Yet, no matter how deeply I go down into myself, my God is dark, and like a webbing made of a hundred roots that drink in silence. I know that my trunk rose from his warmth, but that’s all, because my branches hardly move at all near the ground, and just wave a little in the wind.
Rainer Maria Rilke
Translated by Robert Bly
Love is a painful, poignant, touching attempt by two flawed individuals to try and meet each other’s needs in situations of gross uncertainty and ignorance about who they are and who the other person is.
Alain de Botton
Alain de Botton, British philosopher and author, is the founder and Chairman of The School of Life, a London-based organization dedicated to helping people lead more resilient and fulfilled lives. His New York Times essay, “Why You Will Marry the Wrong Person” is one of the most-read Times articles of the past several years. Krista Tippett’s interview of Mr. de Batton (“The True Hard Work of Love and Relationships“) is one of the most listened-to episodes of On Being since the inception of the podcast.
The boundary separating that which we call “normal” from that which we call “abnormal” is defined by the frequency, intensity, and duration of symptoms.
Richard L. Butman, Ph.D.
Men go crazy in congregations. They only get better one by one.
Sting
Quiet friend who has come so far,
feel how your breathing makes more space around you.
Let this darkness be a bell tower and you the bell. As you ring,
what batters you becomes your strength.
Move back and forth into the change.
What is it like, such intensity of pain?
If the drink is bitter, turn yourself to wine.
In this uncontainable night,
be the mystery at the crossroads of your senses,
the meaning discovered there.
And if the world has ceased to hear you,
say to the silent earth: I flow.
To the rushing water, speak: I am.
Sonnets to Orpheus II, 29
Rainer Maria Rilke
Translated by Joanna Macy and Anita Barrows
Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity over humanity, nothing exceeds most of the criticisms made on the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well- warmed, and well-fed.
Herman Melville