after dinner, [marcel] duchamp would take the bus to play at a chess circle and return late with [lydie] his first wife lying awake waiting for him • even so, he did not go up to bed immediately, but set up the chess pieces to study the position of a game he had been playing • first thing in the morning when he arose, he went to the chessboard to make a move he had thought during the night • but the piece could not be moved • during the night lydie has arisen and glued down all the pieces . . . a few days later, duchamp and lydie divorced, and he returned to the states.

it's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog.

if you think you are too small to be effective, you have never been in bed with a mosquito.

dana came into the room, she knelt down next to me and we made eye contact • i mouthed my first lucid words to her • 'maybe we should let me go' • she said, 'i'm only going to say this once • i will support whatever you want to do because this is your life • and your decision • but i want you to know that i'll be with you for the long haul, no matter what' • then she added the words that saved my life: 'you're still you • and i love you.

several of my family members were tortured and shot under klaus barbi's orders • at his trial i found myself only yards away from this monstrous individual, now a timid, soft-looking old gentleman • i felt i could trust my grandchildren to him • it showed me how deceptive appearances can be.

we cannot merely pray

we cannot merely pray to you o God to end war:

for the world was made in such a way
that must find our own path of peace
within ourselves and with out neighbor.

we cannot merely pray to you o God to root out prejudice;
for we already have eyes
with which to see the good in all people
if we would only use them rightly.

we cannot merely pray to you o God to end starvation;
for we already have the resources
with which to feed the entire world
if we would only use them wisely.

we cannot merely pray to you o God to end despair;
for we already have the power
to clear away slums and to give hope
if we would only use our power justly.

we cannot merely pray to you o God to end disease:
for we already have great minds
with which to search out cures and healings
if we would only use them constructively.

therefore we pray instead
for strength, determination, and will power,
to do instead of merely to pray
to become instead of merely to wish;
so that our world may be safe,
and so that our lives may be blessed.

you discover real true love at the moment when you are making love with your partner and realize that all your life together is a single continuous and ongoing act of love-making, in the course of which you happen to occasionally disengage bodies altogether for hours at a time • it is not something to which you return - it is something you suddenly find you have never really left.

don't waste any time dividing the world into the good guys and the bad guys • hold them both together in your own soul - where they are anyway - and you will have held together the whole world.

how can anyone ever tell you
that you're anything less than beautiful
how can anyone ever tell you
that you're anything less than whole
how can anyone fail to notice
that you're loving is a miracle
how deeply you're connected to my soul.

a strange passion is moving in my head.
my heart has become a bird
which searches in the sky.
every part of me goes in different directions.
it is really so
that the one i love is everywhere?

rumi describes the amazement of the audience when a preacher prayed not only for his friends and his family but also for his enemies and for those who treated him badly, for highway robbers and other criminals • asked the reason for seemingly so strange a prayer, he explained that these evil people had mistreated him so badly that they had forced him to seek help of God and so he inadvertently turned him back to the path of virtue and brought him closer to his Lord; hence they deserved his gratitude, for they were his helpers on the way to God.

befriend the darkness and watch for wonders you have missed in the light