Creative Immortality

"To become truly immortal, a work of art must escape all human limits: logic and common sense will only interfere. But once these barriers are broken, it will enter the realms of childhood visions and dreams"

 - Giorgio De Chirico

The Scroll Marked VII

 I will laugh at the world.
No living creature can laugh except man. Trees may bleed when they are wounded, and beasts in the field will cry in pain and hunger, yet only I have the gift of laughter and it is mine to use whenever I choose. Henceforth I will cultivate the habit of laughter.
 I will smile and my digestion will improve; I will chuckle and my burdens will be lightened; I will laugh and my life will be lengthened for this is the great secret of long life and now it is mine.
I will laugh at the world.
(excerpt from The Greatest Salesman in the world by OG Mandino)

Present Moment, Wonderful Moment by Thich Nhat Hanh

    In our busy society, it is great fortune to breathe consciously from time to time. We can practice conscious breathing not only while sitting in a meditation room, but also while working at the office or home, while driving our car, or sitting on a bus, wherever we are, at any time throughout the day.
   There are so many exercises we can do to help us breathe consciously. Besides the simple "In-Out" exercise, we can recite these four lines silently as we breathe in and out:
                     
                                   Breathing in, I calm my body.
                                  Breathing out, I smile.
                                  Dwelling in the present moment,
                                 I know this is a wonderful moment!

  "Breathing in, I calm my body." Reciting this line is like drinking a glass of cool lemonade on a hot day- you can feel the coolness permeate your body. When I breathe in and recite this line, I actually feel my breath calming my body and mind.
    "Breathing out, I smile." You know a smile can relax hundreds of muscles in your face. Wearing a smile on your face is a sign that you are master of yourself.
     "Dwelling in the present moment." While I sit here, I don't think of anything else. I sit here, and I know exactly where I am.
      "I know this is a wonderful moment." It is a joy to sit, stable and at ease, and return to our breathing, our smiling, our true nature. Our appointment with life is in the present moment. If we do not have peace and joy right now, when will we have peace and joy- tomorrow, or after tomorrow? What is preventing us from being happy right now? As we follow our breathing, we can say, simply, "Calming, Smiling, Present moment, Wonderful moment."
   This exercise is not just for beginners. Many of us who have practiced meditation and conscious breathing for forty or fifty years continue to practice in this same way, because this kind of exercise is so important and so easy. ( Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life)




   This is an amazing practice and highly recommended for anyone looking to add substance to their life. I sat outside in my garden yesterday practicing being in the present moment and it was unbelievable. The warmth and richness you feel by silently reciting the simple lines above and just opening yourself to the world is priceless. Being outside in the garden with the warmth of the sun on my skin, the sounds of wildlife chirping and fluttering about and the mind at ease. Give it a try..It makes all the difference:)

"Know Thyself"- Socrates

   Know thyself, such a simple expression with so much depth and feeling. I have found it to be one of the most profound ideas I have ever been exposed to. To know thyself is a hard thing because so much of the self is an illusion. So much of the self is consumed with things that don’t even matter such as material possessions, false self image and ego. 
    To know thyself is to know your talents, to recognize your faults, to distinguish things that make you happy from things that don’t. It is to live in the present moment, letting go of your expectations, letting go of the person you were or the person you want to be and focusing on the person you are. 
   To know thyself is more difficult then it seems. For it takes a focused mind and a quiet moment, two things that are rarer and more scarce in this day and age. You must look at the whole package that is you, the good and the bad.  It is a break in the system. It is power to know yourself and once you do your life is forever changed.


                           “Only in Solitude do we find ourselves”- Miguel de Unamuno

                                               Quoted from: http://imgfave.com/popular/page:3

                                                 © Copyright: see author in the original source of this image. [?]

The Journey

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice--
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do--
determined to save
the only life you could save. 

                                                      © Mary Oliver. Online Source

The Peace of Wild Things

When despair grows in me
and I wake in the middle of the night
at the least sound in fear of what my life
and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water,
and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief.
I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting for their light.
For a time I rest in the grace of the world,
and am free.