Blum

"Don't worry about what you ought to do or what other people will think.  You cannot predict the eventual outcome of your choice.  All you can do is listen to that little voice deep inside you that knows what you want to do."

Tennyson

"Again at Christmas did we weave 

         The holly round the Christmas hearth; 

         The silent snow possess'd the earth, 

And calmly fell our Christmas-eve: 

The yule-log sparkled keen with frost, 

         No wing of wind the region swept, 

         But over all things brooding slept 

The quiet sense of something lost. "

Alan Watts

"Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone."

Tao

“Those who know do not speak. Those who speak do not know.”

you'll be a Woman, my daughter!

"If you can keep your head when all about you  
    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,  
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
    But make allowance for their doubting too;  
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;  
    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;  
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
    And treat those two impostors just the same;  
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
    And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
    To serve your turn long after they are gone,  
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,  
    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
    If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,  
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,  
    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!"
~Rudyard Kipling~

Maya Angelou

“I don't know if I continue, even today, always liking myself. But what I learned to do many years ago was to forgive myself. It is very important for every human being to forgive herself or himself because if you live, you will make mistakes- it is inevitable. But once you do and you see the mistake, then you forgive yourself and say, 'Well, if I'd known better I'd have done better,' that's all. So you say to people who you think you may have injured, 'I'm sorry,' and then you say to yourself, 'I'm sorry.' If we all hold on to the mistake, we can't see our own glory in the mirror because we have the mistake between our faces and the mirror; we can't see what we're capable of being. You can ask forgiveness of others, but in the end the real forgiveness is in one's own self.”

St John

"I was sad one day and went for a walk;

I sat in a field.

A rabbit noticed my condition and came near.

It often does not take more than that to help at times --

to just be close to creatures who

are so full of knowing,

so full of love

that they don't --

chat,

they just gaze with

their marvelous understanding.

Celtic Prayer

"Bless Thou to be mine eye.
May mine eye bless all it sees;
I will bless my neighbor,
May my neighbor bless me."

Naomi Long Madgett

"I wouldn't coax the plant if I were you.
Such watchful nurturing may do it harm.
Let the soil rest from so much digging
And wait until it's dry before you water it.
The leaf's inclined to find its own direction;
Give it a chance to seek the sunlight for itself.

Much growth is stunted by too much prodding.
Too eager tenderness.
The things we love we have to learn to leave alone."

25th Verse

"There was something formless and perfect

before the universe was born.

It is serene.  Empty.

Solitary.  Unchanging.

Infinite.  Eternally Present.

It is the Mother of the universe.

For lack of a better name,

I call it the Tao.

I call it great.

Great is boundless;

boundless is eternally flowing;

ever flowing, it is constantly returning.

Therefore, the Way is great,

heaven is great,

earth is great,

people are great.

Thus, to know humanity,

understand earth.

To know earth,

understand heaven.

To know heaven,

understand the Way.

To know the Way,

understand the great within yourself."