This time we’ll take a step back and let some of the other voices carry more weight. These lines describe it better than I can express right now.
Instead of adding to the noise, I share poems and writings about patience and gratitude.
“On the day the world ends
Bees surround the clover,
A fisherman is repairing a glowing net.
A happy porpoise dives into the sea…
“…Only old men with white hair become prophets.”
But he is not a prophet, because he is too busy.
Repeat while tying the tomatoes.
There is no other end of the world. ”
— Czesław Miłosz, end of the world song (Warsaw, 1944)
“If a person’s only relationship with God was through gratitude, that would be enough.”
— Meister Eckhart, from Sermon 27 Selected works.
“My formula for human greatness is: Amor Fati: That people don’t want anything different, they don’t want to move forward, they don’t want to go backwards, they don’t want things to last forever. Don’t just tolerate what you need, much less hide it, love it. ”
— Friedrich Nietzsche, Ecchi/homo (§10)
“We must embrace our joy in the merciless furnace of this world.
Making injustice the only measure of our attention
That is glorifying the devil. ”
— Jack Gilbert Preparatory documents for the defense
“listen
As the night goes on we say thank you
We stop on the bridge and bow from the parapet.
Glass rooms are disappearing
Stuff your mouth with food and look at the sky
and say thank you
we stand by the water and are grateful
standing by the window and looking outside
at our direction
I’m back from a series of hospitals, I’m back from a robbery.
After the funeral we say thank you
After news of death
Whether we knew them or not, we said thank you
on the phone we say thank you
In doorways, the back of cars, and inside elevators.
Remembering the war and the police at your doorstep
And even when we got hit on the stairs, we said thank you.
At the bank we say thank you
In the presence of officials and wealthy people
And of all the people who will never change
we will continue to say thank you and thank you
As animals die around us
Accept our feelings and say thank you
Forests collapse faster than minutes
We keep saying “thank you” throughout our lives.
Words come out like brain cells
With the city growing above us
we say thank you faster and faster
We say thank you even when no one is listening.
Saying thank you and waving
It’s dark though.”
— W.S. Merwin, thank you
“No amount of darkness in the world can extinguish the light of a single candle.”
— Attributed to St. Francis of Assisi. See also A hymn to living things.
train dream — Currently streaming. (Too good for the Oscars on March 15th?)
Balanced between darkness and light, this film follows the quiet, graceful life of a stoic lumberjack in early 20th century America, shaped by love, loss, beauty, and violence against immigrants, unfolding without fanfare but with profound consequences.
Words that might have been uttered by protagonist Robert from the last page of George MacDonald’s old classic. lilith (1895).
“Sometimes I feel like I hear whispers around me, as if people who love me are talking about me. But when I distinguish the words, they stop and everything becomes very quiet. I don’t know whether these things come up in my brain or come in from outside. I don’t ask for them. They come and I let them go.”
“I wait. Sleeping and waking, I wait,” says Novalis. “Our life is not a dream, but it should be, and perhaps it will be.”
Please take a look trailer of train dreamor read more about the movie here.
strict pluralism
Let’s get our time back
Approximately 2+2=5
Source: 2 + 2 = 5 – williamgreen.substack.com
