‘Uluwatu Temple V’
“Whoever cannot find a temple in his heart, the same cannot find his heart in any temple”
– Mikhail Naimy
Uluwatu Temple V
Tag: Quote
Fountain
‘Fountain’
“Look within. Within is the fountain of good and it will ever bubble up, if you will ever dig”
– Marcus Aurelius
A Castle By The Sea IV
‘A Castle By The Sea IV’
The great Welsh travel writer Jan Morris wrote of the sadness of the castle’s history in her book, ‘Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere’.
She stated : “It stands on its promontory weeping, and to my eyes even in the sunshine its walls are never sparkling. A pleasant park surrounds it, and its rooms are full of treasures, but nobody who goes there can fail to sense its numen of regret.”
Blue Door At No.4
‘Blue Door At No.4’
“If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.” – Milton Berle
Narrow And Crooked
‘Narrow And Crooked’
“Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk in love and reverence.”- Henry David Thoreau
The Dead Don’t Dream
‘The Dead Don’t Dream’
This post is inspired by the title of the latest album by Finnish jazz trumpeter Verneri Pohjola,‘The Dead Don’t Dream’.
I have come across Pohjola’s amazing modern music quite recently and have been mightily impressed by what I have heard.
The musician was talking about the making of the album (dreaming it into existence as he termed it) and remarked that “it’s about embracing life in all of its complex emotions, while we still have it … after all, the dead don’t dream”.
He nailed it for me with that statement.
To live is to truly engage, and to dream. You may as well be dead otherwise.
You can listen to the tune behind the thoughts below (via YouTube):
Knots
‘Knots’
“Seek the wisdom that will untie your knot”
–Rumi
Finish Each Day
“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
The Other Side Of Fear
‘The Other Side Of Fear’
“Ultimately we know deeply that the other side of every fear is a freedom” – Marilyn Ferguson
Innocent And Shy
‘Innocent And Shy’
“I am convinced that most people do not grow up …our real selves, the children inside, are still innocent and shy as magnolias.” – Maya Angelou
Onion Dome Views
‘Onion Dome Views’
Two views of the onion dome atop the band rotunda in Auckland Domain.
You may as well have an onion quote too:
” Life is like an onion. You peel it off one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep.”
– Carl Sandberg
Embarking
‘Embarking’
“Be bold. When you embark for strange places, don’t leave any of yourself safely on shore. Have the nerve to journey into unexplored territory”.
– Alan Alda
Walk The Path
‘Walk The Path’
“No one saves us but ourselves.
No one can and no one may.
We ourselves must walk the path.”
– Buddha
Slake The Thirst
‘Slake The Thirst’
“The World thirsts for love; you will come and slake its thirst” – Arthur Rimbaud
Shrouded Mountains
‘Shrouded Mountains’
“I enter the world called real as one enters a mist” – Julien Green
You would think, wouldn’t you, that getting to reality, or even a sense of the real, would be easy or obvious.
We can tell an object is real because we can see or touch it.
Not so matters of life and the soul.
There is often the pain of the upwards mountainous trudge and the sheer f**king foggy uncertainty of it all.
Not immediately knowing what is true, and not getting to any semblance of the truth any time soon.
It is only step by faltering step, day by grinding day, that we find our shrouded reality.
Healing
‘Healing’
” Healing doesn’t have to look magical or pretty. Real healing is hard, exhausting and draining. Let yourself go through it. Don’t try to paint it as anything other than what it is. Be there for yourself with no judgment.” – Audrey Kitching
Now To Spread Yer Wings
‘Now To Spread Yer Wings’ April 2020
If, right now, you more time than usual to contemplate your lockdown self, consider this:
“You were born with potential. You were born with goodness and trust. You were born with ideals and dreams. You were born with greatness. You were born with wings. You are not meant for crawling. So don’t. You have wings. Learn to use them and fly”.
– Rumi
(and try not to shit on others from great heights when you get there)
.
Angst
‘Angst’
” If you ask me what the most grotesque thing about alcoholism was I’d have said, indeed I did so over and over to anyone who asked – and plenty who didn’t – it wasn’t the physical stuff, it wasn’t the humiliating death stuff… it was the sadness. I called it my angst. A suitable august, Germanic word for a basement depression that was fathomless and occasionally erupted in gasping panic. And even when locked away it would seep out and sour every other emotion, like bitters in milk. Alcoholic despair is a thing apart, created by the drink that is a depressant, but also the architect of all the pratfall calamities that fuel it. Alcohol is the only medication the drunk knows and trusts, a perfectly hopeless circle of angst, and it is powered by a self-loathing that is obsessively stoked and fed. And it’s that – the personally awarded, vainly accepted disgust – that makes it so hard to sympathise with drunks. Nothing you can say or do comes close to the wreaths of guilt we lay at our own cenotaph.”
– A.A .Gill, from “Pour Me: A Life.” (highlights mine, as were the lowlights…)
The Truth And The Facts
“The truth and the facts aren’t necessarily the same thing. Telling the truth is the object of all art; facts are what the unimaginative have instead of ideas.”
– A.A Gill
Doors Closed, Eyes Open
“When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us”
– Alexander Graham Bell
The first part of this quote is almost a cliché.
It is, fortunately for us, very often true.
The second part is a wisdom to bear in mind though.
I can personally attest to lingering at closed doors ,thus missing out on openings, but I have learnt over time to quickly look elsewhere when something just isn’t to be .
The photo is of some of the most impressive doors in my bag of pictures, just to remind myself that a beautiful closed door is still just a closed door…
ebb then flood 