The omnific memory of life, the omnific memory of love, the omnific memory of learning, the omnific memory of seeing, the omnific memory of the generative – don’t see the list – for God’s sake, don’t see the list – see each one and follow all it teaches you. Each moment of love, of learning, of seeing, of the generative life.
William Boast, From “The Omnific Journey”
Edith Wharton born 1862 in New York City: prolific writer of novels, stories and poems and recipient of a Pulitzer Prize. Works: The House of Mirth, Age of Innocence, A Backward Glance. Died, 1937. Quotes: There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.” “My little dog – heart beat at my feet.” “Life is always a tightrope or a feather bed. Give me the tightrope.”
On the Christuman Way, we bear light and we become the creative outpouring of that Light.
We embody “Creative acts that turn grief to art, turn humiliation to resilience, the everyday care for a child to joy, pain to empathy, take anger and turn it into right action, take poverty and turn it into grace.” It is not so much that enlightenment flows into and fills us; it is that enlightenment flows out from us in creation – here, now, in this time and place, in this sacred moment.It is not so much that pure vision flows into us so we may see the secret workings of the great machine of God’s cosmos; it is that…creative energy and works flow out of us as we express God’s vision for us – here, now, in this time and place, in this sacred moment.
Ben Leichtling
Derek Walcott born 1930 on St. Lucia: poet, playwright. Works: Dream in Monkey Mountain, White Egrets, Omeros.
Quotes: “Break a vase and the love that reassembles the fragment is stronger than that love which took its symmetry for granted when it was whole.” “The English language is nobody’s special property. It is the property of imagination; it is the property of the language itself.” “If you know what you are going to write when you’re writing a poem, it’s going to be average.”
Could I unfold like a map my life
from beginning to this precious moment,
The course would be studded with the stars
That mark miracles.
Sometimes these stars twinkle late,
Hold back their blooming,
Some burst quickly in sudden brilliance.
There are stars so obvious
You cannot miss them,
Some hide out.
The wonder of these miracles
Is not, as Bill said, a ‘why’ question.
Deserving is not involved.
As I grow old, I recognize my stars sooner,
And am grateful for them,
Whether as blessings, mercies, travails or sufferings.
All gifts of grace, gifts of grace.
Donna Piper Leichtling
Enlightenment is not a brain-wave rate. It is not a meditative, theta state that allows other-worldly insights to infiltrate the thinking and generate an intellectual euphoria. Both before and after enlightenment, the call is to “chop wood and carry water” as the Zen saying goes. To bear light—to make known the gift of life we have been given involves creative acts that take grief and give it art, take humiliation and give it resilience, take the everyday care for a child and give it joy, take pain and turn it into empathy, take anger and turn it into right action, take poverty and turn it into grace. These creative, courageous acts give currency to the Imago Dei in each.
Benjamin Martin
St. Sebastian: martyr and patron of archers, lace and pin makers 3C
One day when you really do hear it, you will hear it only because it turned out you knew it all the time. It was just that all your “knowing about”—all that info from all those people and places shouting info to you—kept you from seeing what you knew. In the beginning it is like a Koan, but in the end it is like a kiss.
William Boast
Edgar Allan Poe born 1809 in Boston: poet, writer, editor, literary critic. Works: The Raven, The Black Cat, Pit and the Pendulum. Died, 1849.
Quotes: “I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity.” “Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.” “We loved with a love that was more than love.”
