In The End Is My Beginning

“In my end is my beginning.” – T.S. Eliot

As we come to the end of another year, we remember that endings are merely beginnings, as Eliot reminds us. “In my end is my beginning” is the final phrase of his poem East Coker, second of the Four Quartets. We are reminded that for the new to come in, the old must be released. So as we enter a new year, a new experience, we remember to stand in the field of possibility. A new year is an opportunity to begin again.

In the musical "Rent," Jonathan Larson reminds us that a year contains 525,600 minutes. Each is an opportunity. Each is a small capsule of potentiality. Every time our planet revolves around the Sun, we are handed 525,600 opportunities to move towards a goal, to give love, to be of assistance, to accomplish, to achieve.

January is named after Janus, the 'god' of endings and beginnings. Janus looks backwards and forwards, at what was and at what is emerging. What is emerging in your life now? What do you most wish to achieve this year? What is God calling you to do? If you know, go and do it. If not, I strongly suggest that you sit down and go within. Ask, listen, and your answer will appear. It may surprise you, but if you resist, you’ll only add energy to it. What blocks have you created that keep you from going for it? It’s time to move them. Remember, to see farther, you have to fly higher.

A new year is a chance to open new doors and move forward in living your highest and best life, moving towards your calling. If there is something that has been in the back of your mind to do, be bold. Do it. If you don’t, it will still be there next year, nagging at you. 

Seize the moment! Seize the day! Seize the year! There is no time like the present. Let this be the boldest, most adventurous, most successful and thriving year of your life so far.

Happy New Year!

... Post

Happy New Year!

I drop the dying year behind me like a shawl

and let it fall. The urgent fireworks fling themselves

against the night, flowers of desire, love’s fervency.

Out of the space around me, standing here, I shape

your absent body against mine. You touch me as the giving air.

Most far, most near, your arms are darkness, holding me,

so I lean back, lip-read the heavens talking on in light,

syllabic stars. I see, at last, they pray at us.

... New Year, Carol Ann Duffy

Lights Will Guide You Home

When you try your best, but you don't succeed

When you get what you want, but not what you need

When you feel so tired, but you can't sleep

Stuck in reverse

And the tears come streaming down your face

When you lose something you can't replace

When you love someone, but it goes to waste

Could it be worse?

Lights will guide you home

And ignite your bones

And I will try to fix you

... Fix You, Coldplay

Look After You

If I don't say this now I will surely break

As I'm leaving the one I want to take

Forgive the urgency but hurry up and wait

My heart has started to separate

Oh, oh, oh

Oh, oh, oh

Be my baby

I'll look after you

... Look After You, The Fray

Christmas Without You

I missed Thanksgiving, missed a birthday or two

Didn't make St. Valentines, but I was thinking of you

Only one thing in the world, I couldn't do

Only one thing could kill me, its Christmas without you

... OneRepublic

Until My Dying Day

Christian, you may see me only as a drunken, vice-ridden gnome whose friends are just pimps and girls from the brothels. But I know about art and love, if only because I long for it with every fiber of my being.

Tell our story Christian, that way I'll-I'll always be with you.

Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months. And then, one not-so-very special day, I went to my typewriter, I sat down, and I wrote our story. A story about a time, a story about a place, a story about the people. But above all things, a story about love. A love that will live forever. The End.

"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love 
and be loved in return"

Listen to my heart, can you hear it sings

Telling me to give you everything

Seasons may change, winter to spring

But I love you until the end of time

Come what may

Come what may

I will love you until my dying day

... Moulin Rouge

The Journey Asks Of You A Lion's Heart

They argued how to set about their quest.
The hoopoe fluttered forward; on his breast
There shone the symbol of the Spirit’s Way
And on his head Truth’s crown, a feathered spray.
Discerning, righteous and intelligent,
He spoke: “My purposes are heaven-sent;
I keep God’s secrets, mundane and divine,
In proof of which behold the holy sign
Bismillah etched for ever on my beak...

A prophet loved me; God has trusted me;
What other bird has won such dignity?
For years I travelled over many lands,
Past oceans, mountains, valleys, desert sands,
And when the Deluge rose I flew around
The world itself and never glimpsed dry ground;
With Solomon I set out to explore
The limits of the earth from shore to shore...

