May You Be

May the wind be always at your back

And the sunshine warm upon your face

May the rains fall soft upon your field

Until the day we meet again

And the roof that hangs over your head

Find you shelter from the storm

Before the devil knows you're dead

May you be in heaven my friend

May good luck find you at your worst

And back luck lose you at your best

May your days be rich and full of wealth

And your nights be long when you need rest

And the roof that hangs over your head

Find you shelter from the storm

Before the devil knows you're dead

May you be in heaven my friend

And the road may it rise to meet your feet

And be downhill all the way to your door

May the grass below be green and the sky above be blue

May it be so forever more

And the roof that hangs over your head

Find you shelter from the storm

Before the devil knows you're dead

May you be in heaven my friend

... Devil Knows You're Dead, Delta Spirit

Poetry Soothes And Emboldens The Soul

"A poem needs understanding through the senses. The point of diving in a lake is not immediately to swim to the shore but to be in the lake, to luxuriate in the sensation of water. You do not work the lake out, it is a experience beyond thought. Poetry soothes and emboldens the soul to accept the mystery"

... John Keats

Home

Hold on to me as we go

As we roll down this unfamiliar road

And although this wave is stringing us along

Just know you’re not alone

Cause I’m going to make this place your home

Settle down, it'll all be clear

Don't pay no mind to the demons

They fill you with fear

The trouble it might drag you down

If you get lost, you can always be found

Just know you’re not alone

Cause I’m going to make this place your home

... Home, Phillip Phillips

Your Latest Trick

Ocean Deep

Where I Come From

A window breaks down a long dark street

And a siren wails in the night.

But I'm alright 'cause I have you here with me

And I can almost see through the dark there is light.

If you knew how much this moment means to me

And how long I've waited for your touch.

If you knew how happy you are making me

I never thought that I'd love anyone so much.

... Feels Like Home, Edwina Hayes

Brideshead Revisited

If you asked me now who I am, the only answer I could give with any certainty would be my name: Charles Ryder. For the rest: my loves, my hates, down even to my deepest desires, I can no longer say whether these emotions are my own, or stolen from those I once so desperately wished to be. On second thought, one emotion remains my own. Alone among the borrowed and the second-hand, as pure as that faith from which I am still in flight: Guilt.

Perhaps […] all our loves are merely hints and symbols; a hill of many invisible crests; doors that open as in a dream to reveal only a further stretch of carpet and another door; perhaps you and I are types and this sadness which sometimes falls between us springs from disappointment in our search, each straining through and beyond the other, snatching a glimpse now and then of the shadow which turns the corner always a pace or two ahead of us.

Just the place to bury a crock of gold. I should like to bury something precious, in every place I've been happy. And then when I was old, and ugly and miserable, I could come back, and dig it up, and remember.

He told me and, on the instant, it was as though someone had switched off the wireless, and a voice that had been bawling in my ears, incessantly, fatuously, for days beyond number, had been suddenly cut short; an immense silence followed, empty at first, but gradually, as my outraged sense regained authority, full of a multitude of sweet and natural and long-forgotten sounds – for he had spoken a name that was so familiar to me, a conjuror's name of such ancient power, that, at its mere sound, the phantoms of those haunted late years began to take flight.

I asked too much of you. I knew it all along, really. Only God can give you that sort of love.

I had not forgotten Sebastian. He was with me daily in Julia; or rather it was Julia I had known in him, in those distant, Arcadian days.

These memories, which are my life – for we possess nothing certainly except the past –, were always with me.

... Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh

Do I Wake Or Sleep?

Was it a vision, or a waking dream?

Fled is that music: -- Do I wake or sleep?

