wandering and pondering

 

"She left pieces of her life behind her everywhere she went. It's easier to feel the sunlight without them, she said."

- Brian Andreas, Story People: Selected Stories & Drawings of Brian Andreas

not too far from penniless and wandering the streets of auckland

"Money is what people think is the most important thing in the world. It comes from the Government."

tuesday the fourth of june twenty thirteen 10.34pm

This day is a journey, this very moment an adventure.

- Rebecca Pavlenko

The smile of a great man

"He smiled understandingly - much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in your life. It faced - or seemed to face - the whole eternal world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favour. It understood you just so far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself, and assured you it had precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you hoped to convey."


from The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, page 49.

Then, shaken, her heart strangely stirred, her mind chaotic, she walked slowly homeward.

from Taken at the Flood by Agatha Christie, p.82

earl grey and chapter twenty three

The best moments in reading are when you come across something – a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things – which you had thought particular to you. And now, here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out and taken yours.
-  Alan Bennett

old Salvador on perfection

"Have no fear of perfection, you'll never reach it."

- Salvador Dali

change is good.

"It's impossible" said pride. "It's risky" said experience. "It's pointless" said reason. "Give it a try" whispered the heart.

found here

on flying and the soul

Flight is the essence of the spirit.

It nurtures the soul.

It is awesome. Often ethereal. Glorious.

Emotionally wondrous and all-pervading. Intangible.

- Louise Thaden

the end and the beginning

"Falling into Place:
deciding everything is falling into place perfectly as long as you don't get too picky about what you mean by place. Or perfectly."

- Brian Andreas

found here and here

in the dead of night

You were only waiting for this moment to arise.


The Beatles

Grace and dreaming

"What if she is dreaming...? Dreams are private, she said. And she is right. A dream is a story that no one else will get to hear or read."

from Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones

patience is a virtue

"Adopt the pace of nature; her secret is patience."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Her Secret is Patience, 2009 by Janet Echelman. found here.

this is how i feel about the wind

Flight is the essence of the spirit.

It nurtures the soul.

It is awesome. Often ethereal. Glorious.

Emotionally wonderous and all-pervading. Intangible.

Louise Thaden


found in The Spectacle of Flight: Aviation and the Western Imagination, 1920-1950 by Robert Wohl

no greater thrill

 

found here

ruff day?

“I actually attack the concept of happiness. I don’t mind people being happy - but the idea that everything we do is part of the pursuit of happiness seems to me a really dangerous idea and has led to a contemporary disease in Western society, which is fear of sadness. It’s a really odd thing that we’re now seeing people saying 'write down 3 things that made you happy today before you go to sleep', and 'cheer up' and 'happiness is our birthright' and so on. We’re kind of teaching our kids that happiness is the default position - it’s rubbish. Wholeness is what we ought to be striving for and part of that is sadness, disappointment, frustration, failure; all of those things which make us who we are. Happiness and victory and fulfillment are nice little things that also happen to us, but they don’t teach us much. Everyone says we grow through pain and then as soon as they experience pain they say 'Quick! Move on! Cheer up!' I’d like just for a year to have a moratorium on the word 'happiness' and to replace it with the word 'wholeness'. Ask yourself 'is this contributing to my wholeness?' and if you’re having a bad day, it is.” 

Hugh Mackay, psychologist and social researcher

text found here

keeping secrets

Who could deny that privacy is a jewel? It has always been the mark of privilege, the distinguishing feature of a truely urbane culture.

Phyliss McGinley (1905-1978), US poet


found in Veil: Modesty, privacy and resistance by Fadwa El Guindi (1999, Oxford:Berg)

vanity and the invisible

It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances. The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.


Oscar Wilde, The picture of Dorian Gray (1981)

books

"Be careful of books. Be careful with books. Be careful or one can become a weapon-wielder. Be careful or one can become the victim."


Cai Guo-Qiang

away again

But where is "away"? Of course, "away" does not really exist. "Away" has gone away.

from Cradle to Cradle by William McDonough and Michael Braungart