Born upon thy bank

I was born upon thy bank, river,
My blood flows in thy stream,
And thou meanderest forever
At the bottom of my dream.

~ Henry David Thoreau

Rivers

Many a time have I merely closed my eyes at the end of yet another troublesome day and soaked my bruised psyche in wild water, rivers remembered and rivers imagined.  Rivers course through my dreams, rivers cold and fast, rivers well-known and rivers nameless, rivers that seem like ribbons of blue water twisting through wide valleys, narrow rivers folded in layers of darkening shadows, rivers that have eroded down deep into the mountain’s belly, sculpted the land, peeled back the planet’s history exposing the texture of time itself.

~ Harry Middleton

Wave on stone

There is a language older by far and deeper than words.  It is the language of bodies, of body on body, wind on snow, rain on trees, wave on stone.  It is the language of dream, gesture, symbol, memory.  We have forgotten this language.  We do not even remember that it exists.

~ Derrick Jensen

Appearances

Reality has changed chameleonlike before my eyes so many times that I have learned, or am learning, to trust almost anything except what appears to be so.

~ Maya Angelou

The absolute and marvelous

If a man’s imagination were not so weak, so easily tired, if his capacity for wonder not so limited, he would abandon forever such fantasies of the supernal.  He would learn to perceive in water, leaves and silence more than sufficient of the absolute and marvelous, more than enough to console him for the loss of the ancient dreams.

~ Edward Abbey

The destination

From my earliest youth, I have known that while one is obliged to plan with care the stage of one’s journey, one is entitled to dream, and keep dreaming, of its destination.

~ Shimon Peres

Playfully…

(A playful bird.)

Playfully you hid from me.
All day I looked.

Then I discovered
I was you,
and the celebration
of That began.

~ Lalla (India)

About a month or two ago I was flipping through Yoga Journal magazine.  I think it was the June issue but don’t hold me to that as I no longer have the copy to check.  I came across the poem quoted above as part of a review of the book Mala of the Heart: 108 Sacred Poems.  I had an almost immediate and interesting inner reaction to it.  It was as if someone opened a window in my soul, letting in a strong breeze and a bright light.

It is a difficult thing to describe.  It was a lot like looking at a breathtaking sunrise or sunset and suddenly, briefly, feeling a connectedness to everything.

From time to time I would think about it as I meditated.  It came to mind again when we were at the Lake Irene trail head in Rocky Mountain National Park and I saw a bird flitting around playfully in a pine tree, almost inviting me to follow as it hopped from branch to branch, peering out every now and then in a game of hide-and-seek.

I bought a copy of the book just before we set out on our trip to Colorado.  I haven’t had a chance to do much more than flip through it to look for the exact wording of Lalla’s poem.  I’m looking forward to reading more, and the journeys and adventures that might bring.

Round and open

You must ask for what you really want.
Don’t go back to sleep.
The door is round and open.
Don’t go back to sleep.

~ Rumi

Imagination

(In the children’s garden at the Cleveland Botanical Garden on a rainy day.)

Imagination is the beginning of creation.  You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine, and at last you create what you will.

~ George Bernard Shaw

Gathering flowers

To have ideas is to gather flowers.  To think is to weave them into garlands.

~ Anne-Sophie Swetchine (1869)

I have ideas and I’m gathering flowers but I’m not quite ready to weave them into garlands just yet.