... Ode To A Nightingale, John Keats

I Almost Wish We Were Butterflies

“I almost wish we were butterflies and lived but three summer days;

Three such days with you I could fill with more delight than fifty common years could ever contain”

... Love Letters and Poems of John Keats to Fanny Brawne, John Keats

He Wishes For The Cloths Of Heaven

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,

Enwrought with golden and silver light,

The blue and the dim and the dark cloths

Of night and light and the half-light,

I would spread the cloths under your feet:

But I, being poor, have only my dreams;

I have spread my dreams under your feet;

Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

... He Wishes For The Cloths Of Heaven, WB Yeats

Read by Anthony Hopkins, 84 Charring Cross Road

What Might Have Been

"But that doesn't mean to say, of course, there aren't occasions now and then - extremely desolate occasions - when you think to yourself: 'What a terrible mistake I've made with my life.' And you get to thinking about a different life, a better life you might have had. For instance, I get to thinking about a life I may have had with you, Mr. Stevens. And I supposed that's when I get angry about some trivial little thing and leave. But each time I do, I realize before long - that my rightful place is with my husband. After all, there's no turning back the clock now. One can't be forever dwelling on what might have been"

... The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro

The Heart of the Matter: Forgiveness

What are these voices

outside love's open door?

Make us throw off our contentment

and beg for something more.

I'm learning to live without you now

but I miss you sometimes.

The more I know,

the less I understand.

All the things I thought I knew,

I'm learning again.

I've been tryin' to get down

to the heart of the matter.

But my will gets weak

and my thoughts seem to scatter.

But I think it's about

forgiveness, forgiveness.

Even if, even if

you don't love me anymore...

... The Heart of the Matter, Don Henley

Dragons

Fairy tales are more than true;

not because they tell us that dragons exist,

but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.

... G. K. Chesterton

In Memory, Love Lives Forever

To Strive, To Seek, To Find, And Not To Yield

Come, my friends,

'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.

Push off, and sitting well in order smite

The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds

To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths

Of all the western stars, until I die.

It may be that the gulfs will wash us down;

It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,

And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.

Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'

We are not now that strength which in old days

Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;

One equal temper of heroic hearts,

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

... Ulysses, Alfred Tennyson, 1833

Sedetik Lebih

Setiap nafas yang dihembus
Setiap degupan jantung
Aku selalu memikirkanmu

Dalam sedar dibuai angan
Dalam tidur dan khayalan
Aku selalu memikirkanmu

Ternyata ku perlukan cinta dari dirimu sayang
Barulah terasa ku bernyawa

Kasihku ku amat mencintai kamu
Kerana kau beri erti hidup
Ku kan terus mencinta sedetik lebih selepas selamanya

... Sedetik Lebih, Anuar Zain

Ku harungi

Hari demi hari

Bersama wajah tak mungkin akan kembali

Tapi hati masih tak terima

Ditinggalkan sengsara

Keraguan ini bukanlah padamu

Perasaan hati masih rindu

Kekalutan ini hanyalah untukku

Tercari-cari bayangan mu

Tak sanggup aku kehilangan

Kehilanganmu...

... Perpisahan, Anuar Zain

A Reminder Of The Important Things In Life

Be happy

Show up

Follow your heart

Find a new perspective

Have a sense of wonder

Find people you love

Set goals

Help others

Dance

Pamper yourself

Face your fears

Go to a museum

Exercise

Limit television

Get in touch with nature

Lighten up

Get a good night's sleep

Read books

Buy yourself flowers

Dont compare yourself with others

Don't beat yourself up

Be open to new ideas

Don't focus on negative thoughts

Focus on creating what you desire

Make time just to have fun

Keep the romance in your life

Make a gratitude list

Love your mother Earth

Want what you have

Be true to yourself

See You Somewhere...

When searching my inbox last night for an e-mail from Nora, to get the specifics of her phrasing, I came upon this sign-off to a short but sweet one thanking me for lunch: “see you somewhere… xox.” Somewhere, it turns out, is everywhere. I see Nora in the home I wouldn’t live in if not for her, the shot list I make in the van to set in the morning, and the jacket I slip into when the sun comes down (she always sent links along with tips). I see her when the craft services on set isn’t up to par, or in the process of getting to know a man who seems to understand. I see her in the worst hair moments and the best soup moments. I know I am only one of hundreds of women, people, who will miss Nora’s company, and millions who will miss her voice. The opportunity to be friends with Nora in the last year of her life informs the entirety of mine. I am so grateful.

