April 22, 2008
A dove nesting in the vines above the Labyrinth Garden at a downtown
church, Austin, Spring, 2008. Quiet and green in the midst of the city:
a garden does a body good.
It's satisfying to see something ancient spring to life, off the page.
July 27, 2006
Once again, in words of mostly one syllable:
The message of true religion
never was designed \
to make our pleasures less.
Courtesy of Second Terrace, here, from Dostoevski's The Brothers Karamazov, on happiness.
I love that passage—it’s Cana of Galilee, the first miracle … Ah, that miracle, what a lovely miracle! It wasn’t sorrow, it was human happiness that Christ extolled, and the first miracle He worked was to bring men happiness … 'He who loves men loves their happiness,' Father Zosima used to repeat so often—that was one of his guiding ideas … What is true and beautiful is always full of forgiveness…”
Part of the intuition of Carl Jung and his idea of Archetypes is that qualities cluster, keep company in a force field. Thus
-- according to Dostoevski's saintly character Zosima, these are
signals that Someone is Nearby, turning the water of "not-good-enough" into plenty of excellent wine.
The sorrows of the mind be banished from this place.
So writes Dilys from retirement, and so say all of us!
Update:
July 4, 2006
It should be mentioned that posting this recent Baldo drawing here today 
is self-directed at the chief leisure-lover here at Chez Dilys. It would be a regrettable irony to select something from a charming Hispanic-oriented comic strip, as somehow pointed toward that community, inasmuch as our near Hispanic neighbors exhibit a genius for willingness to work that seems to have no end.
The point is that happiness includes in its components its own pursuit. As usual, Graciela is the character who has the last word.
Above all, we must not wish to cling to our suffering.
Continue reading "“We must not desire to become a deeper self than God wills”" »
June 21, 2006
Sharing good things. Another feature of the Value-Added Life.
Physicians and epidemiologists look for prior conditions, weakened immune systems, nutritional strengths or deficiencies, terrain that supports life, as determinants of most other phenomena exhibited by an organism or community.
Continue reading "Ecology of Goodness, also in the Sense of Delectable Happiness" »
June 14, 2006
Will Wilkinson again, on the condition of happiness and how you, or I, might not want to let go of the misery and drift over to greater happiness, if
May 30, 2006
...and splendor, and merriment, and the bloom of life.
Benedict XVI to the young on happiness, and even real estate. The rules are in service of these good things, so we can be happy, not to placate some dour old guy. :-) Or gal.
Continue reading "...a house where the daily bread is love, pardon and understanding..." »
May 27, 2006
In addition to the serious and ceremonial focus of the holiday, it's the first real long weekend of summer (uh, spring).
Ms. Zoë here, says, "Enjoy!" She will.
