my favorite line from "THORNBIRDS"

Ralph de Bricassart: [telling the legend of the thorn bird to Meggie] There's a story... a legend, about a bird that sings just once in its life. From the moment it leaves its nest, it searches for a thorn tree... and never rests until it's found one. And then it sings... more sweetly than any other creature on the face of the earth. And singing, it impales itself on the longest, sharpest thorn. But, as it dies, it rises above its own agony, to outsing the lark and the nightingale. The thorn bird pays its life for just one song, but the whole world stills to listen, and God in his heaven smiles.

Young Meggie Cleary: What does it mean, Father?
Ralph de Bricassart: That the best... is bought only at the cost of great pain.

happiness

"If you're not happy where you are, you will never be happy anywhere."

J.T. (my professor in Plato, 10 years ago)

got this from sacredspace.com today

‘Lord, you know better than I that I am growing old, and will some day be old. Keep me from getting talkative and particularly from the fatal habit of thinking I must say something on every subject on every occasion. With my vast store of wisdom it seems a pity not to use it all.
‘Make me thoughtful but not moody, helpful but not bossy. Teach me the glorious lesson that occasionally it is possible I may be mistaken. Keep me reasonably sweet. I don't wish to be a saint - some of them are so hard to live with - but a sour old woman is one of the crowning works of the devil. Release me from craving to try to straighten out everybody's affairs. Keep my mind free from the recital of endless details - give me wings to get to the point. I ask for grace enough to listen to the tales of others' pains. Help me to endure them with patience. But seal my lips on my aches and pains - they are interesting and my love of rehearsing them becomes sweeter as the years go by. But you know, Lord, that I want a few friends at the end.'

how well do we own our choices?

It's when things happen to me that I know what I evidently wanted, not before!

-Tim Reede in Iris Murdoch's Nuns and Soldiers

loneliness described well

"Everybody's got to have a "shaker" in their lives, someone who doesn't say much, but with little words can have an impact so great that it defines your decisions, or the way you look at your life. I pity the person who makes decisions on her own, who doesn't have someone who moves her deep within. Being self-sufficient must be a very lonely life."

- Nancy's insight

"I don't feel that it is necessary to know exactly what I am. The main interest in life and work is to become someone else that you were not in the beginning. If you knew when you began a book what you would say at the end, do you think you would have the courage to write it? What is true for writing and for a love relationship is true also for life. The game is worthwhile insofar as we don't know where it will end."


Michel Foucault, 1982

Jason Mraz

Life is Wonderful

....And it takes no time to fall in love
But it takes you years to know what love is
And it takes some fears to make you trust
It takes those tears to make it rust
It takes the dust to have it polished

Ah la la la la la la life is wonderful...


***

The Remedy


The remedy is the experience.

This is a dangerous liaison.

I say the comedy is that it's serious.

This is a strange enough new play on words

I say the tragedy is how you're gonna spend the rest of your nights with the light on

So shine the light on all of your friends when it all amounts to nothing in the end.


I won't worry my life away...I won't worry my life away.


When I fall in love I take my time.
There's no need to hurry when I'm making up my mind.
You can turn off the sun but I'm still gonna shine and I'll tell you why

Because

The remedy is the experience...