24 posts tagged “sky”

414. How the universe comes to know itself.

Oct 9, 2009
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'Not only are we traveling through the universe, but the universe is traveling through us. It needs to feel us, what we are feeling, our marvels and infatuations and heartaches;... to know what that stuff is, how it came to be and find its instrument, the source of its music; to experience itself in us or through us. But most of all, and forever, the mystery and the wonder.... To record and memorialize that, why we are here at all.

From the first droplet of anything against the first bare surface, we were essential to something vast, rough, ahead of and behind us. Our present struggles and planet-wide dangers are no accident; they are an actual contour of creation.

We are charged with a huge responsibility to bring it home. And this is not just some insoluble crisis or a daunting array of dire contingencies. Nor is it a game for phony spiritual saviors and self-appointed gurus to grandstand, for soldiers to march to victory, on any world accompanying any star.

We have chosen this - that cannot be said enough. We are trying to rescue the "real," and we are neither its victims nor its paragons.

Yet, it is okay to be this happy, this afraid, this alone, this once. It is more than okay; it is an obligation. For it will all turn into something else, in fact can only, can only become, in exile in these amazing shapes, what they are.'

- Richard Grossinger, The Bardo of Waking Life

'Animals are something invented by plants to move seeds around. An extremely yang solution to a peculiar problem which they faced.'

- Terrence McKenna

'There is a theory which states that if ever for any reason anyone discovers what exactly the Universe is for and why it is here it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another that states that this has already happened.'

- Douglas Adams

413. Mysterium Tremens et Fascinas (A tremendous and fascinating mystery)

Sep 24, 2009
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SuperNatural

'We live in all we seek. The hidden shows up in too-plain sight. It lives captive on the face of the obvious - the people, events, and things of the day - to which we as sophisticated children, have long since become oblivious. What a hideout: Holiness lies spread and borne over the surface of time and stuff like color.'

- Annie Dillard

'The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true science. He who knows it not, and can no longer wonder, no longer feel amazement, is as good as dead. We all had this priceless talent when we were young. But as time goes by, many of us lose it. The true scientist never loses the faculty of amazement. It is the essence of his being.'

- Hans Selye

'Even with the understandable goal of avoiding unnecessary surprises, if you pattern your life too carefully, slowly you lose your sense of awe. I am not speaking here of the supernatural; I am speaking of the super in the natural.'

- Forrest Church

'All things cover up the same mystery; all things are veils that cover God.'

- Pascal

All of the above from Forrest Church's Lifecraft, The Art of Meaning In the Everyday

'What we see before us is just one tiny part of the world. We get into the habit of thinking, this is the world, but that's not true at all. The real world is a much darker and deeper place than this, and much of it is occupied by jellyfish and things.'

- Haruki Murakami via WhiskeyRiver

406. The truth is changing every minute.

Jul 22, 2009
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Shipshape

'So you tell yourself

I have nowhere to go

I don't know what to do

And I don't even know the time of day

I guess it doesn't matter any way

Life is so strange

Destination unknown

When you don't know

Your destination

Something could change

It's unknown

And then you won't know

Destination unknown

You ask yourself

When will my time come

Has it all been said and done

I know I'll leave when it's my time to go

'Til then I'll carry on with what I know...'

- From the Missing Persons song > Destination Unknown

401. 'I've seen the ocean break on the shore come together with no harm done'

Jun 24, 2009
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Ocean-Lotus

'wish i was ocean size

they cannot move you

no one tries no one pulls you

out from your hold

like a tooth aching a jawbone...

i was made with a heart of stone

to be broken

with one hard blow

I've seen the ocean

break on the shore

come together with no harm done...

it ain't easy living...

i want to be

as deep

as the ocean

mother ocean

some people tell me

home is in the sky

in the sky lives a spy

i want to be more like the ocean

no talking

all action...

no talking

all action...'

- Jane's Addiction, Ocean Size

391. 'Thrilled to the very edges...'

May 3, 2009
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Sky-Hands

'And notwithstanding the scene is so impressively spiritual, and you seem dissolved in it yet everything about you is beating with warm, terrestrial human love delightfully substantial and familiar.'

- John Muir

'If you've never been thrilled to the very edges of your soul by a flower in spring bloom, maybe your soul has never been in bloom.'

- Audra Foveo

'Everything is blooming most recklessly; if it were voices instead of colors, there would be an unbelievable shrieking into the heart of the night.'

- Rainer Maria Rilke

All this via Whiskey River - http://whiskeyriver.blogspot.com/

377. Everybody wins.

Feb 26, 2009
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G-C-Light

'Even if our efforts of attention seem for years to be producing no result, one day a light that is in exact proportion to them will flood the soul.'

- Simone Weil

'All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.'

- J.R.R. Tolkien

'When you give each other everything, it becomes an even trade. Each wins all.'

- Lois Bujold

363. Wish without worrying.

Feb 18, 2009
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Sky

'The bird of paradise alights only upon the hand that does not grasp.'
- John Berry

'I would rather have a mind opened by wonder than one closed by belief.'
- Gerry Spence

'Disbelief in magic can force a poor soul into believing in government and business.'
- Tom Robbins

352. The future is wide open.

Jan 31, 2009
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Birthday

'Buy the ticket,
take the ride.'
- Hunter S. Thompson

343. Tuned in.

Jan 17, 2009
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Santa-Monica

Beginning to feel like a radio, finally tuned to the right channel - picking up the right frequency and knowing what to do next. It's nice.

'Dreams come true. Without that possibility, nature would not incite us to have them.'
- John Updike

'Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.'
- Harriet Beecher Stowe

'The future belongs to those who prepare for it.'
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

340. You can have whatever you want - as long as you feel it is yours to have.

Jan 14, 2009
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Seagull

'Wealth is a matter of consciousness. The French have a legend giving an example of this. A poor man was walking along a road when he met a traveler, who stopped him and said: "My good friend, I see you are poor. Take this gold nugget, sell it, and you will be rich all your days."
The man was overjoyed at his good fortune, and took the nugget home. He immediately found work and became so prosperous that he did not sell the nugget. Years passed, and he became a very rich man. One day he met a poor man on the road. He stopped him and said: "My good friend, I will give you this gold nugget, which, if you sell, will make you rich for life." The mendicant took the nugget, had it valued, and found it was only brass. So we see, the first man became rich through feeling rich, thinking the nugget was gold.
Every man has within himself a gold nugget; it is his consciousness of gold, of opulence, which brings riches into his life.'
- Florence Scovel Shinn, The Game of Life & How to Play It.