"Occasionally, it's true, I'll meet someone--call him myself--who makes the same mistake again and again, heedless of what friends and sense tell him, unable even to listen to himself. Then he crashes his car, or suffers a heart attack, and suddenly calamity works on him like an alarm clock; by packing a punch that no gentler means can summon, suffering breaks him open and moves him to change his ways." by Pico Iyer from "The Value of Suffering," which appeared in The New … [Read more...]
Slice of solace: Deerstruck
Deerstruck Lately I’ve been seeking out deer going to the forest preserves at dusk, driving slowly down Lagoon Drive, always on the lookout Do deer have any other expression besides startled? Does a deer, like a dog, smile with its tail? Joyful flicker, bunny-hop, pom-pom trick. It cavorts away. No wonder it’s called a hind Which animals are most Buddhist? Is the deer serene in manic alertness or is it a sloth who … [Read more...]
Slice of Solace: Thomas G. Fiffer
“At signal points in our lives we find we must cross rivers where bridges do not exist yet, where the shortest, safest crossing point is anything but obvious, where our course is uncharted, where the nature of the other side is unknown, and where we know there is no going back.” Thomas G. Fiffer from “Rubicons” … [Read more...]
Slice of Solace: Samuel Beckett
"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better." Samuel Beckett in Worstward Ho Last night before turning in, I checked my Facebook page to find that writer Okla Elliot posted this quote. I immediately wanted to post it here. I know I need a reminder to keep trying. Maybe you do too. … [Read more...]
Dennis O’Driscoll
"It is tomorrow I want to look back on, not today. Tomorrow I start to be happy; today is almost yesterday." from 'Tomorrow" by Dennis O'Driscoll, ©Dennis O’Driscoll, "Tomorrow" from New and Selected Poems (Anvil Press Poetry, Ltd.) and published in Poetry (July 1999). To read the complete poem, check the Poetry Foundation website. … [Read more...]