If we were having coffee on a Friday: January passes through winter

A sunrise in early January.

1.
The cloud is free only
to go with the wind.

The rain is free
only in falling.

The water is free only
in its gathering together,

in its downward courses,
in its rising into the air.

2.
In law is rest
if you love the law,
if you enter, singing, into it
as water in its descent.

3.
Or song is truest law,
and you must enter singing;
it has no other entrance.

It is the great chorus
of parts. The only outlawry
is in division.

4.
Whatever is singing
is found, awaiting the return
of whatever is lost.

5.
Meet us in the air
over the water,
sing the swallows.
Meet me, meet me,
the redbird sings,
here here here here.

~ Wendell Berry, The Law That Marries All Things

If we were having coffee: Smile

Thursday’s sunrise.

Let us always meet each other with smile, for the smile is the beginning of love.

~ Mother Teresa

We are not going to change the whole world, but we can change ourselves and feel free as birds. We can be serene even in the midst of calamities and, by our serenity, make others more tranquil. Serenity is contagious. If we smile at someone, he or she will smile back. And a smile costs nothing. We should plague everyone with joy. If we are to die in a minute, why not die happily, laughing?”

~ Sri S. Satchidananda, The Yoga Sutras

A Saturday chat

A shroud of fog at sunrise this morning.

When we have inner peace, we can be at peace with those around us.  When our community is in a state of peace, it can share that peace with neighboring communities and so on.  When we feel love and kindness toward others, it not only makes others feel loved and cared for but also helps us to develop inner happiness and peace.

~ The Dalai Lama

If we were having coffee: A day trip

Friday morning moon.

You can only go to places that you will let yourself go.

~ Charles Yu, How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe

If we were having coffee: Heatwave

Little Doe (who is not so little anymore) with her two fawns.

“What do you call yourself?” the Fawn said at last. Such a soft sweet voice it had!
“I wish I knew!” thought poor Alice. She answered, rather sadly, “Nothing, just now.”
“Think again,” it said: “that won’t do.”
Alice thought, but nothing came of it. “Please, would you tell me what you call yourself?” she said timidly, “I think that might help a little.”
“I’ll tell you, if you’ll come a little further on,” the Fawn said. “I can’t remember here.”
So they walked on together through the wood, Alice with her arms clasped lovingly round the soft neck of the Fawn, till they came out into another open field, and here the Fawn gave a sudden bound into the air, and shook itself free from Alice’s arms. “I’m a Fawn!” it cried out in a voice of delight. “And dear me, you’re a human child!” A sudden look of alarm came into its beautiful brown eyes, and in another moment it had darted away at full speed.”

~ Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass

If we were having coffee: The ferry crossing

Boarding the ferry.

Being on a boat that’s moving through the water, it’s so clear.  Everything falls into place in terms of what’s important and what’s not.

~ James Taylor

If we were having coffee: A walk through a cemetery

Showing off his feathers.  (This was taken here at the ranch before I left to go on vacation.)

Nobody can discover the world for somebody else. Only when we discover it for ourselves does it become common ground and a common bond and we cease to be alone.

~ Wendell Berry, A Place on Earth