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2012/06/lena-dunham-remembers-nora-ephron.html#ixzz1zDN8RbE1

And Miles To Go Before I Sleep

Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village though;

He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer

To stop without a farmhouse near

Between the woods and frozen lake

The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake

To ask if there is some mistake.

The only other sound's the sweep

Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

... Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening, Robert Frost

A Guest House

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're 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 whoever comes,

because each has been sent

as a guide from beyond.

... Mevlana Jalalludin Rumi

We Need Silence

“We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature - trees, flowers, grass - grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence... We need silence to be able to touch souls.”

... Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta

But You Do

In your life you meet people. 

Some you never think about again. 

Some, you wonder what happened to them. 

There are some that you wonder if they ever think about you. 

And then there are some that you wish you never have to think about again. 

But you do. 

... C.S. Lewis

We Need Humanity

We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery, we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost. 

... Charlie Chaplin

Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia

“A book has neither object nor subject; it is made of variously for matters, and very different dates and speeds. To attribute the book subject is to overlook this working of matters, and the exteriority of their relations. It is to fabricate a beneficent God to explain geological movements. In a book, as in all things, there are lines of articulation segmentarity, strata and territories; but also lines of flight, movement deterritorialization and destratification.”

"To a certain degree, the traditional logic of desire is all wrong from the very outset: from the very first step that the Platonic logic of desire forces us to take, making us choose between production and acquisition. From the moment that we place desire on the side of acquisition, we make desire an idealistic (dialectical, nihilistic) conception, which causes us to look upon it as primarily a lack: a lack of an object, a lack of the real object."

“Lack is created, planned, and organized in and through social production… It is never primary; production is never organized on the basis of a pre-existing need or lack. It is lack that infiltrates itself, creates empty spaces and propagates itself in accordance with the organization of an already existing organization of production.”

"The deliberate creation of lack as a function of market economy is the art of a dominant class. This involves deliberately organizing wants and needs (manque) amid an abundance of production; making all of desire teeter and fall victim to the great fear of not having one's needs satisfied; and making the object dependent upon a real production that is supposedly exterior to desire (the demands of rationality), while at the same time the production of desire is categorized as fantasy and nothing but fantasy."

... Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari

Regarding The Pain Of Others

"Being a spectator of calamities taking place in another country is a quintessential modern experience, the cumulative offering of more than a century and a half worth of those professional, specialized tourists known as journalists."

“So far as we feel sympathy, we feel we are not accomplices to what caused the suffering. Our sympathy proclaims our innocence as well as our impotence. To that extent, it can be (for all our good intentions) an impertinent - if not inappropriate - response. To set aside the sympathy we extend to others beset by war and murderous politics for a reflection on how our privileges are located on the same map as their suffering, and may - in ways we might prefer not to imagine - be linked to their suffering, as the wealth as some may imply the destitution of others, is a task for which the painful, stirring images supply only an initial spark.”

... Regarding The Pain Of Others, Susan Sontag

That's Just Fine With Me

There is nothing special about me

I am just a lil star

If it seems like I'm shining brightly

It's probably a reflection of something you already are

I forget about myself sometimes

When there's so many others around

When deep inside you feel the darkest

That is where I can always be found

There is nothing special about me

I am just a lil star

If you try to reach out and touch me

You'll see that I'm not really that far

I may not be the brightest nor am I the last one you'll see

But as long as you notice, that's just fine with me

Everything's just fine with me

There is nothing special about me

I am just a lil star

I've been running and jumping, but barely

Getting, getting over the bar

I plan on being much more than I am, but that's in due time

But until then I'm guilty, and being human is my crime

Being human, that is my crime

... Lil Star, Kelis featuring Cee-Lo

I Keep Them In A Jar

To ten million fireflies

I'm weird cause I hate goodbyes

I got misty eyes as they said farewell

But I'll know where several are

If my dreams get real bizarre

'Cause I saved a few and I keep them in a jar

... Fireflies, Owl City

Your Living

Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life;

not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens.

