Hanging in the place of honor above the teacher’s writing table is a calligraphy scroll that says ‘Heart and Hand Are One.’ It was written and given to him by his own teacher. It contains the innermost secret of calligraphy Oneness, like all secrets, has to be revealed. A revelation that both comes of itself and takes years to attain. So often it is my disconnectedness that I become aware of. So many efforts are necessary before this effortless unity appears. From time to time, it is suddenly there. For a moment, heart and hand unite and there is a brief taste of being completely engaged: at one within myself and with the practice. Heart and hand, symbols of so many opposites that are inextricably united: spirit and body, being and doing, centre and extremity. All these dualities in which we live our daily lives come together in this moment that is outside of time. Heart moving the hand, spirit and body reunited and whole. A returning to original unity……Paul Crompton

what might flourish?

6 Word Memoirs……

My singing voice was never heard

Sorta kinda wanna whata wobbly wow

Fixer upper: don’t inspect too closely

You can’t take me with you

24 addresses but still no home

Brooklyn girl makes good: parents dumbfounded

Dear Abby, free advice, unsolicited usually

Car for sale no wheels included

Walking time bomb needs handsome detonator

Is this boat sailing to somewhere?

Spiritual one in family of mathematicians

Barbed wire pricked my American blood

You’re pretty in your own way

Married a rabbi; still a feminist

Once handicapped now disabled still human

I am always changing my mind

Grandmother, no education; granddaughter, no limits

……Natalie Goldberg

six words to find our way…..hmmm….we can channel ourselves out of illusion…finding value in our essence may renew a sense of destiny…listening to the heart integrates healing….seeking naked soul through make believe…..

The capacity to see clearly with our inner eye what we could become, or what the people could become together, if we should undertake the necessary journey, is as essential to human development as rain and sunshine are essential to the growth of plants. This is because as human beings we develop and grow through our own decisions. We therefore must have some vision, some ideal or goal to look toward, or else we will have no way of knowing what we must do. It is also vitally important that our vision be a true one. For many people believe themselves to be far less than what they could be. And because they cannot see any other possibility  for themselves than their present undeveloped conditions, they stop struggling, and thereby abandon their symbolic journey around the medicine wheel….Phil Lane, Jr. & elders