When you need me, you throw me away.
When you don’t need me, you bring me back.
What am I?

(Something Forbes would know :)

The chief prevention against getting old
is to remain astonished.

~ Kevin Kelly

The listening body is like a plant. Its roots grow down into the smallest cavities of our inwardly felt body. The listening body can send out subtle tendrils of intent to touch the other inwardly. And when we truly listen, it opens leaves that breathe in and absorb the embodied presence of the other, drawing out their inner light and warmth of soul.

~ Peter Wilberg

I said once, and I think this is true,
the world did not have to be beautiful to work.
But it is. What does that mean?

***

What would the world be like without music or rivers
or the green and tender grass?
What would this world be like without dogs?

***

When it’s over, I want to say all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.

~ Mary Oliver

I have a dream this afternoon that the brotherhood of man will become a reality in this day. And with this faith, I will go out and carve a tunnel of hope through the mountain of despair. With this faith, I will go out with you and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows.

~ Martin Luther King Jr.

Let me, O let me bathe my soul in colors;
let me swallow the sunset and drink the rainbow.

~ Khalil Gibran -

High Flight was a favorite too of Bob Bryan's. And of Charles (Chuck) Alling, (QLF's) Beth Alling's father, and Lead B-17 Pilot in the 8th Air Force, WW II. Thank you for including.....

HIGH FLIGHT

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds,—and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of—wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air ....

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark nor ever eagle flew—
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

~ John Magee Jr

A favorite of our father's (a TWA captain)
resembling Forbes' favorite quote
about sailing by Eugene O'Neil.

Forbes wrote: "Eugene O’Neill eloquently expressed my passion for sailing."

“I lay on the bowsprit, facing astern, with the water foaming into spume under me, the masts with every sail white in the moonlight, towering high above me. I became drunk with the beauty and singing rhythm of it, and for a moment I lost myself—actually lost my life. I was set free! I dissolved in the sea, became white sails and flying spray, became beauty and rhythm, became moonlight and the ship and the high dim-starred sky! I belonged, without past or future, within peace and unity and a wild joy, within something greater than my own life, or the life of Man, to Life itself!”

Excerpt from a letter Thich Nhat Hanh wrote to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., June 1, 1965:

[The] enemies are not man. They are intolerance, fanaticism, dictatorship, cupidity, hatred, and discrimination which lie within the heart of man. I also believe with all my being that the struggle for equality and freedom you lead in Birmingham, Alabama, is not really aimed at the whites but only at intolerance, hatred, and discrimination. These are real enemies of man-- not man himself. In our unfortunate fatherland we are trying to plead desperately: do not kill man, even in man's name. Please kill the real enemies of man which are present everywhere, in our very hearts and minds.

We were never promised any of it — this world of cottonwoods and clouds — when the Big Bang set the possible in motion. And yet here we are, atoms with consciousness, each of us a living improbability forged of chaos and dead stars. Children of chance, we have made ourselves into what we are — creatures who can see a universe of beauty in the feather of a bird and can turn a blind eye to each other’s suffering, creatures capable of the Benedictus and the bomb. Creatures who hope.

~ Maria Popova

HOMO SAPIENS: CREATING THEMSELVES

Formed in the black-light center of a star-circling
galaxy; formed in whirlpool images of froth
and flume and fulcrum; in the center image of herring
circling like pieces of silver swirling fast, a shoaling
circle of deception; in the whirlpool perfume of sex
in the deepest curve of a lily’s soft corolla. Created
within the images of the creator’s creation.

Born with the same grimacing wrench of a tree-covered
cliff split wide suddenly by lightning and opened
to thundering clouds of hail and rain.

Cured in the summer sun as if in a potter’s oven,
polished like a stone rolled by a river, emboldened
by the image of the expanse beyond earth’s horizon,
inside and outside a circumference in the image
of freedom.

Given the image of starlight clusters steadily silent
above a hillside-silence of fallen snow… let there be sleep.

II.

Inheriting from the earth’s scrambling minions,
images of thorn and bur, fang and claw, stealth,
deceit, poison, camouflage, blade, and blood…
let there be suffering, let there be survival.

Shaped by the image of the onset and unstoppable
devouring eclipse of the sun, the tempestuous, ecliptic
eating of the moon, the volcanic explosions of burning
rocks and fiery hail of ashes to death… let there be
terror and tears. Let there be pity.

Created in the image of fear inside a crawfish
skittering backward through a freshwater stream
with all eight appendages in perfect coordination,
both pincers held high, backing into safety beneath
a fallen leaf refuge… let there be home.

III.

Made in the image of the moon, where else
would the name of ivory rock craters shine
except in our eyes… let there be language.

Displayed in the image of the rotting seed
on the same stem with the swelling blossom…
let there be hope.

