A ROOTS AND WINGS BLOG by GLENN SCHIFFMAN

8/30/2021

Everywoman

"If wealth was the inevitable result of hard work and enterprise, every woman in Africa would be a millionaire"

― George Monbiot

Teilhard

“There is almost a sensual longing for communion

with others who have a large vision.

The immense fulfillment of the friendship

between those engaged

in furthering the evolution of consciousness

has a quality impossible to describe.”

~ Teilhard de Chardin

8/25/2021

Rilke

"Listen,

Quiet friend who has come so far,

feel how your breathing makes more space around you.

Let this darkness be a bell tower

and you the bell. As you ring,

what batters you becomes your strength.

Move back and forth into the change.

What is it like, such intensity of pain?

If the drink is bitter, turn yourself to wine.

In this uncontainable night,

be the mystery at the crossroads of your senses,

the meaning discovered there.

And if the world has ceased to hear you,

say to the silent earth: I flow.

To the rushing water, speak: I am."

Sonnets to Orpheus II, 29

by Rainer Maria Rilke

8/24/2021

8/21/2021

8/20/2021

8/18/2021

Margaret Wheatley

“When we seek for connection

we restore the world to wholeness.

Our seemingly separate lives

become meaningful

as we discover

how truly necessary we are to each other."

~Margaret Wheatley

8/15/2021

8/12/2021

8/11/2021

"The community stagnates without the impulse of the individual. The impulse dies away without the sympathy of the community."

~ William James

8/06/2021

8/04/2021

Emerson

"We lie in the lap of immense intelligence, which makes us receivers of its truth and organs of its activities." — R.W. Emerson

8/01/2021

Everyone says love hurts, but that is not true. Loneliness hurts. Rejection hurts. Losing someone hurts. Envy hurts. Everyone gets these things confused with love, but in reality love is the only thing in this world that covers up all pain and makes someone feel wonderful again. Love is the only thing in this world that does not hurt." ~ Mesa Selimovic

Art: Salvador Viniegra Y Lasso , The First Kiss

7/30/2021

Insight from Joni Mitchell

“...Everybody has a superficial side and a deep side, but this culture doesn’t place much value on depth — we don’t have shamans or soothsayers, and depth isn’t encouraged or understood. Surrounded by this shallow, glossy society we develop a shallow side, too, and we become attracted to fluff. That’s reflected in the fact that this culture sets up an addiction to romance based on insecurity — the uncertainty of whether or not you’re truly united with the object of your obsession is the rush people get hooked on. I’ve seen this pattern so much in myself and my friends and some people never get off that line.

But along with developing my superficial side, I always nurtured a deeper longing, so even when I was falling into the trap of that other kind of love, I was hip to what I was doing. I recently read an article in Esquire magazine called ‘The End of Sex,’ that said something that struck me as very true. It said: “If you want endless repetition, see a lot of different people. If you want infinite variety, stay with one.” What happens when you date is you run all your best moves and tell all your best stories — and in a way, that routine is a method for falling in love with yourself over and over.

You can’t do that with a longtime mate because he knows all that old material. With a long relationship, things die then are rekindled, and that shared process of rebirth deepens the love. It’s hard work, though, and a lot of people run at the first sign of trouble. You’re with this person, and suddenly you look like an asshole to them or they look like an asshole to you — it’s unpleasant, but if you can get through it you get closer and you learn a way of loving that’s different from the neurotic love enshrined in movies. It’s warmer and has more padding to it.”

― Joni Mitchell

8/31/2021