“Darkness waits apart from any occasion for it;
like sorrow it is always available.
This is only one kind,
the kind in which there are stars
above the leaves, brilliant as steel nails
and countless and without regard.

We are walking together
on dead wet leaves in the intermoon
among the looming nocturnal rocks
which would be pinkish gray
in daylight, gnawed and softened
by moss and ferns, which would be green,
in the musty fresh yeast smell
of trees rotting, earth returning
itself to itself
and I take your hand, which is the shape a hand
would be if you existed truly.
I wish to show you the darkness
you are so afraid of.

Trust me. This darkness
is a place you can enter and be
as safe in as you are anywhere;
you can put one foot in front of the other
and believe the sides of your eyes.
Memorize it. You will know it
again in your own time.
When the appearances of things have left you,
you will still have this darkness.
Something of your own you can carry with you.

We have come to the edge:
the lake gives off its hush;
in the outer night there is a barred owl
calling, like a moth
against the ear, from the far shore
which is invisible.
The lake, vast and dimensionless,
doubles everything, the stars,
the boulders, itself, even the darkness
that you can walk so long in
it becomes light.”

Interlunar by Margaret Atwood, born on this day in 1939

“Orpheus, do you hear
the new sound,
droning and roaring?
Many now exult in it.

Though the Machine
insists on our praise,
who can listen
with all this noise?

See, it rolls over everything,
weakening us
and taking our place.

Since its strength is of our making,
why can’t it serve us
and not possess us?”

Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 – 1926), Sonnets to Orpheus I, 18, quoted in A Year With Rilke by Joanna Macy and Anita Barrows

Image: Cigarette Rolling Machine, invented 1880

International Day for Tolerance

“Love is our true essence. Love has no limitations such as religion, race, nationality, or caste. We are all beads strung together on the same thread of love. To awaken this unity and to spread the love that is our inherent nature to others—this is the true aim of human life. Indeed, love is the only religion that can help humanity rise to great and glorious heights. And love should be the one thread on which all religions and philosophies are strung together. The beauty of society lies in the unity of hearts.”

Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, known as Amma

“There is no use in keeping a ledger
of all that has gone wrong.
The birds do not.
The river does not.
Morning arrives, as it always does
unafraid of beginning.
You, too, may begin again.
Forget the failed attempts,
the words you should not have said,
the long ache of waiting
for something that never came.
There is no refund
for time spent in sorrow,
but there is a meadow ahead
and you may still walk through it.
You have breath.
You have bones that bend.
You have the old trees,
and they do not remember
your mistakes.
So what if you failed.
So what if fear still knocks.
Answer the door.
Let it come in and sit beside you
but do not hand it your days.
Instead, spend them
on the sweet blush of an apple,
on the way the swan glides
overhead with wings
that make music of the sky.
On the shape your cat makes
as she sits in the sunlit window.
Spend them on kindness.
On praise.
On laughter you did not expect.
Let your life be the poem
you did not plan to write,
but wrote anyway
in the soft ink of now.
And if you must,
fail with love.
Fall with grace.
Begin again
like the leaf
that doesn’t ask
whether it’s time
it simply lets go
and trusts the ground
to catch it.”

Angi Sullins

“In generosity and helping others, be like the river.
In compassion and grace, be like the sun.
In concealing others’ faults, be like the night.
In anger and fury, be like the dead.
In modesty and humility, be like the earth.
In tolerance, be like the ocean.
Appear as you are, or be as you appear.”

The Seven Advices of Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī (1207 – 1273)

“We pray for wisdom not to be embittered by loss, not to be made hopeless by frustration, nor withdrawn and lonely in our sorrow, but to be more out-going, more heedful, more active and loving through all our days. May our lives be enriched by the fleeting joys, the momentary glimpses of beauty, the things of the moment and of the hour which we may treasure, and weave into a richer tapestry of memories and meanings.”

Jacob Trapp (1899 – 1992), Unitarian minister, quoted in Fragments of Holiness for Daily Reflection

“Caring about the environment isn’t an obligation; it’s a matter of personal and collective happiness and survival. We will survive and thrive together with Mother Earth, or we will not survive at all.”

From Peace Is This Moment: Mindful Reflections for Daily Practice by Thich Nhat Hanh

Image: Madre Tierra (made of corn husks) by Mariana Ayala Bautista of Oaxaca

WWI Armistice Day

“Within the last five generations, there has probably not been a family living that did not have some remembrance of war and conflict, some dead to mourn as a result of warfare. This day, November 11, has commemorated dead warriors, throughout the Western world, since the armistice of the First World War.

Those who serve in the defence of their families and countries – like the Gaulish soldier St. Martin of Tours, who tore his fine cloak in two to clothe the needy – tear the cloak of their lives in two, severing themselves from accustomed comfort and habitual kindness to enter a zone or pain and confrontation.

In our own age, where much of the warfare is against ignorance, heartlessness, and environmental devastation, new kinds of warriors learn the art of sacrifice with a different set of weapons. They seek to tear their lives in two to make a greater mantle in the defence of their poor, the innocent, the needy.

We no longer glorify war as our ancestors did; the loss, grief, and bewilderment of families for their fallen have been too great in this [20th] century for such assuaging. We count the cost and bless the sacrifice of those who have had the courage to tear the cloak in two, knowing that they did not glory in the pain and bloodshed any more than we ourselves do now.”

From The Celtic Spirit: Daily Meditations for the Turning Year by Caitlin Matthews

Image: Saint Martin cutting his cloak, stained glass, Paris c. 1230

“Grant that I may not pray alone with the mouth; help me that I may pray from the depths of my heart.”

Martin Luther (1483 – 1546), theologian, born on this day

“We all have a thirst for wonder. It’s a deeply human quality. Science and religion are both bound up with it. What I’m saying is, you don’t have to make stories up, you don’t have to exaggerate. There’s wonder and awe enough in the real world. Nature’s a lot better at inventing wonders than we are.”

From Contact by Carl Sagan (1934 – 1996), astronomer, born on this day