... Kahlil Gibran

For Now

A few times in my life I have had moments of absolute clarity. When for a few brief seconds, the silence drowns out the noise and I can feel rather than think.. And things seem so sharp and the world seems so fresh, yet I can never make these moments last. I cling to them, but like everything else, they fade. I have lived for these moments. They pull me back to the present, and I realized that everything is exactly the way it was meant to be... for now.

A Moment Of Silence

If you allow yourself a moment of silence 

you'll be able to hear the sound of your soul, 

listen.. whats within you is all you need to know.

Stillness

Seek out a tree and let it teach you stillness

... Eckhart Tolle

Quieter

The quieter you become,

the more you are able to hear.

... Rumi

The Contemplative Life

‎"The contemplative life must provide an area, a space of liberty, of silence, 

in which possibilities are allowed to surface and new choices become manifest"

... Thomas Merton

UntukMu Selamanya

dimalam yang sesunyi ini

aku sendiri tiada yang menemani

akhirnya kini ku sedari

dia telah pergi tinggalkan diriku

adakah semua kan terulang

kisah cintaku yang seperti dulu

hanya dirimu yang kucinta dan kukenang

didalam hatiku takkan pernah hilang

bayangan dirimu untuk selamanya

... Kisah Cintaku, Peterpan

ku masih merindukanmu

walaupun kini kau telah bersamanya

tak pernah mampu ku cuba lupakanmu

sungguh tak bisa

aku mengganti dirimu dengan dirinya

sungguh tak sanggup

aku berpaling darimu

sungguh tak bisa

ku mencintainya untuk melupakanmu

sungguh tak sanggup

aku berpindah dari hatimu

... Untukmu Selamanya, Ungu

Embrace The Darkness In Which I Swim

i'm just a dreamer but i'm hanging on

though i am nothing big to offer

i watch the birds, how they dive in then gone

it's like nothing in this world's ever still

and i'm just a shadow of your thoughts in me

but the sun is setting, shadows growing

a long cast figure will turn into night

it's like nothing in this world ever sleeps

oh sometimes the blues is just a passing bird

and why can't that always be

tossing aside from your birches crown

just enough dark to see

how you're the light over me

Home Again

I left my head

Many times I've been told

All this talk will make you old

So I close my eyes

Look behind

Moving on, moving on

So I close my eyes

Look behind

Moving on

Lost again

Lost again

One day I know

Our Paths will cross again

Smile again

Smile again

One day I hope

To make you smile again

I won't hide

... Home Again, Michael Kiwanuka

Live The Questions Now

“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”

... Letters To A Young Poet, Rainer Maria Rilke

The Sense Of An Ending

“How often do we tell our own life story? How often do we adjust, embellish, make sly cuts? And the longer life goes on, the fewer are those around to challenge our account, to remind us that our life is not our life, merely the story we have told about our life. Told to others, but—mainly—to ourselves.”

“We live in time - it holds us and molds us - but I never felt I understood it very well. And I'm not referring to theories about how it bends and doubles back, or may exist elsewhere in parallel versions. No, I mean ordinary, everyday time, which clocks and watches assure us passes regularly: tick-tock, click-clock. Is there anything more plausible than a second hand? And yet it takes only the smallest pleasure or pain to teach us time's malleability. Some emotions speed it up, others slow it down; occasionally, it seems to go missing - until the eventual point when it really does go missing, never to return.”

“When you're young - when I was young - you want your emotions to be like the ones you read about in books. You want them to overturn your life, create and define a new reality. Later, I think, you want them to do something milder, something more practical: you want them to support your life as it is and has become. You want them to tell you that things are OK."

