Meanwhile…
| Imagine a country whose citizens—maybe even its leaders—are brave, calm, and open towards each other; a country whose people realize that all human beings belong together as one family and must act accordingly; a country guided by Common Sense. |
| BR. DAVID STEINDL-RAST |
words
are birds
that arrive
with books
and spring
they
love
clouds
the wind
and trees
some words
are messengers
that come
from far away
from distant lands
for them
there are
no borders
only stars
moon and sun
some words
are familiar
like canaries
others are exotic
like the quetzal bird
some can stand
the cold
others migrate
with the sun
to the south
some words
die
caged—
they’re difficult
to translate
and others
build nests
have chicks
warm them
feed them
teach them
how to fly
and one day
they go away
in flocks
the letters
on this page
are the prints
they leave
by the sea
Francisco X. Alarcon, “Words are Birds” from Laughing Tomatoes and Other Spring Poems. Copyright © 1997 by Francisco X. Alarcon.
| For many years, at great cost, I traveled through many countries, saw the high mountains, the oceans. The only things I did not see were the sparkling dewdrops in the grass just outside my door. |
| RABINDRANATH TAGORE |
Compassion is an action word with no boundaries. ~PRINCE
| The true miracle lies in our eagerness to allow, appreciate, and honor the uniqueness and freedom of each sentient being to sing the song of their heart. |
| AMIT RAY |
“Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at
the end of the day whispering, ‘I will try again tomorrow.” – Mary Anne Radmacher
“There is no small act of kindness. Every compassionate act makes large the world.” —Mary Anne Radmacher
“Maybe, maybe not. One thing you learn when you’ve lived as long as I have—people aren’t all good, and people aren’t all bad. We move in and out of darkness and light all of our lives. Right now, I’m pleased to be in the light.” ~ Unwind, Neal Shusterman
Sometimes, carrying on, just carrying on, is the superhuman achievement.
~ Albert Camus
Photo by Fred Moore | Convict Lake, Mono County, California
If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform a million realities.
~ Maya Angelou
Photo by Beverly Zuerlein, Moon and Back Photography | Bull moose at Warm Springs, near Antelope Flats, Wyoming
Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit.
~ E.E. Cummings
Photo by Pam Sutton | Great blue heron in Scottsdale, Arizona
Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair, but manifestations of strength and resolution.
~ Kahlil Gibran
You’ve discovered a wellspring, simply allow it to flow and it will fill your world. Don’t try to keep a safe distance so as to see what happens. Don’t wait to be certain before you take a step. What you give, you will receive, although it might sometimes come from the place you least expect.
~ Paulo Coelho
Photo by Andrew Renkert | Kenai, Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska
An intense copper calm, like a universal yellow lotus, was more and more unfolding its noiseless measureless leaves upon the sea.
~ Herman Melville
Photo by Darrell Robinson | Kihei, Maui, Hawaii
Come out into the world about you, be it either wide or limited. Sympathize, not in thought only, but in action, with all about you. Make yourself known and felt for something that would be loved and missed, in twenty thousand little ways, if you were to die; then your life will be a happy one, believe me.
~ Charles Dickens
Photo by Darrell Robinson | A view of Mt. Shasta reflected in Lake Siskiyou, Mt. Shasta, California
Give light, and the darkness will disappear of itself.
~ Desiderius Erasmus
Photo by Andrew Mills, www.a-mills.com | North of Vesturhorn, Iceland
Forests, lakes, and rivers, clouds and winds, stars and flowers, stupendous glaciers and crystal snowflakes – every form of animate or inanimate existence, leaves its impress upon the soul of man.
~ Orison Swett Marden
Photo by Jim Maloney | The Metolius River, a tributary of the Deschutes River in Central Oregon
Only in the darkness can you see the stars.
~ Martin Luther King Jr.
Photo by John Behrends | Along the Oregon coast at Shore Acres State Park, Oregon
Listen to the trees as they sway in the wind.
Their leaves are telling secrets. Their bark sings songs of olden days as it grows around the trunks. And their roots give names to all things.
Their language has been lost.
But not the gestures.
~ Vera Nazarian
Photo by Tom Elliott | Sauk County, Wisconsin
Wander into the center of the circle of wonder.
~ Hongzhi Zhengjue
Photo by Alice Cahill | Sequoia National Park, California
You do not travel if you are afraid of the unknown, you travel for the unknown, that reveals you with yourself.
~ Ella Maillart
Photo by Mark Stevens | Mica View Trail, Saguaro National Park, Tucson, Arizona
While with an eye made quiet by the power
Of harmony, and the deep power of joy,
We see into the life of things.
~ William Wordsworth
Photo by Tony Varela | Prairie Creek Redwoods Sate Park, California
I have learned not to worry about love; but to honor its coming with all my heart.
~ Alice Walker
Photo by Cheryl Strahl | Polar bear in the Arctic Ocean near Kaktovik on Barter Island, Alaska
Love is not consolation. It is light.
~ Simone Weil
Photo by Ronnie Goyette | Great egret at Morro Bay, California
The Life of Things 