sacred journeys in L.A.

I think of my life and the lives of everyone as not just journeys through time, but as sacred journeys --Frederick Buechner

[gregorylarson]

“to live in this world you must be able to do three things to love what is mortal; to hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends on it; and, when the time comes to let it go, to let it go”

- Mary Oliver, poet

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“If we’re going to solve the problems of the world, we have to learn how to talk to one another. 

Poetry is the language at its essence. 

It’s the bones and the skeleton of the language. 

It teaches you, if nothing else, 

how to choose your words.”

- Rita Dove, poet

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Lawyer Julie Yip-Williams, who was born blind, on the paradoxes of life: 

"I do not have the answer to the question of why, at least not now and not in this life. But I do know that there is incredible value in pain and suffering, if you allow yourself to experience it, to cry, to feel sorrow and grief, to hurt. Walk through the fire and you will emerge on the other end, whole and stronger. I promise. You will ultimately find truth and beauty and wisdom and peace. You will understand that nothing lasts forever, not pain, or joy. You will understand that joy cannot exist without sadness. Relief cannot exist without pain. Compassion cannot exist without cruelty. Courage cannot exist without fear. Hope cannot exist without despair. Wisdom cannot exist without suffering. Gratitude cannot exist without deprivation. Paradoxes abound in this life. Living is an exercise in navigating within them.

I was deprived of sight. And yet, that single unfortunate physical condition changed me for the better. Instead of leaving me wallowing in self-pity, it made me more ambitious. It made me more resourceful. It made me smarter. It taught me to ask for help, to not be ashamed of my physical shortcoming. It forced me to be honest with myself and my limitations, and eventually to be honest with others. It taught me strength and resilience." 

Source: Letter to her daughters (July 2017) via Letters of Note

[gregorylarson]

"People often think that something "far off" will make them happy. That moving to a new place or getting a different job or meeting someone new will change how they feel. But happiness will always be withheld if you believe it is somewhere else. The secret is to find happiness in the people and places that are close to you. See the beauty in the things that are nearby." - James Clear

[gregorylarson]

“Attention is  the rarest and purest form  of generosity.”

- Simone Weil, philosopher

from her book, First and Last Notebooks.

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“Find out what makes you kinder, what opens you up and brings out the most loving, generous, and unafraid version of you — and go after those things as if nothing else matters. Because, actually, nothing else does.”

~ George Saunders, Congratulations, by the way: Some Thoughts on Kindness

[gregorylarson]

“Listen to your life.  See it for the fathomless mystery it is.  In the boredom and pain of it,  no less than in the excitement and gladness:  touch, taste, smell your way to the holy  and hidden heart of it, because in the last analysis  all moments are key moments,  and life itself is grace.”

- Frederick Buechner, novelist / pastor

From his memoir, Now and Then

[gregorylarson]

LACC MUSIC, in honor of the United States of America, presents: “The Star-Spangled Banner” (Latin Version).

LACC Music is a student collective from The Herb Alpert Music Center at Los Angeles City College.

In honor of the heroes who forged the freedom and independence of the United States of America, we proudly present “The Star-Spangled Banner” (Latin Version).

This arrangement of the national anthem represents the diversity that characterizes our college and demonstrates our honor and love for this great nation. Students and professors worked together in creating this production, which represents the entire LACC community.

[gregorylarson]

Too often the church complains about culture instead of creating it. The energy we spend on criticism is being stolen from creativity.

It’s sideways energy. We need fewer commentators and more innovators.

I try to live by Michelangelo’s maxim: criticize by creating. Quit complaining about what’s wrong, and do something that makes a difference!

Chase the Lion by @MarkBatterson

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"The soul enables us to bear what is intolerable in the world." 

Jacques Lacan, French Psychoanalyst

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“Hope, on one hand, is an absurdity too embarrassing to speak about, for it flies in the face of all those claims we have been told are facts. Hope is the refusal to accept the reading of reality which is the majority opinion; and one does that only at great political and existential risk. On the other hand, hope is subversive, for it limits the grandiose pretension of the present, daring to announce that the present to which we have all made commitments is now called into question.”

- Walter Brueggemann,   The Prophetic Imagination

[gregorylarson]

“The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty little unsexy ways, every day.”

- David Foster Wallace, novelist   -  from This is Water

[gregorylarson]

Clearing by Martha Postlethwaite (HT: @bensternke)

Do not try to serve the whole world or do anything grandiose. Instead, create a clearing in the dense forest of your life and wait there patiently, until the song that is yours alone to sing falls into your open cupped hands and you recognize and greet it. Only then will you know how to give yourself to the world so worthy of rescue.

[gregorylarson]

“Deliver me from writers who say the way they live doesn't matter. I'm not sure a bad person can write a good book. If art doesn't make us better, then what on earth is it for?”

- Alice Walker

American novelist, short story writer, poet, and social activist

[gregorylarson]

“To be rooted is perhaps the most important and least recognized need of the human soul.”

- Simone Weil   from her book, The Need for Roots