To affect the quality of the day -- that is the

highest of the arts.

-- Henry David Thoreau

We are the sculptors of our day.

We can mold it creatively into a wonderful masterpiece.

We control the amount of moisture we mix into our clay.

We pound it, shape it, stroke it, love it.

Others can offer suggestions, and we gain new perspectives from their advice; but it is finally our own creation.

Our knife may occasionally slip, or our mixture of earth may be too dry.

Any great artist suffers temporary setbacks.

Besides, imperfections in art often make it all the more interesting.

How creative can I be in my life today?

Tyger, Tyger, burning bright,

In the forests of the night;

What immortal hand or eye,

Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

Did He who made the Lamb make thee?

-- William Blake

Is there a lamb and a tiger inside us?

Is there any commandment, written on the sky or a stone tablet, denying us our perfect right to be both tiger and lamb?

The tiger, beast made of fire and night, shows its teeth when it blazes with love.

The lamb, orphan wrapped in soft blanket of cloud, weeps to receive that same love.

So we give and take, are strong and weak, guilty and innocent, wrong and right.

So we are balanced, even when we seem to be in conflict.

When we learn to accept all the things we can be, we will be able to love all the ways the world outside us can be.

or the joy of breathing or walking on a bright

morning and smelling the fresh air, is not worth

all the suffering and effort which life implies....

-- Erich Fromm

A robin comes alive by breaking out of its shell.

The small bird struggles to break out of the safety of the blue egg.

Once out, it struggles to grow, slowly learning how to eat, walk, and fly.

We, too, struggle as we grow.

There is brokenness in all of our lives -- broken hearts and broken dreams.

Yet these experiences open our way to a world of growing.

We find comfort in the presence of a Power greater than ourselves, in the same way a baby bird finds warmth near the body of its mother.

We, too, can grow stronger every day, learning to take in nourishment and trying out our new wings.

_______________

11/07/2024

Dividers from Whisper's Graphics (dead links 2009)