“I hadn’t done drugs since sniffing Lady Esquire shoe polish when I was fifteen. I didn’t need to. I felt the pinch of wonder. I felt everything sharply, the people we met, the sensation of being in a body, of eating and drinking. I knew there was darkness in the world, but I was sure…
Most people search allof their livesfor someplace to belong toas you saidbut I look insteadinto the eyes of anyonewho talks to me— June Jordan, Poem For a Young Poet We know how this works when we’ve lived awhile. People come and go from our lives, some never to return, and we move on without them….
“I write because I want more than one life; I insist on a wider selection. It’s greed, plain and simple. When my characters join the circus, I’m joining the circus. Although I’m happily married, I spent a great deal of time mentally living with incompatible husbands.” — Anne Tyler “I read so I can live…
“Be a good steward of your gifts. Protect your time. Feed your inner life. Avoid too much noise. Read good books, have good sentences in your ears. Be by yourself as often as you can. Walk. Take the phone off the hook. Work regular hours.” — Jane Kenyon Last year my bride and I took…
And in the shadow of our human dream of falling, human voices are Creation’s most recent flowers, mere buds of fire nodding on their stalks.— Li-Young Lee, Dying Stupid Working through the gardening shed, I found a terra cotta pot sporting hints of old root filaments, betraying its previous occupant from last season. Each life…
“The fact of the matter is that aiming discipline at the right habit gives you license to be less disciplined in other areas. When you do the right thing, it can liberate you from having to monitor everything.” — Gary Keller, The One Thing Doing the right thing begins with knowing what the right thing…
Sleep baby sleepNow that the night is overAnd the sun comes like a godInto our roomAll perfect light and promises— INXS, New Sensation The days of May grow longer and full of daylight, which means that the early morning hours are brighter and full of their own promise. These are the days when I wake…
“We are kept from our goal, not by obstacles but by a clear path to a lesser goal.” — Robert Brault I have a work friend who works at a frenetic pace. He’s constantly charging from one thing to the next, in a hyper-reactive state trying to do more than one ought to aspire to…
“When conditions are such that life offers no earthly hope, somewhere, somehow, men must find a refuge.” — Edith Hamilton, The Greek Way Everybody wants to go to heavenGet their wings and fly aroundEverybody want to go to heavenBut nobody want to go now— Jim Collins / Marty Dodson, Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven…
The longer I live, the moredeeply I learn that love — whether we call itfriendship or family orromance — is the work of mirroring and magnifyingeach other’s light.— James Baldwin We’re in the business of amplification, you and I. Our life’s work is accretive in nature. The longer we’re actively engaged in this world, the…