Join me, and when at last we end our quest
Our king will greet you as His honoured guest.
How long will you persist in blasphemy?
Escape your self-hood’s vicious tyranny --
Whoever can evade the Self transcends
This world and as a lover he ascends.
Set free your soul; impatient of delay,
Step out along our sovereign’s royal Way:

Do not imagine that the Way is short;
Vast seas and deserts lie before His court.
Consider carefully before you start;
The journey asks of you a lion’s heart.
The road is long, the sea is deep -- one flies
First buffeted by joy and then by sighs;
He you pursue Will sacrifice His inmost soul for you...

The hoopoe finished, and at once the birds
Effusively responded to his words.
All praised the splendour of their distant king;
All rose impatient to be on the wing;
Each would renounce the Self and be the friend
Of his companions till the journey’s end.
But when they pondered on the journey’s length,
They hesitated; their ambitious strength
Dissolved: each bird, according to his kind,
Felt flattered but reluctantly declined.

... Conference Of The Birds, Farid ud-Din Attar

Constancy

“Do good deeds properly, sincerely and moderately and know that your deeds will not make you enter Paradise, and that the most beloved deed to Allah is that which are most regular and constant even though it were little” [Bukhari]

You Are The Great Universe!

Then outwardly you are the small universe!
Then inwardly you are the great universe!

... Mevlana Rumi

Sincerity

"Do not render vain your deeds by a reminder of your generosity and annoying the people to whom you have given assistance or help purely for the sake of God"... al-Baqarah 2:264

"He who has done an atom's weight of good will receive his rewards, and he who has done an atom's weight of evil will receive his punishments" ... al-Zalzalah 99:7-8

"The (true) servants of (Allah) the Most Gracious are those who walk on the earth in humility, and when the ignorant address them, they reply with (words of) peace" ... al-Furqan 25:63

What Is Success?

To laugh often and much;

To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;

To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;

To appreciate beauty,

To find the best in others,

To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child,

A garden patch or a redeemed social condition;

To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.

This is to have succeeded.

... Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hold On To Your Dream

There is inside you
All of the potential
To be whatever you want to be;
All of the energy
To do whatever you want to do.
Imagine yourself as you would like to be,
Doing what you want to do,
And each day, take one step
Towards your dream.
And though at times it may seem too
difficult to continue,
Hold on to your dream.
One morning you will awake to find
That you are the person you dreamed of,
Doing what you wanted to do,
Simply because you had the courage
To believe in your potential
And to hold on to your dream.

... Donna Levin

We Shrink Away...

We can look at each other through both our lifetimes

like those two figures in the sticklike boat

flung together in the Chinese ink-scene;

even our intimacies are rigged with terror.

Quantify suffering? My guilt at least is open,

I stand convicted by all my convictions –

you, too. We shrink from touching

our power, we shrink away, we starve ourselves

and each other, we’re scared shitless

of what it could be to take and use our love,

hose it on a city, on a world,

to wield and guide its spray, destroying

poisons, parasites, rats, viruses –

like the terrible mothers we long and dread to be.

... Hunger, Adrienne Rich

Back To December

These days, I haven't been sleeping

Staying up, playing back myself leaving

When your birthday passed, and I didn't call

Then I think about summer, all the beautiful times

I watched you laughing from the passenger side

And realized I loved you in the Fall

And then the cold came, the dark days

When fear crept into my mind

You gave me all your love, and all I gave you was goodbye...

I'd go back in time and change it, but I can't

So if the chain is on your door, I understand

This is me swallowing my pride

Standing in front of you, saying I'm sorry for that night

And I go back to December

It turns out freedom ain't nothing but missing you

Wishing I'd realized what I had when you were mine

I go back to December, turn around and make it alright

I go back to December, turn around and change my own mind

I go back to December, All The Time...

