Quotes & Thoughts

'"There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you
into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique...

And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost.
The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how
valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours
clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself
or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you.
Keep the channel open. ..."'
                                                                 -from The Life and Work of Martha Graham

Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting--
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

- Mary Oliver

 

The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

     - Rumi, from The Essential Rumi, Translated by Coleman Barks