Pearls, Nuggets, and Grains

Life is just a chance to grow a soul.

-- A. Powell Davies, Unitarian minister (1902-1957)

Those who are religiously privileged do not need help, so they don't stop and help.

-- Robert W. Funk in Honest to Jesus

Was There a Time
by Dylan Thomas

Was there a time when dancers with their fiddles
In children's circuses could stay their troubles?
There was a time they could cry over books,
But time has sent its maggot on their track.
Under the arc of the sky they are unsafe.
What's never known is safest in this life.
Under the skysigns they who have no arms
have cleanest hands, and, as the heartless ghost
Alone's unhurt, so the blind man sees best.

A Shade upon the mind there passes
As when on Noon
A Cloud the mighty Sun encloses
Remembering

That some there be too numb to notice
Oh God
Why give if Thou must take away
The Loved?

~Emily Dickinson

A poor-torn heart-a tattered heart-
That sat it down to rest-
Nor noticed that the Ebbing Day
Flowed silver to the West-
Nor noticed Night did soft descend-
Nor Constellation burn-
Intent upon the vision
Of latitudes unknown.

The angels-happening that way
This dusty heart espied-
Tenderly took it up from toil
And carried it to God-
There-sandals for the Barefoot-
There-gathered from the gales-
Do the blue havens by the hand
Lead the wandering Sails.

~Emily Dickinson

You are Magnificent

You are a great and magnificent divine being.

Your beauty shines in the darkness like a candle flame,

Spreading love and joy wherever you go.

You sprinkle the world with love

So now love yourself the way I love you.

May you realize who you are so others may walk with you.

May you realize your own divinity so others may join you.

You are God’s child, perfect as you are, encased in love.

From your depths others will rise

So listen to your inner voice

And let your brightness shine through.

You are a great and magnificent divine being,

You are powerful beyond measure.

You are on this Earth so I may love you. Let me love me.

Love yourself the way I love you, unconditionally and eternally.

You are a great and magnificent divine being.

Love yourself the way I love you, unconditionally and eternally

Forever and always.

I am with you.  

by me, krsnas_favorite 

Center of all centers, core of cores,
almond, that closes tightly in and sweetens--
this entire world out to all the stars
is your fruit-flesh: we greet you.

Look, you feel how nothing any longer
clings to you; your husk is in infinity,
and there the strong juice stands and crowds.
And from outside a radiance assists it,

for high above, your suns in full splendor
have wheeled blazingly around.
Yet already there's begun inside you
what lasts beyond the suns.

--Ranier Maria Rilke, translated by Edward Snow
from New Poems: A Revised Bilingual Edition

And where do we find ourselves hidden? In the water, in the air, in the fire, in the earth. We are in the water, hidden in the river. Water makes up part of our body, but we do not see it; it courses through our veins, but we do not feel it. We only see the water on the outside. We only recognize ourselves in our reflections. When we look at ourselves in the water, we know too that we are light or we would not be reflected. We are fire, we are sun. We are in the air, in the word. When we say the names of our gods, we say our own. They created us with their word and we re-create them with ours. Gods and men are the same. Child of sun, child of the water, child of the air, child of the corn; born in the womb of Mother Earth.

From the novel Malinche, written by Laura Esquivel

Ephemeral Mists is a new musical project by composer Brett Branning (also the composer for The synthetic dream foundation & Abandoned Toys). "Moon Ritual" is the debut cd, out now on Mythical records.

The sound of the project is best described as downtempo ambient new age music mixed with ethnic world musics in the vein of "Karma" era Delerium, Amethystium, and Dead Can Dance. Its really a an incredibly beautiful creation to be used as yoga music or Reiki music. and I sincerely recommend it to anyone into newage music styles. I'm looking forward to further releases by this project.