it took the ocean

Andrew Garfield on losing his mother, The Believer

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largerloves

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some(times, some(thing

 

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There is no escaping the awful fact of it: the sparrow fell. I know of no explanation, no justification, no meaning or larger picture that will make sense of it. I will forever be gazing into that gap, that absence, tracing the shimmering outline of the broken sparrow, the brilliance that passed into this world and out of it bearing my husband’s name.

What I know is that sometimes, something slips through the gap. The absence sings, coaxing us to trust there is more than emptiness, more than an eternal void that opens where a life has been.


—Jan Richardson
Sparrow: A Book of Life and Death and Life, postscript

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wait - what

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question

  

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What are we?

A fleeting, intricate presence riding a tiny speck of water and rock, out here in the dark, sailing the ship of wonder ever more deeply into the void from which we came, that is our true home and mysterious destination.

—Whitley Strieber & Jeffrey J. Kripal
The Super Natural: A New Vision of the Unexplained

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All will come again into its strength:
the fields undivided, the waters undammed,
the trees towering and the walls built low.
And in the valleys, people as strong and varied as the land.

And no churches where God
is imprisoned and lamented
like a trapped and wounded animal.
The houses welcoming all who knock
and a sense of boundless offering
in all relations, and in you and me.

No yearning for an afterlife, no looking beyond,
no belittling of death, but only longing for what belongs to us
and serving earth, lest we remain unused.
 

—Ranier Maria Rilke
Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God 

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妈妈 (Child)

 

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A poem, 'simultaneously unbearable and exquisite,'

in Chinese with English translation by Alex Tang, 

a Toronto-based earthquake engineer. 

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孩子（Mom)

快 (Hurry up)

抓紧妈妈的手 (Tightly hold your Mom’s hand)

去天堂的路 (The road to heaven)

太黑了 (is too dark)

妈妈怕你 (Mom is afraid that)

碰了头 (you hit your head)

快 (Hurry up)

抓紧妈妈的手 (Tightly hold your Mom’s hand)

让妈妈陪你走 (Let Mom keep you company)

妈妈 (Child)

怕 (I am afraid)

天堂的路 (The road to heaven)

太黑 (is too dark)

我看不见你的手 (I cannot see your hand)

自从 (since)

倒塌的墙 (the wall collapsed)

把阳光夺走 (it took the sun light away)

我再也看不见 (I cannot see )

你柔情的眸 (your lovely eyes again)

孩子 (Mom)

你走吧 (You can go)

前面的路 (the road in front of you)

再也没有忧愁 (has no sorrow any more)

没有读不完的课本 (there are no books that you cannot finish reading)

和爸爸的拳头 (and your father’s fist)

你要记住 (you have to remember)

我和爸爸的摸样 (my face and your father’s face)

来生还要一起走 (let’s finish walking this road together in our next life)

妈妈 (Child)

别担忧 (do not worry)

天堂的路有些挤 (the road to heaven is a bit crowded)

有很多同学朋友 (I have a lot classmates and friends)

我们说 (we all say)

不哭 (don’t cry)

哪一个人的妈妈都是我们的妈妈 (anyone’s Mom is our Mom)

哪一个孩子都是妈妈的孩子 (any child is Mom’s child)

没有我的日子 (the days without me)

你把爱给活的孩子吧 (give your love to the children alive)

妈妈 (Mom)

你别哭 (don’t cry)

泪光照亮不了 (tears cannot light up the road)

我们的路 (our road)

让我们自己 (let us)

慢慢的走 (walk slowly)

妈妈 (Child)

我会记住你和爸爸的模样 (I will remember your face and father’s face)

记住我们的约定 (remember our appointment)
来生一起走 (of walking together in our next life)

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via Andrew C. Revkin, 
the NY Times Earth Blog 
May 22, 2008

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i am this

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I see that this body made of the four elements is not really me and I am not limited by this body. I am the whole of the river of life of blood and spiritual ancestors that has been continuously flowing for thousands of years and flows on for thousands of years into the future. I am one with my ancestors and my descendants. I am life that is manifest in countless different forms. I am one with all species whether they are peaceful and joyful or suffering and afraid.

I am present everywhere in this world. I have been present in the past and will be there in the future. The disintegration of this body does not touch me, just as when the petals of the plum blossom fall it does not mean the end of the plum tree.

—Thich Nhat Hanh

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buffleheadcabin

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Death poem of a Japanese Zen Master

 

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Empty-handed I entered
the world 
Barefoot I leave it. 
My coming, my going — 
Two simple happenings 
That got entangled.

Like dew drops 
on a lotus leaf 
I vanish.


—Shinsui, 1769

 

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Can we communicate with the ones who have passed away?

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plumvillagememorial

💗