“In love, nothing exists between heart and heart.
Speech is born out of longing,
True description from the real taste.
The one who tastes, knows;
the one who explains, lies.
How can you describe the true form of Something
In whose presence you are blotted out?
And in whose being you still exist?
And who lives as a sign for your journey?”
Rabia al-Basri (717 – 801), female Sufi poet-saint
Art by Johno Prascak

The Moment by Margaret Atwood,

“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.”

From The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate – Discoveries from a Secret World by Peter Wohlleben,

“When you know that trees experience pain and have memories and that tree parents live together with their children, then you can no longer just chop them down and disrupt their lives with larger machines…
We have learned that mother trees recognize and talk with their kin, shaping future generations. In addition, injured trees pass their legacies on to their neighbours, affecting gene regulation, defence chemistry, and resilience in the forest community…
It appears that nutrient exchange and helping neighbours in times of need is the rule, and this leads to the conclusion that forests are superorganisms with interconnections much like ant colonies…
The trees in a forest care for each other, sometimes even going so far as to nourish the stump of a felled tree for centuries after it was cut down by feeding it sugars and other nutrients, and so keeping it alive. Only some stumps are thus nourished. Perhaps they are the parents of the trees that make up the forest of today.”

Tradition ascribes this day in the year 610 CE as the date on which the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) began to receive the revelation later transcribed as the Qur’an, which begins,
“In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful.
Praise be to Allah, the Cherisher and Sustainer of all the worlds,
The Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful,
Master of the day of Requital,
You do we serve and You do we ask for help.
Guide us on the right path,
The path of those upon whom You have bestowed grace,
those who incur no wrath, and who go not astray.”

Thought for the day will be taking a break now and will be back on 1st September.

“The sanest man sets up no deed, lays down no law,
Takes everything that happens as it comes,
As something to animate, not to appropriate,
To earn, not to own,
To accept naturally without self-importance:
If you never assume importance,
You never lose it.”
Lao Tzu (BCE 604 – 531), Chinese philosopher and author of the Tao Te Ching, quoted in Fragments of Holiness for Daily Reflection

“If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happens better than all the riches or power in the world. It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is not made to be a crumb.”
Mary Oliver

“A sharp mind will find a truth for itself.
A humble spirit will find a truth higher than itself.
Truth is not the property of intellectuals, but of those who know how to escape their own selves.”
Rabbi Tzvi Freeman

Today is the anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945.
‘Hiroshima Child’ by Nazim Hikmet
“I come and stand at every door
But none can hear my silent tread
I knock and yet remain unseen
For I am dead for I am dead
I’m only seven though I died
In Hiroshima long ago
I’m seven now as I was then
When children die they do not grow
My hair was scorched by swirling flame
My eyes grew dim my eyes grew blind
Death came and turned my bones to dust
And that was scattered by the wind
I need no fruit I need no rice
I need no sweets nor even bread
I ask for nothing for myself
For I am dead for I am dead
All that I need is that for peace
You fight today you fight today
So that the children of this world
Can live and grow and laugh and play”

“The battles that count aren’t the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself – the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us – that’s where it’s at…
Find the good. It’s all around you. Find it, showcase it and you’ll start believing it.”
Jesse Owens, winner of four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympic games, who won the 200m in the world record time of 20.7 seconds on this day.

“Love is a reciprocal feeling. Just as water will mirror the face that peers into it similarly love is a reflection of hearts. Rhythm is the basis of life, not steady forward progress. The forces of creation, destruction, and preservation have a whirling, dynamic interaction. We must learn not to disassociate the airy flower from the earthy root, for the flower that is cut off from its root fades, and its seeds are barren, whereas the root, secure in mother earth, can produce flower after flower and bring their fruit to maturity.”
The Zohar (Kabbalah), first printed on this day in 1558