Wednesday, March 28, 2012

~The Laughing Heart; Charles Bukowski~

Your life is your life.

Don't let it be clubbed into dank submission. Be on the watch, there are ways out, there is a light somewhere.

It may not be much light but it beats the darkness.

Be on the watch.

The gods will offer you chances. Know them. Take them.

You can't beat death but you can beat death in life, sometimes, and the more often you learn to do it, the more light there will be.

Your life is your life.

Know it while you have it.

You are marvelous, the Gods wait to delight in you.

~The Laughing Heart; Charles Bukowski~

~Kahlil Gibran; On Good and Evil~

You are good when you strive to give of yourself.
Yet you are not evil when you seek gain for yourself.
For when you strive for gain you are but a root that clings to the earth and sucks at her breast.
Surely the fruit cannot say to the root, "Be like me, ripe and full and ever giving of your abundance."
For to the fruit giving is a need, as receiving is a need to the root.

You are good when you are fully awake in your speech,
Yet you are not evil when you sleep while your tongue staggers without purpose.
And even stumbling speech may strengthen a weak tongue.

You are good when you walk to your goal firmly and with bold steps.
Yet you are not evil when you go thither limping. Even those who limp go not backward.
But you who are strong and swift, see that you do not limp before the lame, deeming it kindness.

You are good in countless ways, and you are not evil when you are not good,
You are only loitering and sluggard.
Pity that the stags cannot teach swiftness to the turtles.

In your longing for your giant self lies your goodness: and that longing is in all of you.
But in some of you that longing is a torrent rushing with might to the sea, carrying the secrets of the hillsides and the songs of the forest. And in others it is a flat stream that loses itself in angles and bends and lingers before it reaches the shore.
But let not him who longs much say to him who longs little, "Wherefore are you slow and halting?"
For the truly good ask not the naked, "Where is your garment?" nor the houseless, "What has befallen your house?"

~Kahlil Gibran; On Good and Evil~