I have broken the vessel
in more ways
than can be
imagined.
Yet, miraculously,
it still holds
water.

While we each have our unique way
of relating to the source of beauty,
expressing it,
and partaking in it,
we are all equally its children.

I can rarely tell, by listening, whether music is created by a band consisting of few or many members, and I love music made by bands of various sizes. When I think about bands with only two members, though, I get a kind of lonely feeling. Three members seems like it would invite conflict and make it likely that someone is left out. Five seems chaotic--more of a troupe than a band. Four is just right. I have no idea what these associations say about me.

Those who have survived the hating of life are prepared to know something about the loving of it too.

To have within my attention

the suffering that goes on in each of us

just under the surface of our skin

and to care for it

as though it were a single child—

that would be a kind of salvation.

It would be like holding in my arms
the redeemer of the world.