Debra Darvick

enhance your now in word and image

WISDOM

BEFORE NOW

Light in the Darkness — Hannah Arendt

by | 06/07/2022

Even in the darkest of times we have the right to expect some illumination… Such illumination may well come less from theories and concepts than from the uncertain, flickering, and often weak light that some men and women, in their lives and works, will kindle under almost all circumstances and shed over the time-span that was given them on earth.          Hannah Arendt, 1906 – 1975

source: First Light Meditation

 

 

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Strange Jewels — Elizabeth Gilbert

by | 02/03/2022

Surely something wonderful is sheltered inside you. I say this with all confidence, because I happen to believe we are all walking repositories of buried treasure. I believe this is one of the oldest and most generous tricks the universe plays on us human beings, both for its own amusement and for ours: The universe buries strange jewels deep within us all, and then stands back to see if we can find them.
Elizabeth Gilbert, b. 1969
“Blue Purple Red: Amethyst Crystals” by cobalt123 is licensed under Creative Commons.

 

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A Poem by Eugenio Montale

by | 12/12/2021

This verse from Eugenio  Montale’s poem Low Tide was carved into a wall in Monterossa, one of the five villages that comprise Cinque Terra. Kate, our contact at Firebird Tours, kindly found for me the entire poem in translation.  The verse in bold is the one in the photograph.

 

LOW TIDE

 

Evenings of cries, when the swing
rocks in the summerhouse of other days
and a dark vapor barely veils
the sea’s stillness.

Those days, no more. Now swift slanting
flights pass across the wall, the downward plunge
of everything goes on and on, the sheer coast
swallows even the reef that first lifted
you above the waves.
                                                   
With the breath of spring comes
a mournful undertow of lives
engulfed and in the evening,
black bindweed, your memory only
writhes and resists.
It lifts over the embankments, the faraway tunnel
where the train, entering, slowly crawls.
Then, unseen, a lunar flock shows up
and browses on the hills.

 

Translated from Italian by William Arrowsmith
photo credit from about-cinqueterre.com

 

 

 

 

 

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Decisions, Decisions

by | 08/23/2021

I invented this rule for myself to be applied to every decision I might have to make in the future.  I would sort out all the arguments and see which belonged to fear and which to creativeness. And other things being equal, I would make the decision which had the larger number of creative reasons on its side. I think it must be a rule something like this that makes jonquils and crocuses come pushing through the cold mud.     Katherine Butler Hathaway, 1890 — 1942

 

Source: First Light Meditation

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Michaelangelo — Paul Coelho

by | 08/03/2021

The sculptor Michelangelo was once asked how it was that he could create such beautiful works. “It’s very simple,” he answered. “When I look at a block of marble, I see the sculpture inside it. All I have to do is remove what doesn’t belong.” The master says: “There is a work of art each of us was destined to create. That is the central point of our life, and — no matter how we try to deceive ourselves — we know how important it is to our happiness. Usually, that work of art is covered by years of fears, guilt and indecision. But, if we decide to remove those things that do not belong, if we have no doubt as to our capability, we are capable of going forward with the mission that is our destiny. That is the only way to live with honor.”

Paulo Coelho, b. 1947

source: First Light Meditation

 

 

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