At Home on Maui…
A friend of [Charles] Lindbergh’s had introduced him to the island of Maui. Lindbergh thought it was one of the most beautiful places he had ever seen. “There is nothing quite comparable when you think of waterfalls, natural swimming pools, and the ocean beyond,” he said. This friend later offered to sell him several acres of forest, cliffs and seashore, all quite remote and inaccessible — and Lindbergh accepted at once. Charles and his wife Anne Morrow built a simple home — a place where they could get back to the fundamentals of living and the closeness to nature and wildness. In the beginning they spent about six to eight weeks a year in their Maui home. As time went on they visited more often and for longer periods of time. According to Leonard Mosely it was both a haven and nest, and they had never felt safer or closer to each other than when they were there together.
20 May 2013
all that matters / DH Lawrence
10 May 2013
Hi world, I have a short story out today on a neat new site called The Telling… It’s original art and writing and listening, chosen and edited by good people. They also pay their artists! $5 dollars a month gets you unlimited reading of great work. Please support and pass on…
Here’s the link: http://www.tellingreads.com/
8 March 2013
We pray today, O God, for our friends, the animals, especially for animals who are suffering; for animals that are over-worked, under-fed, and cruelly treated; for all wistful creatures in captivity that beat their wings against bars; for any that are lost or deserted or hungry; for all that must be put to death. We pray for them all; and for those who deal with them, we hope for a heart of compassion, gentle hands, and kindly words. We would be true friends to animals.
-Albert Schweitzer
8 January 2013
Love is real, real is love
Luke 2:35
“And a sword will pierce through your own soul also, so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”
13 December 2012
Not only do I believe less is more, but to me, less actually FEELS like more. The smaller my living space, the greater freedom I feel beyond it, the less I think of money, the less I feel I need it (beyond the basics; poverty isn’t romantic). Last year I was earning more money than I am now, and yet I was more stressed about money.
It’s pretty liberating to realize that you don’t actually like money. I know I need it to an extent, but I don’t like it. I’m happiest far, far away from money. It makes no impression on me. Being surrounded by people who flaunt their money, and build their ambitions upon the desire for it, make me feel impoverished inside. Even people who aren’t rich, but drive their decisions purely by financial worries make me feel strangled. I know these are things we all have to think about. They can’t be ignored. But why soak in it, why roll around in it and cover yourself with it? Worrying about it is a form of worshiping it.
D.H. Lawrence called money the great bitch-goddess. That’s the thing, you lament this money-obsessed reality, you wish things were different, but it’s also naive to despise it. You won’t get anywhere that way.
Really, I know nothing. Many of my dreams require money. But only the ideal versions of those dreams. And even then, it’s not luxury I’m after. There’s nothing worse than luxury. The money is needed for ownership… land is what requires money. What gets me is that birdsong and sky are free, and yet they’re not free. Here’s the distinction: Birdsong out the window first thing in the morning is the premium. But if we’re willing to get up and go outside and find it, then we can hear it for free. A small sacrifice, and I guess in the end, not a sacrifice at all, because we get to be the kind of humans who pursue birdsong in the morning instead of money. And then we really get to listen to the song.
12 December 2012
The Incredulity of Thomas, by Carravaggio
“According to St John’s Gospel, Thomas the Apostle missed one of Jesus’s appearances to the Apostles after His resurrection, and said ‘Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.’ A week later Jesus appeared and told Thomas to touch Him and stop doubting. Then Jesus said, ‘Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’”
7 December 2012
As long as there are clouds in the sky you’ll get by. Feeling full of heart. (Taken with Instagram)
13 July 2012
Only recently it was fashionable to dismiss Whitman as foolish and dated, a believer in the myth of progress and the preacher of an absurd patriotism. Today we know that it is Whitman’s vision or nothing.
“Mankind, the spirit of the Earth, the paradoxical conciliation of the element with the whole and of unity with multitude- all these are called utopian, and yet they are biologically necessary. For them to be incarnated in the world all we may need is to imagine our power of loving developing until it embraces the total of man and of the earth.” So said Teilhard de Chardin. Or, as Whitman says in the great mystical poems which are the climax of his book, contemplation is the highest form and the ultimate source of all moral activity because it views all things in their timeless aspect, through the eyes of love.”
-Kenneth Rexroth
5 July 2012
Jefferson’s Bible. Thomas J spent his retirement cutting the fat from the Bible and compiling only the words of Jesus into a single volume in order to distill Jesus’ teachings and humble/beautiful values into his actual words. Jefferson said it like searching for diamonds in a dunghill. (Taken with Instagram)
26 June 2012
Millay/ Six months till Christmas (Taken with Instagram)
25 June 2012
