Tagore

Where the mind is without fear, and the heart is held high, Where the world is not broken into fragments by narrow domestic walls, Where the words came out from the depths of truth, Where tireless striving stretches out its arms towards perfection; Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert of dead habits, Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever widening thought and action, Into that heaven of freedom, My father, let my country awake. R. Tagore

Borges on love and loss

You Learn After a while you learn the subtle difference Between holding a hand and chaining a soul, And you learn that love doesn't mean leaning And company doesn't mean security. And you begin to learn that kisses aren't contracts And presents aren't promises, And you begin to accept your defeats With your head up and your eyes open With the grace of a woman, not the grief of a child, And you learn to build all your roads on today Because tomorrow's ground is too uncertain for plans And futures have a way of falling down in mid-flight. After a while you learn... That even sunshine burns if you get too much. So you plant your garden and decorate your own soul, Instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers. And you learn that you really can endure... That you really are strong And you really do have worth... And you learn and learn... With every good-bye you learn.

pure mind

Running is pure mind.

Wendell Berry - spiritual journey

And the world cannot be discovered by a journey of miles, no matter how long, but only by a spiritual journey, a journey of one inch, very arduous and humbling and joyful, by which we arrive at the ground at our own feet, and learn to be at home. - Wendell Berry

love flowers best in openness and freedom

The wind will not stop. Gusts of sand swirl before me, stinging my face. But there is still too much to see and marvel at, the world very much alive in the bright light and wind, exultant with the fever of spring, the delight of morning. Strolling on, it seems to me that the strangeness and wonder of existence are emphasized here, in the desert, by the comparative sparsity of the flora and fauna: life not crowded upon life as in other places but scattered abroad in spareness and simplicity, with a generous gift of space for each herb and bush and tree, each stem of grass, so that the living organism stands out bold and brave and vivid against the lifeless sand and barren rock. The extreme clarity of the light is equaled by the extreme individuation of desert life forms. Love flowers best in openness and freedom. Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire