"...The consistent care necessary ...."

 … The consistent care necessary to keep the body machinery functioning in spite of age and deterioration is mandatory.  A lifetime of training is required.  It’s so easy to blame the terrain, so to speak, or the light and wind for our failures and backsliding. But where the body is concerned there is not time for self-pity…. living as we do in society that wants to put old people to bed.  You can hardly get wisdom out of someone who is lying around during his last years.  Actuality is needed right up to the end….It’s a matter of testing your capacities and preparing for the next level.  Old age demands that we garner and lean on all previous experience.

from “A Walk on the Beach”, Joan Anderson

"Though the road is endless ...."

Though the road is endless, take the first step;

watching from a distance is not for real men.

To live for the body is all animals can do,

But you must travel by the life of the heart.

(Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi: Quatrain 288)

"Toward a True Kinship of Faiths"

“Obey the injunctions of your own faith; travel to the essence of your religious teaching, the fundamental goodness of the human heart.  Here is the space, where despite differences, we are all simply human … Open your heart so that the blessings of your faith may reach into its deepest recesses … Always embrace the common humanity that lies at the heart of us all.  Always affirm the oneness of our human family.  Let your heart be softened by the balm of compassion, reflecting deeply upon the needs and aspirations of yourself and others.  Let not your differences from the views of others come in the way of the wish for their peace, happiness, and well-being.”

Toward a True Kinship of Faiths”, The Dalai Lama

"Returning Home"

When I was young, I left home; old I return.

My accent hasn’t changed, yet my hair is thin.

Children see me, but don’t recognize me.

They smile and ask, “Stranger, where do you come from?”

He Zhizhang

"To find the universal elements ...."

“To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter... to be thrilled by the stars at night; to be elated over a bird's nest or a wildflower in spring — these are some of the rewards of the simple life.”