... Back To December, Taylor Swift

The One That Got Away

In another life, I would be your girl

We keep all our promises, be "us against the world"

In another life, I would make you stay

So I don't have to say you were the one that got away

... The One That Got Away, Kate Perry

For Each Day To Have A New And Different Sun

I'd like to repeat the advice that I gave you before, in that I think you really should make a radical change in your lifestyle and begin to boldly do things which you may previously never have thought of doing, or been too hesitant to attempt. So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.

If you want to get more out of life, Ron, you must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life that will at first appear to you to be crazy. But once you become accustomed to such a life you will see its full meaning and its incredible beauty. And so, Ron, in short, get out of Salton City and hit the Road. I guarantee you will be very glad you did. But I fear that you will ignore my advice. You think that I am stubborn, but you are even more stubborn than me. You had a wonderful chance on your drive back to see one of the greatest sights on earth, the Grand Canyon, something every American should see at least once in his life. But for some reason incomprehensible to me you wanted nothing but to bolt for home as quickly as possible, right back to the same situation which you see day after day after day. I fear you will follow this same inclination in the future and thus fail to discover all the wonderful things that God has placed around us to discover.

Don't settle down and sit in one place. Move around, be nomadic, make each day a new horizon. You are still going to live a long time, Ron, and it would be a shame if you did not take the opportunity to revolutionize your life and move into an entirely new realm of experience.

You are wrong if you think Joy emanates only or principally from human relationships. God has placed it all around us. It is in everything and anything we might experience. We just have to have the courage to turn against our habitual lifestyle and engage in unconventional living.

My point is that you do not need me or anyone else around to bring this new kind of light in your life. It is simply waiting out there for you to grasp it, and all you have to do is reach for it. The only person you are fighting is yourself and your stubbornness to engage in new circumstances.

[Christopher Johnson McCandless in a letter to acquaintance Ronald A. Franz]

... Into The Wild, Jon Krakauer

But Your Own Hands And Your Own Head

"the sea's only gifts are harsh blows and, occasionally, the chance to feel strong. Now, I don't know much about the sea, but I do know that that's the way it is here. And I also know how important it is in life not necessarily to be strong but to feel strong, to measure yourself at least once, to find yourself at least once in the most ancient of human conditions, facing blind, deaf stone alone, with nothing to help you but your own hands and your own head ..."

... Bear Meat, Primo Levi

Idea Of Happiness

“I have lived through much, and now I think I have found what is needed for happiness. A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them; then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one’s neighbor - such is my idea of happiness.”

... Family Happiness and Other Stories, 

Leo Tolstoy

For It Becomes Your Destiny

Watch your thoughts, for they become words.

Watch your words, for they become actions.

Watch your actions, for they become habits.

Watch your habits, for they become character.

Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.

Where Do We Go From Here?

Maybe we can take our chances, or

Maybe we can see what's on your mind

I wonder if we look inside our hearts

Exactly what we'd find

Or maybe we could take a lot of pain away

Or maybe we could heal the world today

Or maybe you know something I don't

If you do then don't leave

... Chris Rene

Kindness... Pass It On

Sometimes I lay under the moon

And I thank God I'm breathin'

Then I pray don't take me soon

'Cause I am here for a reason

Sometimes in my tears I drown

But I never let it get me down

So when negativity surrounds

I know someday it'll all turn around

And in this life you may lose your way

It might drive you crazy

But don't let it phase you, no way

... One Day, Matisyahu feat. Infected Mushrooms

Waiting On An Angel

Waiting on an angel

One to carry me home

Hope you come to see me soon

Cause I don't want to go alone

I don' t want to go alone

Now angel won't you come by me

Angel hear my plea

Take my hand lift me up

So that I can fly with thee

So that I can fly with thee

And I'm waiting on an angel

And I know it won' t be long

To find myself a resting place

In my angel's arms

In my angel's arms

... Ben Harper

Someone To Watch Over Me

There's a somebody I'm longin' to see

I hope that he, turns out to be

Someone who'll watch over me

I'm a little lamb who's lost in the wood

I know I could, always be good

To one who'll watch over me

... Sarah Vaughan

I Can Almost Feel You Here

Fading of the day

As night takes over

And I can almost feel

You here

Your memory remains

I breath it closer

I swear that I still feel 

You near

... Waiting, Dash Berlin, feat. Emma Hewitt

Immortal And Divine

"All men's souls are immortal,
but the souls of the righteous are immortal and divine"

... Socrates

Something

Then, and now...

