to be warm yellow light

I really just want
to be warm yellow light
that pours
over everyone I love.

~Conor Oberst

this good echo

Each smallest act of kindness reverberates
across great distances and spans of time –
affecting lives unknown to the one whose generous spirit
was the source of this good echo.

~Dean Koontz

Rejoice in the things that are present

Rejoice in the things that are present;
all else is beyond thee.

~Michel de Montaigne, (1533 – 1592)

The Rose

The Rose is without why
She blooms because she blooms
She does not care for herself,
Asks not if she is seen.

~Meister Eckhart, (1260 – 1328)

what you see

The question is not
what you look at,
but what you see.

~Henry David Thoreau

what lies clearly at hand

Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance,
but. . .what lies clearly at hand.

~Thomas Carlyle, (1795 – 1881), Scottish philosopher

this other silence

Perhaps the most important thing we bring to another person is the silence in us,
not the sort of silence that is filled with unspoken criticism or hard withdrawal.
The sort of silence that is a place of refuge, of rest, of acceptance of someone as they are.
We are all hungry for this other silence. It is hard to find.
In its presence we can remember something beyond the moment,
a strength on which to build . . .
Silence is a place of great power and healing.

~Rachel Naomi Remen, MD