Choice

 

There isn’t a right answer.
There just isn’t. The game show
where the bells ring and the points
go up and the confetti falls
because you got the answer
is a lie. The preacher who would assure you
of how to attain salvation
is making it all up. The doctor
who knows just how to fix
what ails you will be sure
of something else tomorrow.
Every choice will
wound someone, heal someone,
build a wall and open a conversation.
Things will always happen
that you can’t foresee.
But you have to choose.
It’s all we have—that little rudder
that we employ in the midst
of all the eddies and rapids,
the current that pulls us
inexorably toward the sea.
The fact that you are swept along
by the river is no excuse.
Watch where you are going.
Lean in toward what you love.
When in doubt, tell the truth.

–Lynn Ungar

[Photo from Grey Glacier in Patagonia]

The Moment

 

The moment when, after many years
of hard work and a long voyage
you stand in the centre of your room,
house, half-acre, square mile, island, country,
knowing at last how you got there,
and say, I own this,

is the same moment when the trees unloose
their soft arms from around you,
the birds take back their language,
the cliffs fissure and collapse,
the air moves back from you like a wave
and you can't breathe.

No, they whisper. You own nothing.
You were a visitor, time after time
climbing the hill, planting the flag, proclaiming.
We never belonged to you.
You never found us.
It was always the other way round.

--Margaret Atwood

Every Little Bit of It

 

Just beyond my sight,
Something that I cannot see,
I've been circling around a thought,
That's been circling round me.

Like the vapor of a song,
That is just out of earshot,
And I thought I knew the question,
But I guess not.

There it is just below the surface of things,
In a flash of blue, and the turning of wings.
Drain the glass, drink it down, every moment
Of this,
Every little bit of it, every little bit.

I swam against the tide,
I tripped on my own pride,
So I'll try again today,
To get out of my own way.

The face was always in the stone,
Said Michelangelo,
We just have to chip and clear,
To see what is already there.

There it is just below the surface of things,
In a flash of blue, and the turning of wings.
Drain the glass, drink it down, every moment
Of this,
Every little bit of it, every little bit.

There it is in the apple of every new notion,
There it is in the scar healed over what was
Broken,
In the branches, in the whispering, in the
Silence and the sighs,
And the curious promise of limited time.

It's true although it's hard,
A shadow glides over the ridge.
And one fast beating heart,
Tries with all its might to live.

We sense but can't describe,
From the corner of our eye
Something nameless and abiding,
And so we keep transcribing.

There it is just below the surface of things,
In a flash of blue, and the turning of wings.
Drain the glass, drink it down, every moment
Of this,
Every little bit of it, every little bit.
Every little bit of it.

--Carrie Newcomer

Quotes by Desmond Tutu

 

(October 7,1931 – December 26, 2021)

"Language is very powerful. Language does not just describe reality. Language creates the reality it describes."

"If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse, and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality."

"I am not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of rights."

"When we see others as the enemy, we risk becoming what we hate. When we oppress others, we end up oppressing ourselves. All of our humanity is dependent upon recognizing the humanity in others."

"Enemies are always friends waiting to be made."

“Do your little bit of good where you are; it's those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.”

"People are not born hating each other and wishing to cause harm. It is a learned condition."

"Differences are not intended to separate, to alienate. We are different precisely in order to realize our need of one another."

“My father always used to say, "Don't raise your voice. Improve your argument." Good sense does not always lie with the loudest shouters, nor can we say that a large, unruly crowd is always the best arbiter of what is right.”

"A person is a person through other persons; you can't be human in isolation; you are human only in relationships."

“We were made to enjoy music, to enjoy beautiful sunsets, to enjoy looking at the billows of the sea and to be thrilled with a rose that is bedecked with dew… Human beings are actually created for the transcendent, for the sublime, for the beautiful, for the truthful... and all of us are given the task of trying to make this world a little more hospitable to these beautiful things.”

"Life is more than breath and a heartbeat; meaning and purpose are the life of life."

“Forgiving is not forgetting; it's actually remembering--remembering and not using your right to hit back. It's a second chance for a new beginning. And the remembering part is particularly important. Especially if you don't want to repeat what happened.”

The Shortest Day

 

So the shortest day came, and the year died,

And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world

Came people singing, dancing,

To drive the dark away.

They lighted candles in the winter trees;

They hung their homes with evergreen;

They burned beseeching fires all night long

To keep the year alive,

And when the new year’s sunshine blazed awake

They shouted, reveling.

Through all the frosty ages you can hear them

Echoing behind us—Listen!!

All the long echoes sing the same delight,

This shortest day,

As promise wakens in the sleeping land:

They carol, feast, give thanks,

And dearly love their friends,

And hope for peace.

And so do we, here, now,

This year and every year.

Welcome Yule!

--Susan Cooper

One Day

 
One day I will
say
the gift I once had
has been taken.

The place I have
made for myself
belongs to another,

and the words
I have sung
are being sung 
by the ones
I would want.

Then I will be ready
for that voice
and the still silence
in which it arrives.

And if my faith is good
then we'll meet again
on the road
and we'll be thirsty
and stop
and laugh 
and drink
together again

from the deep well
of things as they are.

--David Whyte

[Photo in remembrance of my stepdad, Robert Weigle, who died 12-21-19].

Do Not Be Daunted

 

Do not be daunted

by the enormity

of the world's grief.

Do justly, now.

Love mercy, now.

Walk humbly, now.

You are not obligated

to complete the work,

but neither are you free

to abandon it.

                                     - -The Talmud