L'Chaim December 6, 2018

»What makes the desert beautiful is that somewhere it hides a well.«

(Antoine de Saint-Exupéry)

L'Chaim November 9, 2018

The greatest danger any civilisation faces is when it suffers from collective amnesia. We forget how small beginnings lead to truly terrible endings. A thousand years of Jewish history in Europe added certain words to the human vocabulary: forced conversion, inquisition, expulsion, ghetto, pogrom, Holocaust. Once hate goes unchecked, the road to tragedy is short.

(Jonathan Sacks)

L`Chaim October 12, 2018

Earth's crammed with heaven, 
And every common bush afire with God, 
But only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round and pluck blackberries.

       (Elizabeth Barrett Browning)

L`Chaim October 1, 2018

cathedrals III

the pillars

on which our glances wandered upwards,

there are engraved

the

stuttered

wept

screamed

songs of lamentation

of the elders

               the stone skin

               on which our glances

               climb,

               there are inscribed

               the sung

               laughed

               danced

               hymns

of the elders

the breath of all those

who were here before us,

with nothing but their lives,

sanctifies

this space

           Burga Gripekoven, Treibsand, 2014

L`Chaim September 13, 2018

True humanity is more precious than all the beauty of this earth.

Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, 1746-1827

L`Chaim April 18, 2018

My God, my God,

may it never end –

the sand and the sea,

the rustle of the water,

the brilliance of the sky,

the prayer of man.

           From Hannah Szenes’s Poem,

                  A Walk To Caesarea

L`Chaim March 22, 2018

If stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown. But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile.

Ralph Waldo Emerson,
Nature, 1836

L`Chaim February 25, 2018

at home outside

III

judge not

the lovers

their togetherness

shatters

where birds of sorrow

build their nests

in the mouths

of the weeping

be song

comfort

               from Wilhelm Bruners, »ZUHAUSE IN ZWEI ZELTEN«, p. 42

L`Chaim February 4, 2018

»Art can move and alter people in subtle ways because, like love, it speaks through and to the heart.«

                              Martin Luther King Jr. in a letter to Sammy Davis Jr., Dec. 20, 1960

L`Chaim January 9, 2018

How simple for me to live with You, O Lord!

How easy for me to believe in You!

When my mind opens unto doubt or falters,

when the most clever of the clever

see no further than this day’s end

and do not know what must be done tomorrow,

You grant me the clarity and the confidence that You exist​

and that You will take care that not all the paths of good be closed.

At the peak of my earthly fame,

I gaze back with wonderment at that path

through hopelessness - to this place,

from whence I, too, could send

a reflection of Your radiance to humanity.

And however much time is required

to mirror your radiance,

You will grant it to me.

And what I will no longer be able to accomplish,

means that You have predestined it for others.

Prayer by Alexander Solschenizyn, composed between 1958 and 1963.

[quoted from: Alexander Solschenizyn, Was geschieht mit der Seele in der Nacht. Kurzerzählungen.

Herbig, 2006]

We come from afar

dear child

and must go further yet

have no fear

all are with you

who were before you

your mother,

your father,

and all who were before them

long long ago

all are with you

have no fear

we come from afar

and must go further yet

my child.

Your grandfather

May 8, 1985

Heinrich Böll (1917-1985)

Best I love September's yellow; 

Morns of dew-strung gossamer,

Thoughtful days without a stir,

Rooky clamours, brazen leaves,

Stubbles dotted o'er with sheaves, -

More than spring’s bright uncontrol

Suit the autumn of my soul.

              Alexander Smith (1829-1867)

Just as a mother with her own life

Protects her child, her only child, from harm,

So within yourself let grow

A boundless love for all creatures.

Let your love flow outward through the universe,

To its height, its depth, its broad extent,

A limitless love, without hatred or enmity.

Then, as you stand or walk,

Sit or lie down,

As long as you are awake,

Strive for this with a one-pointed mind;

Your life will bring heaven to earth.

Eknath Easwaran

L'Chaim July 25, 2017

»Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by humankind.«   (Rudyard Kipling)

L`Chaim July 18, 2017:

If you are reasonable, prove yourself to be a bowl, rather than a canal

that simultaneously receives and passes on,

while the bowl waits until it is filled. . . .

I do not wish to become rich, if it means you must become empty.

If you treat yourself poorly,

whom will you do any good?

If you can, help me out of your fullness,

if not, then spare yourself.

 (From a letter of Bernhard of Clairvaux)