“History isn't the lies of the victors, as I once glibly assured Old Joe Hunt; I know that now. It's more the memories of the survivors, most of whom are neither victorious or defeated.”

“But I’ve been turning over in my mind the question of nostalgia, and whether I suffer from it. I certainly don’t get soggy at the memory of some childhood knickknack; nor do I want to deceive myself sentimentally about something that wasn’t even true at the time—love of the old school, and so on. But if nostalgia means the powerful recollection of strong emotions—and a regret that such feelings are no longer present in our lives—then I plead guilty.”

... The Sense Of An Ending, Julian Barnes

Never Let Me Go

"I come here and imagine that this is the spot where everything I've lost since my childhood is washed out. I tell myself, if that were true, and I waited long enough then a tiny figure would appear on the horizon across the field and gradually get larger until I'd see it was Tommy. He'd wave. And maybe call. I don't know if the fantasy go beyond that, I can't let it. I remind myself I was lucky to have had any time with him at all. What I'm not sure about, is if our lives have been so different from the lives of the people we save. We all complete. Maybe none of us really understand what we've lived through, or feel we've had enough time."

“It never occurred to me that our lives, until then so closely interwoven, could unravel and separate over a thing like that. But the fact was, I suppose, there were powerful tides tugging us apart by then, and it only needed something like that to finish the task. If we'd understood that back then- who knows?- maybe we'd have kept a tighter hold of one another.”

“When we lost something precious, and we'd looked and looked and still couldn't find it, then we didn't have to be completely heartbroken. We still had that last bit of comfort, thinking one day, when we grow up, and we were free to travel around the counry, we would always go and find it in Norfolk... And that's why years and years later, that day Tommy and I found another copy of that lost tape of mine in a town on the Norfolk coast, we didn't just think it pretty funny; we both felt deep down some tug, some old wish to believe again in something that was once close to our hearts.”

“Because maybe, in a way, we didn't leave it behind nearly as much as we might once have thought. Because somewhere underneath, a part of us stayed like that: fearful of the world around us, and no matter how much we despised ourselves for it -- unable quite to let each other go.”

... Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro

Seven Advice Of Rumi

In generosity and helping others

be like the river.

In compassion and grace

be like the sun.

In concealing others' faults

be like the night.

In anger and fury

be like the dead.

In modesty and humility

be like the soil.

In tolerance

be like the ocean.

Either you appear as you are or

be as you appear.

... Rumi

Immortality

"Millions long for immortality who don't know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon" ~ Anon

Branches On The Same Tree

"If what I say resonates with you, it is merely because we are both branches on the same tree" ~ W.B. Yeats

King Mas'oud And The Fisherboy

He said: 'King Mas'oud, riding out one day, 

Was parted from his army on the way. 

Swift as the wind he galloped till he saw 

A little boy sat by the ocean's shore. 

The child was fishing - as he cast his hook, 

The king dismounted with a friendly look 

And sat by him; but the unhappy child 

Was troubled in his heart and hardly smiled. 

"You seem the saddest boy I've ever seen," 

The monarch said. "What can such sorrow mean ?" 

"Our father's gone; for seven children I 

Must cast my line" was his subdued reply. 

"Our mother's paralysed and we are poor; 

It is for food that I must haunt this shore - 

I come to fish here in the dawn's first light 

And cannot leave until the fall of night. 

The meagre harvest of my toil and pain 

Must last us all till I return again." 

The king said : "Let's be friends, do you agree ?" 

The poor child nodded and, immediately, I 

His new friend cast their line into the sea. 

That day the boy drew up a hundred fish. 

"This wealth is far beyond my wildest wish," 

He said. "A splendid haul," the king replied. 

"Good Fortune has been busy at your side - 

Accept your luck, don't try to comprehend 

How this has happened; you'd be lost, my friend. 

Your wealth is greater than my own; today 

A king has fished for you - I cannot stay." 

He leapt onto his horse. "But take your share," 

The boy said earnestly. "That's only fair." 

