My aims and my means

 

I am often reminded that if I had bestowed on me the wealth of Croesus, my aims must still be the same and my means essentially the same.

Henry Thoreau, in his Journal on 29th January 1852.

putrefaction

of late

I’ve had this thought

that this country

has gone backwards

4 or 5 decades

and that all the

social advancement

the good feeling of

person toward

person

has been washed 

away

and replaced by the same

old

bigotries.

…

now

something so sad

has hold of us

that

the breath

leaves

and we can’t even

cry.

Charles Bukowski 1992

A greeting that reaches out ….

The Japanese are fond of aisatsu (greetings). Ai means “friendship” and satsu means “to draw forth each other’s good qualities through acquaintance”.

The spirit of tea is to do good and not to do evil. It is a greeting that reaches out and seeks the good in others.                                                                                                                                                                                                                

From Soshitsu Sen, Chado. The Japanese Way of Tea (New York, 1979)

Kintsugi

Kintsugi (gold joining) is a Japanese repair technique that takes ceramic destruction and makes a broken object into a new entity. It leaves clear, bold, visible lines with the appearance of solid gold. Using fine lacquer and gold to mark the scars, it never hides the story of the object’s damage … it is an intimate metaphoric narrative of loss and recovery, breakage and restoration, tragedy and the ability to overcome it.  A kintsugi repair speaks of individuality and uniqueness, fortitude and resilience, and the beauty to be found in survival.

From Bonnie Kemske, Kintsugi. The Poetic Mend (London, 2021)

Recluse’s day …

Up at dawn … practice in the first few hours of the morning (or late at night) … personal study for the rest of the morning … social lunch … recreation in the afternoon, out of doors if possible: gardening, walking about; indoors in poor weather: painting, calligraphy, reading literature, writing poems … summer excursions further afield: to picnic at beauty spots, go swimming, look for special sunrises, sunsets and views of the moon ….

After John Blofeld, Taoism. The Quest for Immortality (London, 1979)