This is Maadhu. He's 3 years old, and knows more than I do. He also knows all the capitals in Africa, the Americas and all the State Capitals...What a cutie. I hope my kids are 1/2 as smart and 1/4 as cute as him. I'm in love!
Sunday, December 31, 2006
Saturday, December 30, 2006
Reconciliation of a Duplicitous Reality (on the heels of 2006)
Music Master (Rumi)
You that loves lovers,
this is your home. Welcome!
In the midst of making form, love
made this form that melts form,
with love for the door,
soul the vestibule.
Watch the dust grains moving
in the light near the window.
Their dance is our dance.
We rarely hear the inward music,
but we're all dancing to it nevertheless,
directed by the one who teaches us,
the pure joy of the sun,
our music master.
When I am with you, we stay up all night.
When you're not here, I can't go to sleep.
Praise God for those two insomnias!
And the difference between them.
The minute I heard my first love story
I started looking for you, not knowing
how blind that was.
Lovers don't finally meet somewhere.
They're in each other all along.
We are the mirror as well as the face in it.
We are tasting the taste this minute
of eternity. We are pain
and what cures pain, both. We are
the sweet cold water and the jar that pours.
I want to hold you close like a lute,
so we can cry out with loving.
You would rather throw stones at the mirror?
I am your mirror, and here are the stones.
You that loves lovers,
this is your home. Welcome!
In the midst of making form, love
made this form that melts form,
with love for the door,
soul the vestibule.
Watch the dust grains moving
in the light near the window.
Their dance is our dance.
We rarely hear the inward music,
but we're all dancing to it nevertheless,
directed by the one who teaches us,
the pure joy of the sun,
our music master.
When I am with you, we stay up all night.
When you're not here, I can't go to sleep.
Praise God for those two insomnias!
And the difference between them.
The minute I heard my first love story
I started looking for you, not knowing
how blind that was.
Lovers don't finally meet somewhere.
They're in each other all along.
We are the mirror as well as the face in it.
We are tasting the taste this minute
of eternity. We are pain
and what cures pain, both. We are
the sweet cold water and the jar that pours.
I want to hold you close like a lute,
so we can cry out with loving.
You would rather throw stones at the mirror?
I am your mirror, and here are the stones.
Sunday, December 17, 2006
A butterfly flapped its wings in Australia, and I looked up the roots of شهادة
sheen. ha. del.
Testimony. Witness. Evidence. Deposition. Statement. To see with one's own eyes.
To undergo.
Testimony. Witness. Evidence. Deposition. Statement. To see with one's own eyes.
To undergo.
Monday, December 11, 2006
In Reverence: Things I've Learned Today
The people I learned from today are not my professors, rather, they are my peers, my people. And this, in the words of Kahlil Gibran, should serve as a thank you to my friends, especially those of you who taught me something I really really wanted to learn. If I saw you today, and if we spoke, thank you. If not, thanks for the lessons I'll learn from you tomorrow. I hope you're sleeping soundly.
No man can reveal to you aught but that which already lies half asleep in the dawning of your knowledge.
The teacher who walks in the shadow of the temple, among his followers, gives not of his wisdom but rather of his faith and his lovingness.
If he is indeed wise he does not bid you enter the house of his wisdom, but rather leads you to the threshold of your own mind.
The astronomer may speak to you of his understanding of space, but he cannot give you his understanding.
The musician may sing to you of the rhythm which is in all space, but he cannot give you the ear which arrests the rhythm nor the voice that echoes it.
And he who is versed in the science of numbers can tell of the regions of weight and measure, but he cannot conduct you thither.
For the vision of one man lends not its wings to another man.
And even as each one of you stands alone in God's knowledge, so must each one of you be alone in his knowledge of God and in his understanding of the earth.
No man can reveal to you aught but that which already lies half asleep in the dawning of your knowledge.
The teacher who walks in the shadow of the temple, among his followers, gives not of his wisdom but rather of his faith and his lovingness.
If he is indeed wise he does not bid you enter the house of his wisdom, but rather leads you to the threshold of your own mind.
The astronomer may speak to you of his understanding of space, but he cannot give you his understanding.
The musician may sing to you of the rhythm which is in all space, but he cannot give you the ear which arrests the rhythm nor the voice that echoes it.
And he who is versed in the science of numbers can tell of the regions of weight and measure, but he cannot conduct you thither.
For the vision of one man lends not its wings to another man.
And even as each one of you stands alone in God's knowledge, so must each one of you be alone in his knowledge of God and in his understanding of the earth.
Sunday, December 10, 2006
Dear Mr. President
Alissa and I are studying for CQI...but we're also listening to this song on repeat. It's keeping the apathy from setting in, and reminds us of why we're doing this whole MPH thing. You can't stand on the sidelines these days. Back to 'hard work.' Let's try to even the playing field. Pink and the Indigo Girls...so amazing.