"Tomorrow's catch is mine. We won't divide 

Today's you have it all," the king replied. 

"Tomorrow when I fish you are the prey, 

A trophy I refuse to give away." 

The next day, walking in his garden's shade, 

The king recalled the friend that he had made. 

A captain fetched the boy, and this unknown 

Was at the king's command set on his throne. 

The courtiers murmured at his poverty - 

"He is my friend, this fact suffices me; 

He is my equal here in everything, 

The partner of my throne," declared the king; 

To every taunt the boy had one reply: 

"My sadness vanished when the king passed by."

... The Conference of the Birds, Farid ud-Din Attar

Leisure

What is this life if, full of care, 

We have no time to stand and stare. 

No time to stand beneath the boughs 

And stare as long as sheep or cows. 

No time to see, when woods we pass, 

Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass. 

No time to see, in broad daylight, 

Streams full of stars, like skies at night. 

No time to turn at Beauty's glance, 

And watch her feet, how they can dance. 

No time to wait till her mouth can 

Enrich that smile her eyes began. 

A poor life this if, full of care, 

We have no time to stand and stare.

... William Henry Davies

No Need To Say Goodbye

It started out as a feeling

Which then grew into a hope

Which then turned into a quiet thought

Which then turned into a quiet word

And then that word grew louder and louder

'Til it was a battle cry

I'll come back

When you call me

No need to say goodbye...

Now, we're back to the beginning

It's just a feeling and no one knows yet

But just because they can't feel it too

Doesn't mean that you have to forget

Let your memories grow stronger and stronger

'Til they're before your eyes

You'll come back

When they call you

No need to say goodbye

... The Call, Regina Spektor

We Are As The Flute

We are as the flute, and the music in us is from thee;

we are as the mountain and the echo in us is from thee.

We are as pieces of chess engaged in victory and defeat:

our victory and defeat is from thee, O thou whose qualities are comely!

Who are we, O Thou soul of our souls,

that we should remain in being beside thee?

We and our existences are really non-existence;

thou art the absolute Being which manifests the perishable.

We all are lions, but lions on a banner:

because of the wind they are rushing onward from moment to moment.

Their onward rush is visible, and the wind is unseen:

may that which is unseen not fail from us!

Our wind whereby we are moved and our being are of thy gift;

our whole existence is from thy bringing into being.

... Rumi

To Be A Living, Breathing Sacred Word

I may pull the Quran down from the topmost shelf, and sit in silent recitation, but if the Quran cannot be read in the movement of my limbs, the angle of my chin, the way I walk, sit and hold someone's hand, it is as if it had never been written at all.

To be a living, breathing sacred word -- this idea is worth reflection... We are, at our source, a self-disclosure of the Word.

It is the painstaking work of the calligrapher -- an act of worship as much as an art form -- that ignites the creative power of words. I have watched my dear friend Elinor Aishah Holland, as she gently moves her reed across the burnished paper. What if we imagine ourselves as Arabic letters set down by a loving hand? Some of us stand haughty like an alif, some stooped and humble like a dal, some all tied up in knots like a ha. Alone we are of course marvelous, a singular creation. But it is only when letters are connected that they can write out a word. So it is with us. It is only in fellowship that we can write the Word.

Still, connection is not so easy after all. In Arabic, almost every letter must change its shape in multiple ways in order to connect to its neighbor. As Aishah tells me, each letter must find the true proportion that allows it to be both in harmony with the letters around it and in harmony with what is being conveyed. And so it is with us: regardless of where we stand in the play of human fellowship, we have to change to accommodate the flawed and glorious selfhood of our neighbor. We bend a little out of shape, only to realize with a start that this is not a loss after all, but a new beginning, a movement across the borders of ourselves.

Can we come together to activate the sacred Word? The words we create in fellowship are more powerful than any one of us can hope to utter alone. These are the words of the ever-new revelation. These are the words that will change our world.

... Living Out the Sacred Word, Homayra Ziad

Caine's Arcade: No Small Feat

No deed is too small.

