One Stop Thought Shop

What man of us has never felt, walking through the twilight or writing down a date from his past, that he has lost something infinite? —Jorge Luis Borges

ON THE BANK
On the bank at the end
Of what was there before us
Gazing over to the other side
On what we can become
Veiled in the mist of naïve speculation
We are busy here preparing
Rafts to carry us across
Before the light goes out leaving us
In the eternal night of could-have-been
—nick bostrom

after all, we are each put through caldron

will you never thunder?

will you never ache?

will you shrink and retreat?

will you burn and wither?

you are not to walk away from you, say it,

and all the angels hear

…and so began what I can only describe as the most organic and beautiful friendship I have ever witnessed http://t.co/oUtI8xvJT9

— Brian Hayes (@thoughtShopper) November 18, 2013

This is the exalted melancholy of our fate that every Thou in our world must become an It. -Martin Buber

“The tremendous world I have inside of me.
But how to free myself and free it, without being torn to pieces.” —Kafka

The general irresponsibility was to spend his whole year’s allowance in a week. His sister had gone to Hawaii and left behind her white Russian wolfhound. He took this dog to the stage door of the most popular musical of the day, and as the girls came out they all patted the dog. The long and short of it is that he cut an exam, invited the entire chorus line of 30 girls to dinner, spent all his money and got kicked out of Harvard.

Did he regret it?

Within a day’s glow a thousand moments tempt the mind…

I never knew what time could do 
Until I let my dreams come through,
Reminding me that day or night 
The stars are never out of sight.

What is there to say to those that glaze mankind? 

Well, I am the eagle:
To fly so high the darkness is below. 
One who can see the heart of the sun. 
One who can see what duty has won:
When the self will loft the mind and, hence, 
the mind will wire the body in some mimic’d poise,  
futurity spills upon us to test the courages.

Yet we all know this, as we know what hardens steel or vigors the child to solitary tasks, so seldom said, these murmurs of the heart we build each day. Here’s to recognizing amidst the blinding dark infinity the sweet triumph of every step we carve from this froth of earth. Here’s to discovery amongst our paths, to worthy dreams to lure us lovingly to fuller powers. May we be of sharp wit and diligence of will, and every flame succumb as ally, and every flood seek our buoyancy. 

To live with life a friend

and all the earth its winking crew 

and all the heavens supervise.

To live an ethical life in an ethical land, 

not put upon by guile nor sticks of rage, 

not ruled by the weakest of the weak  
hidden in the grandstand of corruption. 

Along the way from plankton to pulsar, 
joy which gives a heart beyond itself 

and joy which lends this heart to friends.

Now that’s living!

Oh won’t you come with me
Where the Wood River flows
We’ll watch it meander slowly
As the sky turns from red to dark

And as that sun goes down
We’ll throw our arms around
Each other and tell the dreams
That are deep in the heart

http://www.conniekaldor.com/about/wood-river/

When I hear them call
in the morning, before
I am quite awake,
my bed is already traveling
the daily rainbow,
the arc toward evening;
and the birds, leading
their own discreet lives
of hunger and watchfulness,
are with me all the way,
always a little ahead of me
in the long-practiced manner
of unobtrusive guides.

By the time I arrive at evening,
they have just settled down to rest;
already invisible, they are turning
into the dreamwork of trees;
and all of us together —
myself and the purple finches,
the rusty blackbirds,
the ruby cardinals,
and the white-throated sparrows
with their liquid voices —
ride the dark curve of the earth
toward daylight, which they announce
from their high lookouts
before dawn has quite broken for me.

–Lisel Mueller, “Why I Need the Birds”