Heart and Hands (vol. 5, no. 7)

Here are a few things I’m sharing this month:

1. Question I’m living with:

• “Love is the measure of life: only so far as we love do we really live. The variety of our interests, the width of our sympathies, the susceptibilities of our hearts – if these do not measure our lives, what does?” – John Burroughs (The Art of Seeing Things)

2. Quote I’m considering:

• “We do not “come into” this world; we come out of it, as leaves from a tree. As the ocean “waves,” the universe “peoples.” Every individual is an expression of the whole realm of nature, a unique action of the total universe.” – Alan Watts (The Book)

3. Poem I’m pondering:

Excerpt from So you want to be a writer? by Charles Bukowski:

if it doesn’t come bursting out of you
in spite of everything,
don’t do it.
unless it comes unasked out of your
heart and your mind and your mouth
and your gut,
don’t do it.
if you have to sit for hours
staring at your computer screen
or hunched over your
typewriter
searching for words,
don’t do it.
if you’re doing it for money or
fame,
don’t do it.

4. Something inspiring:

Excerpt from Rumi “The Tent”:

Friend, our closeness is this:
anywhere you put your foot, feel me
in the firmness under you.

5. New Blog:

• A Father’s Hands: “I was scared of becoming a father. I did not trust my hands. It was one of the reasons that Kyra and I waited to have Dillon.”

Thanks so much. And, have a great day! – shawn