Friday, December 8, 2006
Yasin's Words of Wisdom, Part 1
Whoever demanded glory
without effort wasted will;
Be his life in asking for the impossible.
without effort wasted will;
Be his life in asking for the impossible.
Thursday, December 7, 2006
Proving the Animal Rule, Day 2
I thought this was an isolated event that brought a shiver to the back of my neck and made my stomach flip. But it happened again today. In the same place. With the same guy.
Both yesterday and today, I was walking through Coffman Union, on my way to Starbucks, half dreaming about the hot, delicious latte soon to be in my hand. Yesterday I was thinking, also, about the institution of marriage, and the sad state of secularly motivated relationships these days (apparently I don't know how to calm my mind. Even on a coffee run). And today I was thinking about how my office is setting up Christmas decorations (a tree with lights and everything), and how a state university has no place putting up a Christmas tree. Um, does anyone else see anything wrong with this?? I do.
Anyway, what I was thinking at these specific moments is just a caveat to what actually happened. Suffice it to say that my head was full, spinning as usual, and I was in my own world. And then, I was brought back to reality. Twice over. By the same moron.
Him: student age, standing by the ATM near the bookstore; short, unassuming, except slightly bug-eyed, with a parrot beak nose, wearing a leather jacket and a stocking cap. Not homeless or deranged. Just...sort of...bordering on gross.
Me: walking, wallet in hand, eyes slightly glazed over from staring at a computer screen for hours.
The event: He growled at me. A slow, loud, gutteral, animal, menacing growl, about thirty seconds long. A rolling grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, complete with a lip curl and a snarl. No exclamation at the end. No lilting playfulness. It wasn't an expletive. It just was. And that's why I shivered. His expression never changed.
What was this guy thinking?
"This girl looks relatively calm. I'll try to freak her out?"
"Maybe if I growl at her, she'll have sex with me?"
What came across most was: "I want women to feel unsafe."
I've been whistled at, catcalled, verbally berated and verbally harassed before. I've been hollered at from passing cars, eyed by construction workers, and even experienced the hiss, as if I were a pussycat. But I have never, NEVER been growled at. Until yesterday. And again today. By the same guy.
Same guy. Two days in a row. I wonder if his mother is proud of him.
What the eff is wrong with people?
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
I'm sick of being looked at.
Both yesterday and today, I was walking through Coffman Union, on my way to Starbucks, half dreaming about the hot, delicious latte soon to be in my hand. Yesterday I was thinking, also, about the institution of marriage, and the sad state of secularly motivated relationships these days (apparently I don't know how to calm my mind. Even on a coffee run). And today I was thinking about how my office is setting up Christmas decorations (a tree with lights and everything), and how a state university has no place putting up a Christmas tree. Um, does anyone else see anything wrong with this?? I do.
Anyway, what I was thinking at these specific moments is just a caveat to what actually happened. Suffice it to say that my head was full, spinning as usual, and I was in my own world. And then, I was brought back to reality. Twice over. By the same moron.
Him: student age, standing by the ATM near the bookstore; short, unassuming, except slightly bug-eyed, with a parrot beak nose, wearing a leather jacket and a stocking cap. Not homeless or deranged. Just...sort of...bordering on gross.
Me: walking, wallet in hand, eyes slightly glazed over from staring at a computer screen for hours.
The event: He growled at me. A slow, loud, gutteral, animal, menacing growl, about thirty seconds long. A rolling grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, complete with a lip curl and a snarl. No exclamation at the end. No lilting playfulness. It wasn't an expletive. It just was. And that's why I shivered. His expression never changed.
What was this guy thinking?
"This girl looks relatively calm. I'll try to freak her out?"
"Maybe if I growl at her, she'll have sex with me?"
What came across most was: "I want women to feel unsafe."
I've been whistled at, catcalled, verbally berated and verbally harassed before. I've been hollered at from passing cars, eyed by construction workers, and even experienced the hiss, as if I were a pussycat. But I have never, NEVER been growled at. Until yesterday. And again today. By the same guy.
Same guy. Two days in a row. I wonder if his mother is proud of him.
What the eff is wrong with people?
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
I'm sick of being looked at.
Monday, December 4, 2006
A Graceful Interchange, This Evening
"You'll have to bear with me. I'm stumbling."
"One can stumble forward."
Friday, December 1, 2006
Do You Recall What Happened 365 Days Ago in Your Life?
I do, minute by minute, almost. At least... today.
It's funny how I've come full circle.
It's funny how I've come full circle.
since feeling is first (ee cummings)
who pays any attention
to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you;
while Spring is in the world
and kisses are a far better fate
than wisdomlady i swear by all flowers. Don't cry
--the best gesture of my brain is less than
your eyelids' flutter which says
laugh, leaning back in my arms
for life's not a paragraph
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