posted July 06, 2007 10:05 AM         

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if one can hold onto that deep spiritual love that hope can encompass, through good times and through bad, then that seed can grow and extend out into the world.

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posted July 06, 2007 11:43 AM         

Hope springs eternal in the human breast;
Man never Is, but always To be blest:
The soul, uneasy and confin'd from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come.

~ Alexander Pope

But, even greater than hope, and requiring more innocence and open-mindedness still, is the will to find the ray of light that shines in this day, and the depth of spiritual understanding which informs and encourages such a will.

Hope reminds us that the cloud will pass from between ourselves and the Sun.

But Understanding reminds us that the Sun still shines, even in this moment,
though the cloud hides it from our physical view.

"Listen to the Exhortation of the Dawn!
Look to this Day!
For it is Life, the very Life of Life.
In its brief course lie all the
Verities and Realities of your Existence.
The Bliss of Growth,
The Glory of Action,
The Splendor of Beauty;
For Yesterday is but a Dream,
And To-morrow is only a Vision;
But To-day well lived makes
Every Yesterday a Dream of Happiness,
And every Tomorrow a Vision of Hope.
Look well therefore to this Day!
Such is the Salutation of the Dawn!"

~ Kalidasa

There is an activity performed by the Imagination, which conceives a vision of future suns, and illuminates the present by the image of that distant light.
This is beautiful.

But there is another, higher activity of the Imagination, which conceives a vision of the sun as it shines, even now.
This is sublime.

It shines plainly on others, if not plainly on ourselves,
but it shines on ourselves in the form of a shadow,
which shades us in ways surpassing and expanding our present understanding.

Finding the "light" in the shadow is the work of the true optimist. He does not look to the future, but looks to find the blessing concealed in the present sorrow. And all the suns he sees in the future, he knows, shine brighter only on account of this present darkness. The greatest innocence looks for this. The greatest experience sees the truth of it plainly.

Do not discount the treasures of darkness.

"Some amount of suffering is always necessary.
A ship without ballast cannot go straight."
- Arthur Schopenhauer

"The sage awakes to light in the night of all creatures.
That which the world calls day is the night of ignorance to the wise."
- The Bhagavad Gita

"Strength is born in the deep silence of long-suffering hearts; not amid joy."
- Felicia D. Hemens

"Great men have always been of a nature originally melancholy."
- Aristotle

"Affliction is a treasure, and scarce any man hath enough of it."
- John Donne

"Every angel is terrifying." - Rainer Maria Rilke

posted July 06, 2007 04:56 PM         

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Do not discount the treasures of darkness.

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I like the pictures too

In between speech, in between thought, in between breath, in between lives, lives god. God is the canvas of the universe, what we are, see, and do, is the paint.

posted July 06, 2007 05:32 PM         

quote:

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In between speech, in between thought, in between breath, in between lives, lives god. God is the canvas of the universe, what we are, see, and do, is the paint.

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quote:

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the ageless melody, unheard, heals......the healing vision, unseen leads......the true leaders, unknown rescue....the rescuers, immortal, know....

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posted July 07, 2007 01:14 PM         

Hope is the heartbeat of the world.
The world could not exist nor endure without it.
Hope and Innocence,
how gently they intertwine
in the depths of our souls
(like you wrote).

And also like you wrote,
innocence, like hope
has a sadness about it
for the presence of both
in one's heart and their giving
surely means also the presence
and receiving of harsh disillusionments.

Like a child,
we are taken unawares
in swelling, tear-restrained
confusion.

Til we are ever cradled
and restored in a silent
sojourn.
A process so real, profound
and tangible to our finer senses,
yet the process unexpressably so.

Renewal, ever-innocence
is the most awing, amazing
wonderment.
I am continually awed,
taken by its fortitude
and strength.
Something so delicate and tenderly reaching,
so unbelieveably, against all odds
and battle scars, enduring.

Forgive them, Sun
Not all come to tan
Some consecrate sanctity
with never a sound

Gaze out of dusty windows
Your rise and fall,
fall and rise,
And wonder in awe
how a sigh
preludes such intensity
again and again
oh again!

thank you, Blue.