Homo sapiens creating themselves after the manner
and image of the creator’s ongoing creation — slowly,
eventual, alert and imagined, composing, dissembling,
until the right chord sounds from one brave strum
of the right strings reverberating, fading away
like evening… let there be pathos, let there be
compassion, forbearance, forgiveness. Let there be
weightless beauty.

Of earth and sky, Homo sapiens creating themselves,
following the mode and model of the creator’s creation,
particle by particle, quest by quest, witness by witness,
even though the unknown far away and the unknown
nearby be seen and not seen… let there be goodwill
and accounting, let there be praise resounding.

~Pattiann Rogers

Nature is ever at work building and pulling down,
creating and destroying,
keeping everything whirling and flowing,
allowing no rest but in rhythmical motion,
chasing everything in endless song
out of one beautiful form into another.

~ John Muir

The rivers flow not past, but through us,
thrilling, tingling, vibrating
every fiber and cell of our bodies,
making them glide and sing.

~ John Muir

Come to the woods; for here is rest.
There is no repose like that of the green deep woods.

~John Muir

When one tugs at a single thing in nature,
he finds it attached to the rest of the world.

~ John Muir

We have the best government that money can buy.
~ Mark Twain

Camp out among the grasses and gentians of glacial meadows, in craggy garden nooks full of nature's darlings. Climb the mountains and get their good tidings, Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.

~ John Muir

Our task must be to free ourselves from our prison
by widening our circle of compassion
to embrace all humanity
and the whole of nature
in its beauty.

~Albert Einstein

The world is not to be put in order.
The world is in order.
It is for us to put ourselves
in unison with this order.

~ Henry Miller

It's better to be an optimist who is sometimes wrong
than a pessimist who is always right

~ Mark Twain

Life is short, Break the Rules. Forgive quickly,
Kiss slowly. Love truly. Laugh uncontrollably
And never regret ANYTHING That makes you smile.

~Mark Twain

Wonder is the feeling of a philosopher,
and philosophy begins in wonder.

~ Socrates

There is no greatness where there is not
simplicity, goodness and truth.

~ Leo Tolstoy

My dear, In the midst of hate,
I found there was, within me, an invincible love.
In the midst of tears, I found there was, within me, an invincible smile.
In the midst of chaos, I found there was, within me, an invincible calm.
I realized, through it all, that… In the midst of winter,
I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.
And that makes me happy. For it says that
no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me,
there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back.
Truly yours, Albert Camus
-----
Man is the only creature
who refuses to be what he is.
-----
The evil that is in the world always comes of ignorance,
and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence,
if they lack understanding.
-----
Life is a sum of all your choices.
So, what are you doing today?

~ Albert Camus

Now there’s a man with an open mind —
you can feel the breeze from here.

~ Groucho Marx

If we are always arriving and departing,
it is also true that we are eternally anchored.
One’s destination is never a place
but rather a new way of looking at things.

~ Henry Miller (1891—1980)

A beautiful March 1st. Spring will come. Thinking of Willard Pond…..and one cannot do that without thinking of Forbes.

We are slowed down sound and light waves,
a walking bundle of frequencies tuned into the cosmos.
We are souls dressed up in sacred biochemical garments
and our bodies are the instruments
through which our souls play their music.

~ Albert Einstein

I have no special talents.
I am only passionately curious.

~Albert Einstein

Your pain is the breaking of the shell
that encloses your understanding.

~Kahlil Gibran

I think Forbes would have embraced this--

My empathy for the suffering in Gaza
does not make me anti-Semitic,
nor does it make me pro-Hamas or anti-Israel.
It makes me human.

~David Harris-Gershon

His transition:
https://www.jta.org/2013/08/27/culture/author-of-new-memoir-opens-up-about-terrorism-victimhood-and-politics

Ode to Dirt

Dear dirt, I am sorry I slighted you,
I thought that you were only the background
for the leading characters—the plants
and animals and human animals.
It’s as if I had loved only the stars
and not the sky which gave them space
in which to shine. Subtle, various,
sensitive, you are the skin of our terrain,
you’re our democracy. When I understood
I had never honored you as a living
equal, I was ashamed of myself,
as if I had not recognized
a character who looked so different from me,
but now I can see us all, made of the
same basic materials—
cousins of that first exploding from nothing—
in our intricate equation together. O dirt,
help us find ways to serve your life,
you who have brought us forth, and fed us,
and who at the end will take us in
and rotate with us, and wobble, and orbit.

~ Sharon Olds, from Odes

I didn't fall in love.
I rose in it.

~ Toni Morrison

Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.
-----
If we set aside time each day
to be in a peaceful environment,
to walk in nature,
or even just to look at a flower or the sky,
then that beauty will penetrate us
and feed our love and our joy.
-----
Every day we are engaged in a miracle …
a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves,
the black, curious eyes of a child —
our own two eyes. All is a miracle.

