more philosophy

"Our relationship with God is like the relationship of a drop of water to the ocean."
Yogi Shanti Desai, of Ocean City, New Jersey.

Since there are very few if any original ideas, it is pointless for me to fill up blogspace with my personal observations. It is really just an exercise in ego for me to do so, mostly with self serving and superficial motives. In doing so I am only borrowing others' ideas and displaying them as if my I had some part in developing them; or trying to present myself as a messenger of "truth".

Thus the emphasis on quotations which over the years have had a profound effect on my thinking.

"The universe that we see is a projection of our own mind."
Yogi Shanti Desai, YOGA Holistic Practice Manual

life

pain builds character;
character builds faith;
faith can move mountains.

(author unknown)

thoughts in rhyme

to persist
or to desist;

to ride
or to decide;

to hold
or to fold;

to stay
or to go away;

is it the sands of time or
the healing hands of time?

coming home

famous quote:

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888-1965),
from Little Giddings, a poem.

Satanstoe

"The foundations of great events are often remotely laid in very capricious and un-calculated passions, motives, or impulses. Chance has usually as much to do with the fortunes of states, as with those of individuals; or, if there be any calculations connected with them at all , they are the calculations of a power superior to any that exists in man."

James Fenimore Cooper(1789-1851), in his preface to Satanstoe.

New Surroundings

LAKE OTSEGO

----- o'er no sweeter lake
Shall morning break or noon-cloud sail,--
No fairer face than thine shall take
The sunset's golden veil.

This portion of a verse by John Greenleaf Whittier( 1807-1892 ) appears in a book entitled "James Fenimore Cooper" By Mary Elizabeth Phillips, published 1912.

By "googling" the verse I found no references to Otsego in connection with the above verse, however on Project Gutenburg I found the poem "Lake Kenoza" containing the identical verse referencing Kenoza vice Otsego. Lake Kenoza is in East Haverhill Massachussets, of which Whittier had fond childhood memories. "Kenoza" is purported to mean "pickerel" in the local Native American language at the time.

I must do some research to find out if this is a mis-representation , or if there is a valid historical basis for the substitution which appears on the surface to be somewhat bogus.

In either case I think these are beautiful words.

Please enlighten me if you have any information about the verse(s).