little in the family you are working with.

I am not sure what the title means. It just came to me that way.

.

Posted in developing relationships, Family, paying attention, poetry, Teaching and Learning, Telling Stories, visions from the dark side, working world | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

3 Random Quotes I Stumbled On and The Usual Commentary

Posted on March 10, 2008 by randomyriad

I usually post a poem on Mondays, but as art must not be rushed, I will publish no poem before its time. I will give you my Tuesday quotes today, a rather random assortment. However, they each fit with how I am trying to reframe my life in the present and future.

“If someone were to ask me whether I believed in God, or saw God, or had a particular relationship with God, I would reply that I don’t separate God from my world in my thinking. I feel that God is everywhere. That’s why I never feel separated from God or feel I must seek God, any more than a fish in the ocean feels the need to seek water. In a sense, God is the “ocean” in which we live.”

Robert Fulghum “Pay Attention”

Robert Fulghum was a minister at the UU Church I attended in Edmonds, WA. I was lucky to hear him speak 3 times. He is deadly serious about being playful, and one of my role models for the next 20 years of my life.

“When one jumps over the edge, one is bound to land somewhere.”

D. H. Lawrence

This is about taking big risks in order to create your life. Sometimes I feel too careful about what I am doing. It is the way I am working on thinking.

“From the age of six I have had a mania for sketching the forms of things. From about the age of 50, I produced a number of design, yet of all I drew prior to the age of 70 there is truly nothing of any great note. At the age of 73 I finally apprehended something of the true quality of birds, animals, insects, fishes and of the vital nature of grasses and trees. Therefore at 80 I shall have made some progress, at 90 I shall have penetrated even further the deeper meaning of things, at100 I shall have become truly marvelous, and at 110, each dot, each line shall surely possess a life of its own.”

Katsushika Hokusai

A Hokusai Ghost

This pretty much speaks for itself. I want to live as if I could go on learning forever, and live each moment as if it were my last. Can I do both? What harm is there in trying? The final result is bound to be the same no matter what.

Posted in All part of the process, change, Other peoples words, paying attention, philosophy, Self-Experiments, Teaching and Learning, thinking in words, whereever you go there you are | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Self-Experiment #8: a mixed bag to be continued

Posted on March 7, 2008 by randomyriad

Self-Experiment #8/ Just The Beginning

I am a fairly open minded person and succeeded pretty much in not pre-judging or even falling into my old conceptions of people and things. I was able to see people I had worked with for a while in a new light. Also, I realized my job is not what is important. There are too many aspects of it that involve appearance over substance. What is important is how I move through my day and interact with the people I come into contact with. That is what counts for me and I hope for them as well. A little compassion goes a long way both for my attitude and my relationships.

But, I tell you what, it is so hard to maintain that sense of wonder and innocence while working in a place where co-workers and clients are under stress. Stress constantly leaks out into the world around them taking the shine off of moments that have such possibilities. Maybe I can put some of the shine back in the moments just by paying attention and learning from moment to moment how to maintain my sense of wonder and so shine a little myself.

There was nothing difficult or hard for me in it. I just didn’t get all the results I wanted today. I did manage to get through a tricky day with a nice feeling of optimism and very little stress, which is a minor miracle in itself. I will try again tomorrow.

Posted in All part of the process, developing relationships, discovery and recovery, paying attention, philosophy, Self-Experiments, Teaching and Learning, the end is the beginning, thinking in words, whereever you go there you are, working world | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment