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[azurea]

Mothering ourselves means learning to love what we have given birth to by giving definition to, learning how to be both kind and demanding in the teeth of failure as well as in the face of success, and not misnaming either.

Audre Lorde, Eye to Eye

[azurea]

Peace does not mean an end to tension, the good tensions, or of struggle. It means, I think, less waste. It means being centered.

- May Sarton, The House by the Sea

[azurea]

I have been meaning to note something Charlotte Zolotov said in a letter the other day.  When we met in New York I mentioned that I have it in mind to write a cookbook for the solitary person someday. She says, “A lot of poetry of living, especially alone, takes place in the kitchen.” I thought of this yesterday when I was cutting up green cherry tomatoes to make a second try at jam [...] and felt calmed by the domesticity, cutting up, finding cinnamon and ginger, enjoying the smells of the kitchen, and looking out into the autumn woods. It was, as Charlotte said, a moment full of poetry. Often I am very tired when I have to cook my dinner, especially on these days of fierce work in the garden. But always, once I get started, I feel peace flow in, and am happy.

- May Sarton, The House by the Sea

[azurea]

Space has a spiritual equivalent and can heal what is divided and burdensome in us.

The Solace of Open Spaces, Gretel Ehrlich

[azurea]

Animals hold us to what is present: to who we are at the time, not who we've been or how our bank accounts describe us. What is obvious to an animal is not the embellishment that fattens our emotional résumés but what's bedrock and current in us: agression, fear, insecurity, happiness or equanimity. Because they have the ability to read our involuntary tics and scents, we're transparent to them and thus exposed—we're finally ourselves.

The Solace of Open Spaces, Gretel Ehrlich

[azurea]

It is six A.M., and I am working. I am absentminded, reckless, heedless of social obligations, etc. It is as it must be. The tire goes flat, the tooth falls out, there will be a hundred meals without mustard. The poem gets written. I have wrestled with the angel and I am stained with light and I have no shame. Neither do I have guilt. My responsibility is not to the ordinary, or the timely. It does not include mustard, or teeth. It does not extend to the lost button, or the beans in the pot. My loyalty is to the inner vision, whenever and howsoever it may arrive. If I have a meeting with you at three o’clock, rejoice if I am late. Rejoice even more if I do not arrive at all.

There is no other way work of artistic worth can be done. And the occasional success, to the striver, is worth everything. The most regretful people on earth are those who felt the call to creative work, who felt their own creative power restive and uprising, and gave to it neither power nor time.

- Mary Oliver, Upstream

[azurea]

I quickly found for myself two such blessings—the natural world, and the world of writing: literature. These were the gates through which I vanished from a difficult place.

Mary Oliver, Upstream