History celebrates the battlefields whereon we meet our death, but scorns to speak of the plowed fields whereby we thrive;
it knows the names of kings' bastards but cannot tell us the origin of wheat.

This is the way of human folly.

~Henry Fabre

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE
~By Maya Angelou


A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ...
one old love she can imagine going back to...
and one who reminds her how far she has come...

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ....
enough money within her control to move out and rent a place of her own
even if she never wants to or needs to...

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ....
something perfect to wear if the employer or date of her dreams wants to
see her in an hour...

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ...
a youth she's content to leave behind....

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ....
a past juicy enough that she's looking forward to retelling it in her
old age....

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE .....
a set of screwdrivers, a cordless drill, and a black lace bra...

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ....
one friend who always makes her laugh... and one who lets her cry...

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ....
a good piece of furniture not previously owned by anyone else in her
family...

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ....
eight matching plates, wine glasses with stems, and a recipe for a meal
that will make her guests feel honored...

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ....
a feeling of control over her destiny...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
how to fall in love without losing herself..

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
HOW TO QUIT A JOB,
BREAK UP WITH A LOVER,
AND CONFRONT A FRIEND WITHOUT RUINING THE FRIENDSHIP...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
when to try harder... and WHEN TO WALK AWAY...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
that she can't change the length of her calves, the width of her hips,
or the nature of her parents..

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
that her childhood may not have been perfect...but its over...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
what she would and wouldn't do for love or more...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
how to live alone... even if she doesn't like it...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
whom she can trust,
whom she can't,
and why she shouldn't
take it personally...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
where to go...
be it to her best friend's kitchen table...
or a charming inn in the woods...
when her soul needs soothing...

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW...
what she can and can't accomplish in a day...
a month...and a year...

"I dream about a kind of criticism that would try not to judge but to bring an oeuvre, a book, a sentence, an idea to life; it would light fires, watch the grass grow, listen to the wind, and catch the sea foam in the breeze and scatter it. It would multiply not judgments but signs of existence; it would summon them, drag them from their sleep. Perhaps it would invent them sometimes -- all the better.

"Criticism that hands down sentences sends me to sleep; I'd like a criticism of scintillating leaps of imagination. It would not be sovereign or dressed in red. It would bear the lightning of possible storms."

-Michel Foucault, "The Masked Philosopher," interview in *Le Monde,* 1980

WHERE IS IT WRITTEN?

Music: Michel LegrandLyrics: Alan and Marilyn Bergman

PRAYER

God, our merciful father,

I’m wrapped in a robe of light,

Clothed in your glory

That spreads its wings over my soul.

May I be worthy

Amen.

~

There’s not a morning I begin without

A thousand questions running through my mind,

That I don’t try to find the reason and the logic

In the world that God designed.

The reason why a bird was given wings,

If not to fly and praise the sky

With every song it sings.

What’s right or wrong,

Where I belong

Within the scheme of things...

And why have eyes that see

And arms that reach

Unless you’re meant to know

There’s something more?

If not to hunger for the meaning of it all,

Then tell me what a soul is for?

Why have the wings

Unless you’re meant to fly?

And tell me please, why have a mind

If not to question why?

And tell me where-

Where is it written what it is I’m meant to be,

That I can’t dare

To have the chance to pick the fruit of every tree,

Or have my share of every sweet-imagined possibility?

Just tell me where, tell me where?

If I were only meant to tend the nest,

Then why does my imagination sail

Across the mountains and the seas,

Beyond the make-believe of any fairy tale?

Why have the thirst if not to drink the wine?

And what a waste to have a taste

Of things that can't be mine?

And tell me where, where is it written what it is

I'm meant to be, that I can't dare-

To find the meanings in the mornings that I see,

Or have my share of every sweet-imagined possibility?

Just tell me where- where is it written?

Tell me where-

Or if it's written anywhere?

Much that was called religion has carried an unconscious attitude of hostility toward life. True religion must teach that life is filled with joys pleasing to the eye of God, that knowledge without action is empty. All men must see that the teaching of religion by rules and rote is largely a hoax. The proper teaching is recognized with ease. You can know it without fail because it awakens within you that sensations which tells you this is something you've always known.
(Conclusion of the Commentaries in "Appendix II: The Religion of Dune" )

LITANY AGAINST FEAR
I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.
(Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear - From Frank Herbert's Dune Book Series)

The only man who behaved sensibly was my tailor; he took my measurement anew every time he saw me, while all the rest went on with their old measurements and expected them to fit me.
~ George Bernard Shaw

A path is only a path, and there is no affront, to oneself or to others, in dropping it if that is what your heart tells you. Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think necessary. Then ask yourself alone, one question. Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good; if it doesn't it is of no use.
~ Carlos Castaneda ~

Just as in earthly life lovers long for the moment when they are able to breathe forth their love for each other, to let their souls blend in a soft whisper, so the mystic longs for the moment when in prayer he can, as it were, creep into God.
~Soren Kierkegaard


Mysticism and exaggeration go together. A mystic must not fear ridicule if he is to push all the way to the limits of humility or the limits of delight.
~ Milan Kundera ~

All mystics speak the same language, for they come from the same country.
~ Louis Claude de St. Martin ~

What does mysticism really mean? It means the way to attain knowledge. It's close to philosophy, except in philosophy you go horizontally while in mysticism you go vertically.
~ Elie Wiesel ~

Some signs and symptoms of inner peace:

A tendency to think and act spontaneously rather than on fears based on past experiences.

