the world is a vessel for spirit

snow crows

 

If you try

to grab hold of the

world and do what you want

with it, you won’t

succeed.

 

The world

is a vessel for spirit,

and it wasn’t made to be manipulated.

Tamper with it and you’ll spoil it.

Hold it, and you’ll

lose it.

 

With tao,

sometimes you move ahead

and sometimes you stay back; sometimes

you work hard and sometimes you rest; sometimes

you’re strong and sometimes you’re weak;

sometimes you’re up; sometimes

you’re down.

 

The sage

remains alert, avoiding

extremes, avoiding extravagance,

avoiding excess.

 

from The Tao te Ching of Lao Tzu,

Chapter 29

 

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try to praise the mutilated world

travel light

 

Try

to praise

the mutilated world.


Remember June’s long days,


and wild strawberries, drops of rosé wine.


The nettles that methodically overgrow


the abandoned homesteads

of exiles.


 

You

must praise

the mutilated world.


You watched the stylish yachts

and ships;
 one of them had a long trip

ahead of it,
 while salty oblivion awaited others.


You’ve seen the refugees going nowhere,


you’ve heard the executioners

sing joyfully.


 

You

should praise

the mutilated world.


Remember the moments when

we were together 
in a white room and

the curtain fluttered.
 Return in thought to

the concert where music flared.
You

gathered acorns in the park in

autumn 
and leaves eddied

over the earth’s

scars.


 

Praise

the mutilated world


and the gray feather a thrush lost,


and the gentle light that strays

and vanishes
 and

returns.

 

Adam Zagajewski

 

a choice between fear and love

laurie lipton

 

The world is

like a ride at an amusement park,

and when you choose to go on it, you think it’s real,

because that’s how powerful our minds are. And the ride goes up

and down and round and round and it has thrills and chills

and it’s very brightly colored and it’s very loud.

And it’s fun, for a

while.

 

Some people

have been on the ride

for a long time, and they begin to

question: ‘Is this real? Or is this just a ride?’

And other people have remembered, and they come

back to us and they say ‘Hey! Don’t worry, don’t

be afraid — ever — because this is just a

ride.’ And we kill those

people.

 

…We always kill

those good guys who try and

tell us that — ever notice that? — and we

let the demons run amok. But it doesn’t matter,

because it’s just a ride, and we can change it any time we want.

It’s only a choice. No effort. No worry. No job. No savings

and money. Just a choice, right now, between fear and

love. The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks

on your door, buy bigger guns, close yourself

off. The eyes of love, instead, see all

of us as one.

 

Here’s

what we can do

to change the world, right

now, into a better ride. Take all that money

we spend on weapons and defense each year and, instead,

spend it feeding, clothing and educating the poor of the world,

which it would do many times over — not one human being

excluded — and we can explore space together,

both inner and outer, forever.

In peace.

 

Bill Hicks