[Panhala] Hawks -- Lynn Ungar (Redux)

Hawks

Surely, you too have longed for this -- 
to pour yourself out
on the rising circles of the air 
to ride, unthinking, 
on the flesh of emptiness.

Can you claim, in your civilized life, 
that you have never leaned toward 
the headlong dive, the snap of bones,
the chance to be so terrible, 
so free from evil, beyond choice?

The air that they are riding 
is the same breath as your own. 
How could you not remember? 
That same swift stillness binds 
your cells in balance, rushes 
through the pulsing circles of your blood.

Each breath proclaims it -- 
the flash of feathers, the chance to rest 
on such a muscled quietness, 
to be in that fierce presence, 
wholly wind, wholly wild.

~ Lynn Ungar ~

(Blessing the Bread)

Rollin' on the river

"Spa-day"

Sometimes it's neat living in a resort town. Our local Unity had a kids day out at the Hershey Gardens. Missed the bambino but the adults had a three hour break to stroll around and relax. Scrumptious mini yoga retreat at a hidden rock garden we found...

Lovely things

Peel me a grape

Wish you were here!

[Panhala] One -- Mary Oliver

One

 

The mosquito is so small
it takes almost nothing to ruin it.
Each leaf, the same.
And the black ant, hurrying.
So many lives, so many fortunes!
Every morning, I walk softly and with forward glances
down to the ponds and through the pinewoods.
Mushrooms, even, have but a brief hour
before the slug creeps to the feast,
before the pine needles hustle down
under the bundles of harsh, beneficent rain.

 

How many, how many, how many
make up a world!
And then I think of that old idea: the singular
and the eternal.
One cup, in which everything is swirled
back to the color of the sea and sky.
Imagine it!

 

A shining cup, surely!
In the moment in which there is no wind
over your shoulder,
you stare down into it,
and there you are,
your own darling face, your own eyes.
And then the wind, not thinking of you, just passes by,
touching the ant, the mosquito, the leaf,
and you know what else!
How blue is the sea, how blue is the sky,
how blue and tiny and redeemable everything is, even you,
even your eyes, even your imagination.

 

~ Mary Oliver ~

 

(Why I Wake Early)

www.panhala.net/Archive/One.html

Fwd: Quote of the Week | Meeting Confusion

Loved this from Pema Chodron at Shambala Sun online

June 6, 2012

MEETING CONFUSION

Instead of struggling against the force of confusion, we could meet it and relax. When we do that, we gradually discover that clarity is always there. In the middle of the worst scenario of the worst person in the world, in the middle of all the heavy dialogue with ourselves, open space is always there.

[Panhala] Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front (excerpt) -- Wendell Berry

 

Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front

 

(second half)

 

Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.
Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.
Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.

 

Listen to carrion -- put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.
Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?

 

Go with your love to the fields.
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.
As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn't go.
Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.

~ Wendell Berry ~