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….
“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 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…
I go down to the shore in the morningand depending on the hour the wavesare rolling in or moving out,and I say, oh, I am miserable,what shall—what should I do? And the sea saysin its lovely voice:Excuse me, I have work to do. — Mary Oliver The ocean is indifferent to our schemes and stumbles….
“He was weary of himself, of cold ideas and brain dreams. Life a poem? Not when you went about forever poetizing about your own life instead of living it. How innocuous it all was, and empty, empty, empty! This chasing after yourself, craftily observing your own tracks—in a circle, of course. This sham diving into…
And consider, always, every day, the determinationof the grass to grow despite the unending obstacles.— Mary Oliver, Evidence We are change agents, creating new iterations of ourselves with every action. But so is everyone and everything else, which makes change exponential and complicated. There are some things we simply can’t control. One moment we’re celebrating…
The warrior and the artist live by the same code of necessity, which dictates that the battle must be fought anew every day. — Steven Pressfield, The War of Art Very long days lend themselves to the notion of skipping things we promise ourselves we’ll do. Things like writing, for instance. But sometimes we must…
And we died of the future, of calling and mission only we could keep, leaping into every favorite season; sinking into roots, dreams, and books. — Li-Young Lee, First World “I am losing precious days. I am degenerating into a machine for making money. I am learning nothing in this trivial world of men. I…
Who hasn’t thought, “Take me with you,” hearing the wind go by? And finding himself left behind, resumed his own true version of time on earth, a seed fallen here to die and be born a thing promised — Li-Young Lee, To Life We feel the urgency to live, feel it deeply within. We see…