An unmistakable ability to enjoy each moment.

A loss of interest in judging other people.

A loss of interest in judging self.

A loss of interest in interpreting the actions of others.

A loss of interest in conflict.

A loss of ability to worry (this is a very serious symptom).

Frequent overwhelming episodes of appreciation.

Contented feelings of connectedness with others and nature.

Frequent attacks of smiling.

An increasing tendency to let things happen rather than make them happen.

An increased susceptibility to the love extended by others as well as the uncontrollable urge to extend it.

God places us at the crossroads of the worlds greatest need and our own greatest need for development.
Frederick Buechner

If it seems a childish thing to do, do it in remembrance that you are a child. Frederick Buechner

In his holy flirtation with the world, God occasionally drops a handkerchief. These handkerchiefs are called saints.
Frederick Buechner

Religion points to that area of human experience where in one way or another man comes upon mystery as a summons to pilgrimage.
Frederick Buechner

Plenary Powers

Pablo Neruda
(from: ‘Plenos Poderes’)


For the sun’s pure power, I write, for the full sea,
for the full and open road, wherever I can I sing,
only the vagrant night detains me
but I gain space in that interruption,
I gain shadow for lengths of time.

Night’s black wheat grows
while my eyes measure the field.
I forge keys from dawn to dusk:
I search for locks in the darkness
and I go throwing open ruined gates to the sea
until the wardrobes are full of foam.

I never tire of going and returning,
death does not stop me with its stone,
I never tire of presence and absence.

Sometimes I ask myself if it was from
my father or my mother or the mountains
I inherited these mineral tasks,

veins of a burning ocean,
and I know I go on, and go on to go on,
and I sing to sing on, and to sing.

Nothing explains what happens
when I close my eyes and circle
as if between two undersea channels,
one lifts me up to die in its branches
and the other sings so I might sing.

So then, I am composed of absence
and akin to the sea that assaults the reef
with its briny globules of whiteness

and takes back the stone into the wave.
So that whatever of death surrounds me
opens in me the window on life
and in the full paroxysm I am sleeping.
To the full light I go on through the shadow.

Everybody Says Don't
by Stephen Sondheim


Everybody says don't
Everybody says don't
Everybody says don't it isn't right
Don't it isn't nice

Everybody says don't
Everybody says don't
Everybody says don't walk on the grass
Don't disturb the peace
Don't skate on the ice

Well I say Do. I say,
Walk on the grass it was meant to feel
I say sail
tilt at the windmill
And if you fail you fail!

Everybody says don't
Everybody says don't
Everybody says don't get out of line
When they say that, then, lady that's a sign
Nine times out of ten
Lady you are doing just fine.

Make just a ripple come on be brave
This time a ripple next time a wave
Sometimes you have to start small,
Climbing the tiniest wall
Maybe you're going to fall
But it is better than not starting at all.

Everybody says No. Stop.
Musn't rock the boat
Musn't touch a thing

Everybody says don't
Everybody says wait
Everybody says can't fight city-hall
Can't upset the court
Can't laugh at the king!

Well I say try. I say,
Laugh at the King or he'll make you cry
Lose your poise
Fall if you have to, but lady, make a noise... Yes!

Everybody says don't
Everybody says can't
Everybody says wait around for miracles
That's the way the world is made
I insist on miracles, if you do then,
Miracles might come true,

Then I say don't... Don't be afraid!

"We cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are."
Max Depree

"If you understand, things are just as they are; if you do not understand, things are just as they are." -- Zen proverb

"If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, 'thank you,' that would suffice." -- Meister Eckhart

"If you bring forth what is within you, it will heal you. And if you do not bring forth what is within you, it will destroy you." (from the Gospel of St. Thomas)

"Go to your bosom: Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know." -- William Shakespeare

"We do not see things as they are; we see things as we are." -- Talmud

Our Deepest Fear
by Marianne Williamson

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

A Return To Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles,
Harper Collins, 1992. From Chapter 7, Section 3 (Pg. 190-191).

Thich Nhat Hanh

When we look at a chair,
we see the wood,
but we fail to observe the tree,
the forest, the carpenter, or our own mind.

When we meditate on it,
we can see the entire universe
in all its interwoven and interdependent relations in the chair.

The presence of the wood reveals the presence of the tree.
The presence of the leaf reveals the presence of the sun.
The presence of the apple blossoms reveals the presence of the apple.

Meditators can see the one in the many
and the many in the one.

The chair is not separate.
It exists only in its interdependent relations
with everything in the universe.

It is because all other things are.

(The Sun My Heart)

[As once the winged energy of delight]
by Rainer Maria Rilke

As once the winged energy of delight
carried you over childhood's dark abysses,
now beyond your own life build the great
arch of unimagined bridges.

Wonders happen if we can succeed
in passing through the harshest danger;
but only in a bright and purely granted
achievement can we realize the wonder.

To work with Things in the indescribable
relationship is not too hard for us;
the pattern grows more intricate and subtle,
and being swept along is not enough.

Take your practiced powers and stretch them out
until they span the chasm between two
contradictions...For the god
wants to know himself in you.

(Translated by Stephen Mitchell)