~ Thích Nhất Hạnh

This is our mission:
To cast a ray of light
and pass it on.

~ Maria Montessori

Forbes sent this email to me on 10/30/20 (and over 20 after that-- about politics, dreams, economics etc (eg: "The stock market is ruled by 2 passions; greed & fear. Is this the lot of humankind?"). This one about Nature (our common passion...)

Hi Lys,
As always, a good conversation.
Did you, by any chance, read an article by Jason Bittel titled
"Pod matriarchs critical to orca youths"? The article was in the Wash Post Dec. 15, 2019. I cut out articles from Post and other sources everyday and needless to say they have stacked up. So now I am separating the wheat from the chaff.
 Anyway moving along, in the Salish Sea off Seattle & Vancouver lives Shachi, an orca. Shachi's presence is critical to the success of the Pod's younger members. But Shachi is not just the matriarch but a grandmother as well. Shachi gave birth in 2005 to a female Eclipse who a decade later gave birth to male named Nova.
 At the same time that Nova was born, the Chinook salmon was in decline due to pollution, overfishing and other negative man made reasons (read greed). How did Nova survive? Credit must go to Granny Shachi, who stayed by Nova when his mother was foraging. She was, in fact, in a caregiving role and was instrumental in Nova's survival . The article explores other evolutionary roles of granny orcas.
 Not to anthropomorphize but a female in Shachi's pod, Tahlequah displayed mourning the loss of her calf by carrying the body around for 17 days. 
 A pet peeve. I intensely dislike the term "killer whale." The correct name is orca!!
stay well
love
F 

We are slowed down sound and light waves,
a walking bundle of frequencies
tuned into the cosmos.
We are souls dressed up
in sacred biochemical garments
and our bodies are the instruments
through which our souls play their music.

~ Albert Einstein

If we have no peace
it is because we have forgotten
that we belong to each other.

~ Mother Teresa

GIVE me the splendid silent sun, with all his beams full-dazzling;
Give me juicy autumnal fruit, ripe and red from the orchard;
Give me a field where the unmow'd grass grows;
Give me an arbor, give me the trellis'd grape;
Give me fresh corn and wheat—give me serene-moving animals,
teaching content;
Give me nights perfectly quiet, as on high plateaus west
of the Mississippi, and I looking up at the stars;
Give me odorous at sunrise a garden of beautiful flowers,
where I can walk undisturb'd;

Give me solitude—give me Nature—give me again,
O Nature, your primal sanities!

~Walt Whitman

The miracle is not to walk on water.
The miracle is to walk on the green earth
in the present moment,
to appreciate the peace and beauty
that are available now.

~ Thích Nhất Hạnh

The way you alchemize
a soulless world
into a sacred world
is by treating everyone
as if they are sacred
until the sacred in them
remembers.

~ Sarah Durham Wilson

“Of all the paths you take in life,
make sure a few of them are dirt.”

~ John Muir

The meaning I picked,
the one that changed my life:
Overcome fear,
behold wonder.

~ Richard Bach

The previous quote reminded me of our grandmother's quote in the Vogue article (They Think I'm Mad...)-- see under "LIFE"

"To have known passionate love and be separated from it by death is heartbreaking. But real love cannot be broken nor can death cancel it. After you have become one with eternal love, life needs no longer be lonely. My friend, you are still young. Love vehemently, with all your heart and soul. Love is all that life really is."

~ Elsa Tudor de Pierrefeu

Life is short,
And we do not have much time
to gladden the hearts of those
who make the journey with us.
So… be swift to love,
and make haste to be kind.

~ Henri Frederic Amiel (1821-1881)

Forbes email:

 ”Anxiety is living life in a minor key with major concerns.“

Beginning of Covid Isolation... 3.22.20
Forbes's email:

I went out for basic staples yesterday............Tito's vodka & L'orange vodka that I put a dollop in Nantucket Nectars/mango orange as my nightcap.

Email from Forbes 3.20.20

Friends are flowers in life's garden
~Kakuzo Okakura

Email to Forbes 12.14.19

Though there are torturers in the world
There are also musicians.
Though, at this moment,
Men are screaming in prisons,
There are jazzmen raising storms
Of sensuous celebration,
And orchestras releasing
Glories of the Spirit.

Though the image of God
Is everywhere defiled,
A man in West Clare
Is playing the concertina,
The Sistine Choir is levitating
Under the dome of St. Peter?s,
And a drunk man on the road
Is singing, for no reason.

~Michael Coady

His response: It's the Cain & Abel in all of us

Email to me from Forbes, 12.23.19

Thanks for Zen.
I wanted a perfect ending....... Now I've learned,
the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme,
and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle and end.
Life is about not knowing,
having to change,
taking the moment and making the best of it,
without knowing what's going to happen next.
Delicious ambiguity....
~Gilda Radner