five different ways we can swear: descriptively (Lets fuck), idiomatically (Its fucked up), abusively (Fuck you!

), emphatically (This is fucking amazing),

and cathartically (Fuck!!!).

the ordinary glow

of common dust in ancient sunlight.
Denise Levertov, Opening Words

Always when you are about to say anything,

first weigh it in your mind; for with many the
tongue outruns the thought. Let there be but
two occasions for speechwhen the subject
is one which you thoroughly know and when
it is one on which you are compelled to
speak. On these occasions alone is speech
better than silence; on all others, it is better
to be silent than to speak.
Isocrates 1.41

There are no ordinary people. You have never

talked to a mere mortal.
C. S. Lewis The Weight of Glory

Your persistence on the spiritual path means that

the spirit of God has already touched you. You
have not chosen God. God has chosen you, and
God will not let you go until you arrive safely at
home in His bosom.
Joel Goldsmith

Artists are fools. They think they can achieve the

impossible. That girl was a fool, too. when she
said she could spin straw Into gold. She knew it
was impossible. But the little man who comes
from the dark and offers to help? He is. I believe,
an image of the gods, devilish in his darkness
but divine in his promises.
Idris Parry, "Kafka, Rilke, and Rumpelstiltskin"

What guarantee is there that the five senses,

taken together, do cover the whole of possible
experience? They cover simply our actual
experience, our human knowledge of facts or
events. There are gaps between the fingers;
there are gaps between the senses. In these
gaps is the darkness which hides the connection
between things... This darkness is the source of
our vague fears and anxieties, but also the home
of the gods. They alone see the connections, the
total relevance of everything that happens; that
which now comes to us in bits and pieces, the
"accidents" which exist only in our heads, in our
limited perceptions.
Idris Parry, "Kafka, Rilke, and Rumpelstiltskin"

The Listener British Broadcasting Corporation, December 2, 1965. p. 895.

(in Alan Watts The Book)

Welcome, welcome, welcome.

I welcome everything that comes to me today
because I know its for my healing.
I welcome all thoughts, feelings, emotions, persons,
situations, and conditions.
I let go of my desire for power and control.
I let go of my desire for affection, esteem,
approval and pleasure.
I let go of my desire for survival and security.
I let go of my desire to change any situation,
condition, person or myself.
I open to the love and presence of God
and Gods action within.
Amen.
The Welcoming Prayer
by Father Thomas Keating