4-10 August 24 QOTW
Image description: pigeons in flight with blue sky and clouds and city full of trees and buildings in background. One white pigeon. Photo by Charles Earl
I’ve had a chance to collect some quotes on grief. I chose this photo because of that one white pigeon and the idea of capturing a moment in flight. May you have joy in your life and loved ones you care for and will miss when they are gone. Celebrate your time with them. Cherish the moments.
Sunday
Life is full of grief, to exactly the degree we allow ourselves to love other people.
Orson Scott Card, Shadow of the Giant
Monday
It doesn’t have to cost a lot of money to walk through a park during a sunny break on a rainy day. I encourage you to embrace a few of the good things that are available to us in the moment.
Ron Saper in a FB message to me
Tuesday
The Thing Is
BY ELLEN BASS
to love life, to love it even
when you have no stomach for it
and everything you’ve held dear
crumbles like burnt paper in your hands,
your throat filled with the silt of it.
When grief sits with you, its tropical heat
thickening the air, heavy as water
more fit for gills than lungs;
when grief weights you down like your own flesh
only more of it, an obesity of grief,
you think, How can a body withstand this?
Then you hold life like a face
between your palms, a plain face,
no charming smile, no violet eyes,
and you say, yes, I will take you
I will love you, again.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/151844/the-thing-is
I shared this poem with Ron on FB and he hearted it.
Wednesday
Why can’t the ‘unprecedented times’ be like gargoyles coming to life? Bats helping me do my laundry? Crows wearing top hats becoming news anchors on major media outlets? WHERE IS THE WHIMSY?
from @CopingChaos as quoted by T. Thorn Coyle, Invoking Whimsy in Strange Times
[I don’t know which platform Coping Chaos is on alas.]
You all know how important whimsy is to me. It’s even on my business card.
Thursday
The morning after
my death
we will sit in cafés
but I will not
be there
I will not be
from Etel Adnan’s The Spring Flowers Own: “The morning after / my death”
This poem resonates for many reasons. Ron was one of my regular cafe pals. I think of all the cafes we went to: Planet Coffee, The Daily Grind (a cafe in my neighbourhood that burnt down several years ago), Pressed Cafe, Umi Cafe, Raw Sugar, Bar Robo (other cafes in my neighbourhood that are no longer there), Art House Cafe. We had plans to go to Ten Toes together but never got there. I wish he’d experienced it. I think he would have loved all the plants and the fact that it also had a laundromat.
Friday
To tackle the great challenges of our times, both at a personal and a global level, we have to avoid one pitfall above all: a focus on loss rather than on vision.
Anna Katharina Schaffner, Exhausted, An A-Z for the Weary as quoted by Shawna LeMay in Transactions with Beauty, Live Like an Artist – Vision and Process
Saturday
Image description: colourful poster and text in an egg-shaped oval. Women dancing.
I believe the circles of women around us weave invisible nets of love that carry us when we’re weak and sing with us when we’re strong.
SARK
If you have inspiring and intriguing quotes to share, please reach out. I’d love to include them here.
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