Something in the way she moves

Attracts me like no other lover

Something in the way she woos me

I don't want to leave her now

You know I believe and how

You're asking me, will my love grow?

I don't know, I don't know

You stick around now it may show

I don't know, I don't know

I Have Died Everyday Waiting For You

I have died everyday waiting for you

Darling, don't be afraid I have loved you 

For a thousand years

I'll love you for a thousand more

And all along I believed I would find you

Time has brought your heart to me I have loved you 

For a thousand years

I'll love you for a thousand more

... A Thousand Years, Christina Perri

I Wished You Were Here

Many times, I wished you were here

Through the velvet shadows of my dreams

Many times, I wished you were near

Through the darkness as it came

... Just Tell Me You Love Me, England Dan and John Ford Coley

The Promise

If you wait for me

Then I'll come for you

Although I've traveled far

I always hold a place for you in my heart

Remembering

Your touch

Your kiss

Your warm embrace

I'll find my way back to you

If you'll be waiting

Together again

It would feel so good

To be in your arms

Where all my journeys end...

... The Promise, Tracy Chapman

Where You Been?

Nostalgic listening to these homies back from Colorado.

Memory is a dangerous thing...

Who I am, Who I'm not, and Who I wanna be

No way to know

How long she will be next to me...

Why'd you have to wait

To find me?

To find me?

You And Me

What day is it?

And in what month?

This clock never seemed so alive

I can't keep up

And I can't back down

I've been losing so much time

... You And Me, Lifehouse

Everything About You

I miss those blue eyes

How you kiss me at night

I miss the way we sleep...

I see your blue eyes

Everytime I close mine

You make it hard to see

Where I belong to

When I'm not around you

It's like I'm not with me

I miss everything about you...

... I Never Told You, Colbie Caillat

As A Guide From Beyond

This being human is a guest house.

Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,

some momentary awareness comes

as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!

Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,

who violently sweep your house

empty of its furniture,

still, treat each guest honorably.

He may be clearing you out

for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice.

meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.

Be grateful for whatever comes.

because each has been sent

as a guide from beyond.

... The Guest House, Mevlana Rumi

Breathe In The Same Air, And Step On The Same Ground

I traveled around the world to create the film which concept is 

"collecting the steps from all over the world
and playing a music with the steps".

All of us breathe in the same air and step on the same ground
... Takayuki Akachi

Life...

Life is an opportunity, avail it.

Life is beauty, admire it.

Life is bliss, taste it.

Life is a dream, realize it.

Life is a challenge, meet it.

Life is a duty, complete it.

Life is a game, play it.

Life is costly, care for it.

Life is wealth, keep it.

Life is love, enjoy it.

Life is a mystery, know it.

Life is a promise, fulfill it.

Life is sorrow, overcome it.

Life is a song, sing it.

Life is a struggle, accept it.

Life is a tragedy, embrace it.

Life is an adventure, dare it.

Life is luck, make it.

Life is life, defend it.

"What is the meaning of Life to you?"

... Blessed Teresa of Calcutta 

Just This Little Space In Between

Before Sunrise is a 1995 romantic drama film directed by Richard Linklater and written by Linklater and Kim Krizan. The film follows Jesse (Ethan Hawke), a young American, and Céline (Julie Delpy), a young French woman, who met on a train and disembarked in Vienna, where they spend the night walking around the city and getting to know each other.

The plot is minimalist. The two characters' ideas and perspectives on life and love are detailed. Jesse is a romantic disguised as a cynic, and Céline is seemingly a romantic, albeit with some doubts. Taking place over the course of one night, their limited time together is always on their minds, and leads to their revealing more about themselves than they normally would, since both believe they will never see one another again.

50/50

One of the best movies I've watched this year! Highly recommended.

Are You Living The Good Life?

... And Then Dies Having Never Really Lived

Q: What surprises you most about humanity?

A: Man, because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.