Mastering an art lies in loss of self in the art—as in the art of living.
Pits come when we are thinking most about ourselves. Pain makes us self-aware. Joy makes us other-aware; joy makes us aware of life—of the dance.
When I am in the pits, if I forget myself, I can always do my greatest thinking, my greatest creativity.
William M. Boast
Louise Gluck born 1943 in New York City: poet, Poet Laureate.
Works: The Wild Iris, A Village Life: Poems, Vita Nova
Quotes: “Of two sisters, one is always the watcher, one the dancer.” “We look at the world once, in childhood. The rest is memory.” “Even before you touched me, I belonged to you; all you had to do was look at me.”
Christuman will be being created until it is no longer in existence. We all, individually and communally, create it every minute.
Donna Piper Leichtling
Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen) born 1885 in Denmark, died 1962: writer
Works: Out of Africa, Seven Gothic Tales, Winter’s Tales
Quotes: “The cure for anything is salt water – sweat, tears or the sea.” “God made the world round so we could never be able to see too far down the road.” “I don’t believe in evil, I believe only in horror. In nature there is no evil, only an abundance of horror; the plagues, the blights and the ants and the maggots.”
“A pipping at this shell of mine.”
How long an incubation for this death?
How long a tempering for this creation?
I almost wish for sameness.
I almost wish for easy.
I almost wish for always.
Yet I bring death that will make fertile
the new ground.
From The Prayer to the Mystery of Creativity
St. Bernadette of Lourdes: In 1854 Bernadette Soubrious, a poor French peasant girl, had repeated visions of the Virgin Mary who told her to drink from the nearby spring which then flowed into the grotto below and became the healing spring which still attracts thousands of pilgrims every week
Gertrude Chandler Warner born 1890 in Connecticut, died 1979: writer of children’s books.
Works: The Boxcar Children, Surprise Island, The Yellow House
Quotes: “People should always have what they want on their birthdays.”
Angels don’t create new. Their work is fixed. They sing the same old, appointed songs of praise. Dead men don’t create. Alive is our only chance to create. You, more than the angels, are appointed to sing a new song, a new song of the eternal, anew each day. Your unique song, born of the love of the Christos in you for the earth of you. How do you accept your human, Godly appointment to create God’s word and will through your efforts on God’s earth? As Charles Dubois, says, “The important thing is this: to be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become.”
Benjamin H. Leichtling
Henry James born 1843 in New York City, died 1916: writer.
Works: The Innocents, What Maisie Knew, The Portrait of a Lady
Quotes: “Three things in human life are important. The first is to be kind, the second is to be kind, the third is to be kind.” “Live all you can. It’s a mistake not to. It doesn’t so much matter what you do in particular, so long as you have your life. If you haven’t had that, what have you had?” “Under certain circumstances there are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea.”
Ten thousand years ago the Mesolithic hunters armed with stones and pebbles had already attributed magico-religious forces to materials found in their environment. And, as their descendants began the 1500 year journey to becoming an agricultural society, humans brought forward the idea that material objects could carry a sacred force.
In an age of reason and materialism, it is easy to dismiss the idea that an inanimate object could have any power over the human. But there are 10,000 years of evidence to the contrary and perhaps the most compelling argument comes from the fact that man has consistently destroyed the objects of “other” religions in recognition of their power. The pebbles of the Birsek caves were broken in half to annihilate their force. The Taliban destroyed the statues of the Buddha. Even Christians “re-engineered” Elijah’s cup to make it their own.
…I am reminded that symbols and ceremonies are created for civilizations and thus can be destroyed by civilizations. What is meaningful is not their existence in context or their “realism,” but rather the truth that is in their creation. For in their creation is power because it is in creation that we find God.
Jamie Ziegler
Arnold Toynbee born 1889 in London, died 1975: historian, philosopher of history and author.
Works: A Study of History, Mankind and Mother Earth, Choose Life
Quotes: “Civilizations die from suicide, not by murder.” “America is a large, friendly dog in a very small room. Every time it wags its tail, it knocks over a chair.” “The supreme accomplishment is to blur the line between work and play.”
