“There is but one solution to the intricate riddle of life; to improve ourselves, and contribute to the happiness of others.” Half a century before Walt Whitman considered what makes life worth living when a paralytic stroke boughed him to the ground of being, Mary Shelley (August 30, 1797–February 1, 1851) placed that question at the beating heart of The... Continue Reading →
Wild Geese…
https://soundcloud.com/brainpicker/mary-oliver-reads-wild-geese WILD GEESE You do not have to be good.You do not have to walk on your kneesFor a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.You only have to let the soft animal of your bodylove what it loves.Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.Meanwhile the world goes on.Meanwhile the sun and... Continue Reading →
“The Outermost House” by Henry Beston.
Touch the earth, love the earth, her plains, her valleys, her hills, and her seas; rest your spirit in her solitary places. For the gifts of life are the earth’s and they are given to all, and they are the songs of birds at daybreak, Orion and the Bear, and the dawn seen over the... Continue Reading →