In Memory of...

Chicago's sunrise

Autumn Chicago Sunrise from McSmooth on Vimeo.

Trust

Once a one-legged dragon named Hui asked a centipede,
-"How do you manage all those legs? I can hardly manage one!"
-"As a matter of fact," replied the centipede, "I do not manage them."

(ef′i kā′s̸həs)

ef·fi·ca·cious

adjective

producing or capable of producing the desired effect; having the intended result; effective

since feeling is first

e.e. cummings


since feeling is first
who pays any attention
to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you;
wholly to be a fool
while Spring is in the world

my blood approves,
and kisses are a better fate
than wisdom
lady i swear by all flowers. Don't cry
—the best gesture of my brain is less than
your eyelids' flutter which says

we are for each other: then
laugh, leaning back in my arms
for life's not a paragraph

And death i think is no parenthesis

Pittsburgh's Plane Trees

Green is the plane-tree in the square,
The other trees

are brown;
They droop and pine for country air;
The plane-tree loves the town.

Here from my garret-pane, I mark
The plane-tree bud and blow,
Shed her recuperative bark,
And spread her shade below.

Among her branches, in and out,
The city breezes play;
The dun fog wraps her round about;
Above, the smoke curls grey.

Others the country take for choice,
And hold the town in scorn;
But she has listened to the voice
On city breezes borne.

-A London Plane Tree by Amy Levy

For the Bold

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage.

-Anais Nin 

Magnanimity

1. The quality of being magnanimous; greatness of mind; elevation or dignity of soul.
2. That quality or combination of qualities, in character, which enables one to encounter danger and trouble with tranquility and firmness, to disdain injustice, meanness and revenge, and to act and sacrifice for noble objects.

About passion and purpose..

"Most of us have been taught to approach work as though the requirements of our souls are superfluous or peripheral to the real business of living. The body demands food and sex; the ego, attention. The emotions want security; the mind knowledge. In the market society we live in, money is in one way or another tied to the fulfillment of all of these aims. Most our lives, we are chasing food, sex, attention, knowledge, security, and -most of all- money. Without the real engagement of our souls, all this can seem quite empty as the years go by. For the soul too has its demands."

-Boldt, from Zen and the Art of Making a Living