Mark Rothko, No. 12 (Black on Dark Sienna on Purple), 1960. Thank you, yama-bato.
“I paint large pictures because I want to create a state of intimacy. A large picture is an immediate transaction; it takes you into it.”
—Mark Rothko
G. K. Chesterton once said that to understand the Sermon on the Mount we should look not at Jesus but at St. Francis. To understand the Gita I went to look at Mahatma Gandhi, who had done his best for forty years to translate those verses into his daily life. Seeing him, I understood that those ‘who see themselves in all and all in them’ would simply not be capable of harming others. (Augustine said daringly, ‘Love, then do as you like:’ nothing will then come out of you but goodness.) I saw too what it meant to view one’s body with detachment: not indifference but compassionate care as an instrument of service … most important, I grasped one of the most refreshing ideas in Hindu mysticism: original goodness. Since the Self is the core of every personality, no one needs to acquire goodness and compassion; they are already there. All that is necessary is to remove the selfish habits that hide them.
Eknath Easwaran. Thank you, Whiskey River.
Yuan Li, The Expressionist Landscape. Thank you, firsttimeuser.
You can choose to hold on to your misery. Or your can choose to forgive—everything.
Noah Levine at Against the Stream last night. Wise words, thank you, tinytruths.
Jeanloup Sieff, Gérard Blain, Paris, 1959. From Jeanloup Sieff. Thank you, liquidnight.
Sometimes I sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits.
Satchel Paige (Thank you, liquidnight)
Glen Campbell: Gentle On My Mind (John Hartford cover) - from Gentle on My Mind, 1967. (Thank you, i12bent & singinginthewire)
by Vincent Coffre. Thank you, aubade.
Odilon Redon, Girl in Profile with Bird of Paradise and Butterflies, 1905. Thank you, arsvitaest.
What if, by some miracle, this present turned out to be a dream, a hideous nightmare, and we were to awake renewed and cleansed, strong, upright and proud? Why do we never try to stand again when once we’ve fallen? When we lose one thing why don’t we search for another? I want our lives to be holy, sublime and solemn as the vault of heaven. Let us live! The thief on the cross had hope even though he had less than an hour left to him, and the sun only rises once a day, so take hold of what’s left of your life and save it.
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov. By way of Whiskey River.
