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To Emily Dickinson

To Emily Dickinson

by Small Circle Big Circle

Sister,

you are to me.

Though I have never met you.

Nor have I ever heard

the sound of your voice;

nor held your hand into mine,

nor tasted the flavor

of your bread.

Sister,

you are to me.

The words you left behind,

hoping

they would be destroyed

one day,

feed me

day and night.

“It is not the words,” someone said

“but the power within them,

the light, the truth in them

is what gives them life.”

Your verse, 

my sister,

is

Alive.

O

so Alive!

It breathes the known and the unknown

of the universe.

It is a constant

reflection

of Being;

in your eyes,

always so perfectly clear and distinct.

You are a sister to me.

And though I have never met you

Nor heard the sound of your voice

Nor held your hand into mine,

You walk with me,

Side by side.

And your words,

yes,

feed me

day and night.

The bread

of my every day.

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The plot

“How do I put together into a coherent image the pieces of my life? How do I find the basic plot of my story?”

James Hillman, The Soul’s Code

Painting by Small Circle Big Circle
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Habits of mind

Word collage by small circle big circle

Living here

You are probably wondering

What makes habits of the mind

Last a lifetime:

LOVE,

Support all creatures great and small,

collaboration and community,

history,

culture,

local music.

You get one mind.

Feed it well.

Use it for good.

Spring comes.

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Beauty

“In a time when we have more access than ever before to the traumas of this world, how will you resist the tide of despair? Let beauty be your anchor. If you find the lake view too bright, bring your gaze closer, perhaps all the way to your own flesh and blood. Life is monstrous on the threshold of apocalypse. The practice of beholding, this fidelity to beauty in all things, I’ve come to believe, is no small form of salvation.”

From Black Liturgies by Cole Arthur Riley

Apples by Small Circle Big Circle
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The Guest House by Rumi

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
As an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

– Rumi

by Small Circle Big Circle
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Making art

“Making art is dangerous and revealing. Making art precipitates self-doubt, stirring deep waters that lay between what you know you should be, and what you fear you might be.”

From Art & fear by D. Bayles and T. Orland

Garlic by small circle big circle