From the Proverbs of Hell by William Blake

In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy.

Drive your cart and plow over the bones of the dead.

The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.

She who desires but acts not, breeds pestilence.

The cut worm forgives the plow.

She whose face gives no light, shall never become a star.

No bird soars too high, if she soars with her own wings.

If the fool would persist in her folly she would become wise.

Folly is the cloke of knavery.

Shame is Pride’s cloke.

The fox condemns the trap not himself.

Think in the morning, Act in the noon, Eat in the evening, Sleep in the night.

Expect poison from the standing water.

You never know what is enough until you know what is more than enough.

If others had not been foolish, we should be so.

To create a little flower is the labour of ages.

Exuberance is Beauty.

Improvement makes strait roads, but the crooked roads without Improvement, are roads of Genius.

Sooner murder an infant in its cradle than nurse unacted desires.

How do things get done?

We create our own worlds. We exert a great deal of choice as to what enters our sphere by our own actions. At the bottom of those actions our intention guides the direction of how we are in the world and the providence that comes our way. Our motivations and our intentions are not always in sync, yet both exert influence on our actions which exert influence on the effect we get from the universe.

I recognize the power of intention and wish to be as clear as possible about what I WILL for in my life. This entails keeping a clear goal list and an up to date and prioritized palm pilot/calendar and task list. Along side of doing the things on my list, maintaining clarity of intention also entails watching my own self for the deep motivations of what keeps me committed, while tapping into the motivations that keep me on track and not indulging overly in the deep motivations that pull me from my identified intentions. Meanwhile, if I'm being pulled from my intention by a deeper, less- conscious motivation, it behoves me to recognize, and either satisfy in a more appropriate way, or redirect the deep motivation in a way consistent to maintaining a strong life force.

This month I commit to clear to do lists and crystal clear goals.

Note to nameless daughter:
"It is satisfying to be self directed"

a fighting chance

"This goes back to the issue of fear. Fear. We're born just fine. Then suddenly, someone tells us, "Don't do this or that, because…" We get scared. Then we reach the age when we can think for ourselves, and start fighting all our acquired fears. And we have until we die to beat all those fears."

-from conversation in "Inside the Barbarian Invasions" the commentary to "The Barbarian Invasions"

On keeping in the center of the flame…

You can't test courage cautiously.
-Annie Dillard


I'm working at maintaining momentum in my career pursuits which will result in a freelance business doing what I'm already good at while venturing toward a new career in what I'm most passionate about. Each day is a trial to stay on my path and to work hard towards it. I trust that my efforts will be worthwhile when I find that each day I am doing what invigorates me most.

Consider that fear can be an energy boost rather than a deterrent

"Think about entering a new situation. To meet that new situation, imagine you recieved an extra burst of energy, your senses sharpened, there was a tingling—an excitement—in your body, and you became more sensitive and aware."

-credit to Peter McWilliams

keeping a controlled fire burning

Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion.
You must set yourself on fire.
-Reggie Leach

I gained enlightenment from a hot dog vendor today...

he made me one with everything.

...and sometimes it's just absurd gobs of grot...

Great green gobs of greasy grimy gopher guts,
Mutilated monkey meat,
Little dirty birdy feet,
Vulture vomit hanging from an apple tree,
And me without my spoon!
But I got a straw.

Campbell's quest toward the ocean of transcendence...

" Now, I came to this idea of bliss because in Sanskrit, which is the great spiritual language of the world, there are three terms that represent the brink, the jumping-off place to the ocean of transcendence: sat-chit-ananda. The word "Sat" means being. "Chit" means consciousness. "Ananda" means bliss or rapture. I thought, "I don't know whether my consciousness is proper consciousness or not; I don't know whether what I know of my being is my proper being or not; but I do know where my rapture is. So let me hang on to rapture, and that will bring me both my consciousness and my being." I think it worked. "

--Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth, pp. 113, 120


"...it is important to note that following one's bliss, as Campbell saw it, isn't merely a matter of doing whatever you like, and certainly not doing simply as you are told. It is a matter of identifying that pursuit which you are truly passionate about and attempting to give yourself absolutely to it. In so doing, you will find your fullest potential and serve your community to the greatest possible extent."

"JOSEPH CAMPBELL: If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. Wherever you are -- if you are following your bliss, you are enjoying that refreshment, that life within you, all the time."

--reference the Joseph Campbell Foundation website for the above quotes

On being oneself

"The truth is that the closest any of us can come to a true religious experience on this planet is just being who we are at any moment. Being who we are is a pure religious experience. If we can stay with that experience, just being a part of All-That-Is, that's enough. We go searching, chasing after masters, because most of us want more than we have just being ourselves. If you want more, ask the person who knows what everything knows: yourself."
-Wu Wei from "I Ching Life"

On making do

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall,
All the king's horses and all the king's men
Said sadly, "Oh, well, scrambled eggs again!"