Write first with a pen. It's too easy on the computer to change a word, then forget what it was. Also, don't get too social. Write for whatever holy thing you believe in....The main thing is to know that your craving to write is the big thing and will continue, and is more valuable than the finished poem. Mary Oliver.

Grace

Without grace, everything devolves into smallness, hurt and blame. Grace arrives in the shared-ness of life, in attitude and action of the moment. Can there be true love without graciousness at its heart?

Beauty and Intensity

Beauty is the only thing that time cannot harm. Philosophies fall away like sand, and creeds follow one another like the withered leaves of autumn; but what is beautiful is a joy for all seasons and a possession for all eternity. Oscar Wilde

Beauty in the complicated stuff of ordinary life.

I find beauty in all the discoveries of math, physics, all the sciences. I find beauty in the human desire to bring "order" to "chaos." I find beauty in the unfolding awareness that under our desire to define the world in either/or terms (good or bad, right or wrong, black or white) lies some more subtle but more true version of both/and.

Beauty, yes, and meanwhile let me label ugly with greatest care.

The past weeks have been intense. Here's the bald litany:
My sister Sarah died late in the night September 6, officially pronounced September 7.
My son Scott got married September 14, within several wonderful days of celebration.
Sarah's memorial service was held September 21.
October 2 came the shocking news that Sarah's youngest grandson died unpredictably.
Blood clots developed in his lungs, and his heart just stopped. He was nineteen.
Yesterday, October 12, was Ryan's memorial service.

There is so much more every day, of course, less overtly intense and amazing. The specific flow for each of us, the chaos of everyday life. Full catastrophe living as Jon Kabat-Zinn calls it. Beauty of all there is, noticed and not noticed, welcome and not, grief-stricken and joy-filled.