For the snowflake that just fell on my eyelash
Today is Odin's day, and the day before Thanksgiving Day (in the U.S., anyway). It is cloudy with increasing rain chances here in Okieland this morning, but that didn't stop the gratitude from flowing into the mailbox:
Islands – Muriel Rukeyser
O for God’s sake
they are connected
underneath.
How cozy are these darkest hours. How intimate our separate longings. How dormant all that nonsense and humidity. Winter! We, of all people, are present, if accounted for (if for which unaccounted). How absurd. In the twenty-first century, no less! At least, let us together mourn the weather. At best, let us let failing and winning take its rest . . . .
People used to be connected, right on the surface. You needed tight social ties to get anything done. . .[Now] It is possible as never before to avoid millions of dull random conversations (and accidentally miss out on many good ones, and even the human ties of the dull ones). So our connection is less, but deeper down it still makes sense of our whole lives. . .We are still a group animal, in many deep ways. We follow each other into both practices both dangerous and healthy. We matter to each other. The shock of modernity made us see ourselves as utterly alienated, but we overshot the mark. It is not the peak of rationalism to say love doesn’t exist. It clearly does, and is rich and strange. Things exist between people that are quite uncanny. It is not rational to deny that.
Got a little poetic there. Ex oh ex. – Jennifer Michael Hecht See also:
The seed of suffering in you may be strong, but don't wait until you have no more suffering before allowing yourself to be happy.
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Everything we touch becomes a jewel for our enjoyment. We do not have to possess them, because every jewel is available for our delight. Everyone and everything here is a jewel.
— Thich Nhat Hanh