9th of January, 2006
Last Night It felt as though we were on the cusp, where winter gives way to spring. It was a surprising warm night.

How long has it been since I waited for the stars to show up, reveal themselves as the dark ripened? There in the short grass, at a safe distance from intruding patio lights or car beams, I watched the planes stripe contrails across the moon every few minutes and came to notice an apparent rhythm. Exquisite calm.

Soon, I'd be on one of those night flights. I am traveling again in just a few more days. I wondered if that might be my last night to lie on the grass under the stars. Haunting thought- how many more opportunities do any of us have to seize that precious moment and connect to something larger than ourselves?

One gift of all this travel: It is working like an isolation chamber, to pull into focus people, experiences and feelings I would normally not watch for... and those I see most acutely. Bright and unmistakable.

Like Coldplay says, "look how it shines for you..."

photo credit: Google

Long promised-- now fulfilled.. Please leave comments with your favorites as well.
Quotations I love!

Be brief, for no discourse can please when too long.
Miguel de Cervantes


A man always has two reasons for what he does-a good one, and the real one.
John Pierpont Morgan


No piece of information is superior to any other. Power lies in having them all on file and then finding the connections. There are always connections; you have only to want to find them."
Quote from Foucault's Pendulum


The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.
Carl Jung (1875 - 1961)

The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise to the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.
Abraham Lincoln US President

'When all the blandishments of life are gone,the coward sneaks to death, the brave live on.
George Sewell

It's not that some people have willpower and some don't. It's that some people are ready to change and others are not.
James Gordon, M.D.


Remember that there is nothing stable in human affairs; therefore avoid undue elation in prosperity, or undue depression in adversity.
Socrates (469 BC - 399 BC)

To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.
Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970), Marriage and Morals (1929)

Gratitude can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.
Unknown

Forgiveness is not an occasional act; it is a permanent attitude.
Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968)

We become what we are only by the radical and profound rejection of what others have said about us.
Jean-Paul Sartre (1905 - 1980) French philosopher

The only way to make a man trustworthy is to trust him.
Henry Stimson (1867-1950) US Secretary of War

All good work is done in defiance of management.
Bob Woodward American journalist

All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.
Ernest Hemingway (1899 - 1961) American author

If you tell people the truth, make them laugh or they'll kill you.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

We are becoming like cats, slyly parasitic, enjoying an indifferent domesticity. Nice and snug in the social, our historic passions have withdrawn into the glow of an artificial coziness, and our half-closed eyes now seek little other than the peaceful parade of television pictures.
Jean Baudrillard (1929-) French philosopher

Everything is vague to a degree you do not realize till you have tried to make it precise.
Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970) British philosopher

The most savage controversies are those about matters as to which there is no good evidence either way.
Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970) British philosopher

Tomorrow, I will continue to be. But you will have to be very attentive to see me. I will be a flower, or a leaf. I will be in these forms and I will say hello to you. If you are attentive enough, you will recognize me, and may greet me. I will be very happy.
Thich Nhat Hanh Zen Buddhist monk

Seeing is forgetting the name of what one sees.
Paul Valery (1871 - 1945) French poet

To say you don't know is the beginning of knowing.
Chinese Proverb

From a certain point onward there is no longer any turning back. That is the point that must be reached.
Franz Kafka (1883-1924) Czech author

Remember that there is nothing stable in human affairs; therefore avoid undue elation in prosperity, or undue depression in adversity.
Socrates (469 BC - 399 BC)