I started my new college class last night, and the news was good: a great group of eager-looking scholars seeking to raise themselves up in their lives. We had a lively class (or so it seemed to me), and I was smiling most of the way home.

Dinner tonight with Matt as our special guest: vegetarian reubens and pineapple chunks, then conversation beside the comforting fire.

CHEERFUL GIVING

"Overflow", oil on board, by Don Gray

  I often find myself giving in a grumpy way, as if I get only so many gifts myself and can’t afford to give any to others. It’s a strange way to behave, since beautiful favors are given to me with great permissiveness moment by moment, so many that my life seems always overloaded with luck and blessings. I should share what I have the way the sun shares light, unreservedly and steadily. For example, I have thoughts that are endlessly given to me by some stroke of good fortune, and I should find it pure fun to give them away the way winds give away their freshness. Also, feelings are forever flowing into me from somewhere, and they, too, can be shared in an unselfish way. I can furnish others with fun and reassurance and a sense of security, simply because I have so much of them myself. I’m overflowing with good fortune, swarming and bursting with it, so why not parcel it out to other people with cheers?  

IN BORROWED LIGHT

In Borrowed Light

By: George Bourganos

In borrowed light

Full moon shall reign

In silver skies

Oh! arrogant glow

Of youth in bloom

How all in vain!

Wise owl cries

King Sun will show

"Moon, Lake, Stars", oil, by Tom Brown

The imposter's doom

[Here's the same poem in Greek, the poet's first language.]

Με δανεικό φως

Πανσέληνος θα κυριαρχήσει 
Σε ουρανούς ασημενιους
Ω!Αλαζονικη λάμψη
Νεωτητας που ανθεί

Πόσο όλα ματαια
Η σοφή κουκουβαγια κραυγάζει
Ο Βασιλιάς Ηλιος θα λάμψει
Στου Σφετεριστη τη καταστροφή 

The father of one of my students recently wrote this poem about the moon making light only by “borrowing” it from the sun, and it seemed like a message to me to relax and make more of a holiday of each day. All too often I fall into the belief that I have to make all the light in my life – that a small, separate "me" is the maker of all the things in my life that shine and are successful. It’s as if when I rise each morning I must flip some switch inside me that throws out light and lets life be bright and productive, since if I don’t do the lighting, little will be left for the day but darkness. It’s a strange approach to life, as strange as the moon making a big deal about shining as well as possible when all the while it’s borrowing, without effort, the endlessly bright light of the sun. I shine each day, each moment, because something shows up each moment to make it happen – the same something that started “the big bang” billions of years ago and keeps bringing power to the universe second by second. My blood pumps for the same reason that rivers run and wings bring birds across the skies – because there’s a force that fills the universe with liveliness. When I raise my arm, it’s the sparkling, vivacious universe that does it. I don’t have to make it happen, just marvel at the fact that it does

Up early (4:00 a.m., as usual on weekdays) for some writing, then a sharp workout on the bike trainer, and then breakfast with my beautiful wife as the sun was just starting to show itself.

"Vintage Dominoes", acrylic on masonite, by Paul Wolber

         

A good day at school with my very good students, then home for a fire in the fireplace, quiet conversation, some schoolwork at the dining room table, laughter, and dinner for the two of us with dominoes. (I took two out of three!) Afterwards, still the fire, still the laughter, and a few more pieces placed in our current puzzle.

HURRICANES AND GENTLENESS

"Approaching Storm", oil, by Lori McNamara

Recently a storm named Sandy raced across the eastern seaboard of the United States, inspiring awe in all of us, but I’m still far more impressed by powers like gentleness. Sandy stopped thrashing us after several hours, but gentleness never stops being strong and unshakable. Storms can show us their force for only so long before they fall away into soft breezes, but gentleness just keeps being quietly powerful, for days and years. You can’t split gentleness, or shred it, or bang it till it breaks, because it’s stronger and vaster than winds or the sky. It’s as soft and resilient as water. Drop a stone into a lake, and the lake lets it in and settles back into its timeless even-temperedness, and the gentleness we all share can be just as irrepressible. It’s a power no Sandy can possibly match, this spirited and invincible force, this influential gentleness our hearts hold ready for us to use in the storms of our lives.   

"Snowfall on the Farm", pastel, Johanna Bohoy

A light, fluffy snow started falling around noon today, and soon the streets were slick and frosted over with snow. The flakes were large and feathery, and floated straight down through the windless air. My first college class of the semester was canceled tonight, so I was able to spend a cozy evening with Delycia and her son, Aaron, who had business down this way and stopped in for a sleepover in our guest room. We had my leftover chicken soup for supper, and then sat by the fire and felt the good friendship of family.  

CHANGING MINDS

"Afternoon Breeze", oil, by Ruth Andre

A friend sometimes playfully faults me for changing my mind too often, but the truth is that all of our minds change moment by moment, and we should revel in the fact. A breeze blows in brand new ways each second, and none of us can escape constantly building a brand new thought. Actually, we don’t so much build new thoughts as freely receive them as they sweep into our lives like continuous gifts. Thoughts may sometimes seem old, just the same ones that have been inspiring or pestering us for days and years, but actually each thought is a release of something utterly free and fresh. A thought may wear some of the clothes of past thoughts, but underneath there’s nothing that’s not new and ready to remake us. Our lives consist, most of all, of ever-changing ideas flaring up like ever-wavering flames, and the best approach to this wonder is not to work against it but to praise it.