No effort goes wasted.

Make someone else happy,

And many other beautiful souls will surround you.

... Caine's Arcade

Always On The Side Of The Egg

Please do, however, allow me to deliver one very personal message. It is something that I always keep in mind while I am writing fiction. I have never gone so far as to write it on a piece of paper and paste it to the wall: Rather, it is carved into the wall of my mind, and it goes something like this:

"Between a high, solid wall and an egg that breaks against it, I will always stand on the side of the egg."

Yes, no matter how right the wall may be and how wrong the egg, I will stand with the egg. Someone else will have to decide what is right and what is wrong; perhaps time or history will decide. If there were a novelist who, for whatever reason, wrote works standing with the wall, of what value would such works be?

What is the meaning of this metaphor? In some cases, it is all too simple and clear. Bombers and tanks and rockets and white phosphorus shells are that high, solid wall. The eggs are the unarmed civilians who are crushed and burned and shot by them. This is one meaning of the metaphor.

This is not all, though. It carries a deeper meaning. Think of it this way. Each of us is, more or less, an egg. Each of us is a unique, irreplaceable soul enclosed in a fragile shell. This is true of me, and it is true of each of you. And each of us, to a greater or lesser degree, is confronting a high, solid wall. The wall has a name: It is The System. The System is supposed to protect us, but sometimes it takes on a life of its own, and then it begins to kill us and cause us to kill others - coldly, efficiently, systematically.

I have only one reason to write novels, and that is to bring the dignity of the individual soul to the surface and shine a light upon it. The purpose of a story is to sound an alarm, to keep a light trained on The System in order to prevent it from tangling our souls in its web and demeaning them. I fully believe it is the novelist's job to keep trying to clarify the uniqueness of each individual soul by writing stories - stories of life and death, stories of love, stories that make people cry and quake with fear and shake with laughter. This is why we go on, day after day, concocting fictions with utter seriousness.

... Haruki Murakami, on receiving the Jerusalem Prize

Full speech, click here

The Flame Within Us

At times our own light goes out 

and is rekindled by a spark from another person. 

Each of us has cause to think, with deep gratitude, 

of those who have lighted the flame within us.

... Albert Schweitzer

Don't Let Me Go

I can see your shadow laying in the moonlight

I can feel your heartbeat playing on my right side

Every night I long for this, making up what I miss

I can hear you breathing letting out a sad sigh...

... Don't Let Me Go, The Click Five

This Kind Of Certainty Comes But Once In A Lifetime

And she heard his voice coming back down the highway: «In a universe of ambiguity, this kind of certainty comes only once, and never again, no matter how many lifetimes you live.»

Robert Kincaid: When I think of why I make pictures, the reason that I can come up with just seems that I've been making my way here. It seems right now that all I've ever done in my life is making my way here to you.

Robert Kincaid: I don't want to need you, 'cause I can't have you.

Francesca: But love won't obey our expectations. Its mystery is pure and absolute. What Robert and I had, could not continue if we were together. What Richard and I shared would vanish if we were apart. But how I wanted to share this. How would our lives have changed if I had? Could anyone else have seen the beauty of it?

And My Only Talent Was Not To Close My Eyes

In 1956, at the height of her career, Marilyn Monroe went to England to make a film with Sir Laurence Olivier. While there she met a young man named Colin Clark, who wrote a diary about the making of the film. This is their true story.

Sir Laurence Olivier: [reciting while images of Marilyn plays on screen] You do look, my son, in a moved sort, as if you were dismayed. Be cheerful, sir. Our revels now are ended. We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.

Marilyn Monroe: Don't forget me.

Colin Clark: As if I could.

Colin Clark: Here's what I remember most: her embrace. Her belief in me. And the joy she gave. That was her gift. When I think of her now, I think of that time when a dream came true. And my only talent was not to close my eyes.

