From Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself
“In all people I see myself, none more, and not one a barley corn less,
And the good or bad I say of myself I say of them.”
And to make things clear to me, I looked it up – a “barley corn” is a unit of length equal to about 1/3 of an inch. That is, not much.
Photo taken a few weeks ago in Galveston. Poem is a favorite from David Budbill.
“Purpose” seems presumptive, intimidating, even grandiose. Must every day, every action, every thing have one? Meandering is allowed – perhaps, at times, encouraged.
This stuck with me from a podcast I was listening to yesterday on a run. Photo taken a while back.
“Information is not wisdom.”
Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening
It is easy to confuse the two — information and knowledge. Seems that today the focus is on information, often at the expense of wisdom. Let’s let Webster’s weigh in:
Wisdom – “ability to discern inner qualities and relationships”
Information – “knowledge obtained from investigation, study, or instruction”
Which seems to call for:
Knowledge – “the fact or condition of being aware of something”
I think Webster’s is onto something. Wisdom involves some level of discernment that information and knowledge does not.
Go into each day open to
Purpose:
Its creation,
Its promise,
Its restorative power –
Purpose.
From Welcome Morning by Anne Sexton:
So while I think of it
let me paint a thank you on my palm
for this God, this laughter in the morning,l
lest it go unspoken.
The Joy that isn’t shared, I’ve heard,
dies young.
The whole poem can be found at:
https://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php%3Fdate=2013%252F06%252F22.html
Text from Thomas Lux, Poem in Thanks. A good reminder that prayer need not be complex. I suspect I have used this Galveston photo previously — oh well!
Full text of the poem:
http://inwardboundpoetry.blogspot.com/2006/03/70-poem-in-thanks-thomas-lux.html
“Only in the darkness can you see the stars.” Martin Luther King, Jr.
There is much in me that wants to fight with this, at least quibble with it. But of course it is literally and figuratively correct. But I still don’t care much for the darkness, particularly those “dark nights of the soul.” Yet…
Photo taken on a recent Austin run. Text inspired by an email exchange with a friend.
It occurs to me... 