To Look Life In The Face

"A woman's whole life in a single day. Just one day.
And in that day, her whole life" 

... Mrs Dalloway, Virginia Woolf

"Dearest,

I feel certain I am going mad again. I feel we can't go through another of those terrible times. And I shan't recover this time. I begin to hear voices, and I can't concentrate. So I am doing what seems the best thing to do.

You have given me the greatest possible happiness. You have been in every way all that anyone could be.  I know that I am spoiling your life, that without me you could work. And you will, I know.

You see I can't even write this properly. I can't read. What I want to say is that I owe all the happiness of my life to you. You have been entirely patient with me and incredibly good. Everything has gone from me but the certainty of your goodness. I can't go on spoiling your life any longer.

I don't think two people could have been happier than we have been.

Virginia."

"Dear Leonard,

To look life in the face, always,
To look life in the face
And to know it for what it is.

At last to know it,
To love it for what it is, and then
To put it away.

Leonard,

Always the years between us,
Always the years.

Always the love.

Always the hours."

A Reason, A Season, Or A Lifetime

People come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. When you figure out which it is, you know exactly what to do.

When someone is in your life for a REASON, it is usually to meet a need you have expressed outwardly or inwardly. They have come to assist you through a difficulty, to provide you with guidance and support, to aid you physically, emotionally, or spiritually. They may seem like a godsend, and they are. They are there for the reason you need them to be. Then, without any wrong doing on your part or at an inconvenient time, this person will say or do something to bring the relationship to an end. Sometimes they die. Sometimes they walk away. Sometimes they act up or out and force you to take a stand. What we must realize is that our need has been met, our desire fulfilled; their work is done. The prayer you sent up has been answered and it is now time to move on.

When people come into your life for a SEASON, it is because your turn has come to share, grow, or learn. They may bring you an experience of peace or make you laugh. They may teach you something you have never done. They usually give you an unbelievable amount of joy. Believe it! It is real! But, only for a season.

LIFETIME relationships teach you lifetime lessons; those things you must build upon in order to have a solid emotional foundation. Your job is to accept the lesson, love the person/people (anyway); and put what you have learned to use in all other relationships and areas of your life. It is said that love is blind but friendship is clairvoyant.

... Author Unknown

Live Your Dream, Wear Your Passion

This is your LIFE. Do what you love and do it often.

If you don't like something, change it.

If you don't like your job, quit.

If you don't have enough time, stop watching TV.

If you're looking for the love of your life, stop.

They will be waiting for you
when you START DOING THE THINGS YOU LOVE.

Stop over analyzing. LIFE IS SIMPLE.

All emotions are beautiful.

When you eat, appreciate every last bite.

Open your mind, arms, and heart to new things and people:

We are united in our differences.

Ask the next person you see what their passion is,

And share your inspiring dream with them.

TRAVEL OFTEN; getting lost will help you find yourself.

Some opportunities only come once, seize them.

Life is about the people you meet,

And the things you create with them.

So go out and create something.

LIFE IS SHORT.

LIVE YOUR DREAM, 

AND WEAR YOU PASSION.

... Holstee Manifesto

Adele

I'm Glad You Came

The sun goes down

The stars comes out

And all that counts

Is here and now

My universe

Will never be the same

I'm glad you came

... Glad You Came, The Wanted

Surrounded With Beauty

“It is true that I miss intelligent companionship, but there are so few with whom I can share the things that mean so much to me that I have learned to contain myself. It is enough that I am surrounded with beauty...”

 

... Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer

Like It's Heaven On Earth

You've gotta dance like there's nobody watching,

Love like you'll never be hurt,

Sing like there's nobody listening,

And live like it's heaven on earth.

... William W. Purkey

I Was Not Magnificent

Christmas night, it clutched the light, the hallow bright

Above my brother, I entangled spines

We smoked the screen to make it what it was to be

Now to know it in my memory:

... and at once I knew I was not magnificent

High above the highway aisle

(Jagged vacance, thick with ice)

I could see for miles, miles, miles

.... Holocene, Bon Iver