First day of the Seventh month

Enjoying or creating beauty is free, and something all human beings have access to.    —Hector Garcia and Francesc Miralles, Ikigai

There is a phrase in Japan—another one of those seemingly untranslatable aphorisms: kachou fuugetsu. Separately, the characters are flower, bird, wind, and moon, but together they are greater than the sum of their parts, describing something far more powerful and emotive. Kachou fuugetsu most commonly translates as learning about yourself through experiencing the beauty of nature. 

                  Erin Niimi Longhurst, A Little Book of Japanese Contentments

All that I have produced before the age of 70 is not worth being counted. It is at the age of 73 that I have somewhat begun to understand the structure of true nature, of animals and grasses, and trees and birds, and fishes and insects; consequently at 80 years of age I shall have made still more progress; at 90 I hope to have penetrated into the mystery of things; at 100 years of age I should have reached decidedly a marvelous degree, and when I shall be 110, all that I do, every point and every line, shall be instinct with life.

                  Hokusai, Postscript to One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji

Take your time. Smell the flowers. And then paint them.

Second day of the Seventh month

From the Aeneid of Virgil: Neptune responds to the pleas of Venus after Aeneas’ ships have been battered by storms at sea—

“In safety as thou [Venus] prayest shall he [Aeneas] reach the haven of Avernus. Only one shall there be whom, lost in the flood, thou shalt seek in vain; one life shall be given for many.”

In the night, the pilot Palinurus was stricken with sleep and swept overboard. Through the waves, the ships were guided as Neptune said.

Katabasis is a descent to the shore, like a journey to the underworld…

I know what you want—

you want Orpheus, you want death.

Orpheus who said ‘Help me find Eurydice.’

…

I fell asleep in a river, I woke in a river,

of my mysterious

failure to die I can tell you

nothing, neither

who saved me nor for what cause—

…

Winter will end, spring will return.

The small pestering breezes

that I so loved, the idiot yellow flowers—

         Louise Gluck, Averno

The secret of happiness (and therefore of success) is to be in harmony with existence, to be always calm, always lucid, always willing, ‘to be joined to the universe without being more conscious of it than an idiot’, to let each wave of life wash one a little farther up the shore.

                                    Cyril Connolly, The Unquiet Grave

Anabasis is an ascent or return…without the return, katabasis is a fall.

Seasons of truth.

Repose, tranquility, stillness, inaction—these were the levels of the universe, the ultimate perfection of Tao. 

                                                      Chuang Tzu

Third day of the Seventh month

The death by which we enter into life is not an escape from reality but a complete gift of ourselves which involves a total commitment to reality. It begins by renouncing the illusory reality which created things acquire when they are seen only in their relation to our own selfish interests.

Before we can see that created things (especially material) are unreal, we must see clearly that they are real.

For the ‘unreality’ of material things is only relative to the greaterreality of spiritual things…We cannot see things in perspective until we cease to hug them to our own bosom. When we let go of them we begin to appreciate them as they really are.

                                             Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude

But God is true; and every man a liar, as it is written.

                                             Romans 3:4

Life is not attained by reasoning and analysis, but first of all by living…And until we have begun to fail we have no way of working out our success.                Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude

We all have something to add—ourselves. Contribute now.

Fourth day of the Seventh month

So why are self-discerning reflections more likely to happen when living abroad? Well, when people live in their home country, they are often surrounded by others who mostly behave in similar ways, so they are not compelled to question whether their own behaviors reflect their core values or the values of the culture in which they are embedded. In contrast, when living abroad, our data found that people’s exposure to novel cultural values and norms prompts them to repeatedly engage with their own values and beliefs, which are then either discarded or strengthened.        How Living Abroad Helps You 

         Develop a Clearer Sense of Self, 

Harvard Business Review

There are many traditional tattoos associated with life at sea. ‘Hold Fast’ across the knuckles of young deckhands was supposed to prevent losing grip on vital ropes…Compass roses or nautical stars were worn to ensure the sailor always knew the way home, and Neptune or turtles were used to show the wearer had crossed the equator or date line.

                           from a Cunard newsletter

Tattoos mark the travels of an old salt. Perhaps when we reflect on our journeys we too will find our own skin permanently changed…narrow views shedding, horizons broadening, diversity and tolerance holding fast. Compass roses.

Fifth day of the Seventh month

You get on a train, you disappear.

You write your name on the window, you disappear.

There are places like this everywhere,

places you enter as a young girl,

from which you never return.

                  Louise Gluck, Averno

From Anna Karenina by Tolstoy:

Anna…took a paper knife [to cut the pages] and an English novel from her handbag. At first she was unable to read. To begin with, she was bothered by the bustle and movement; then, when the train started moving, she could not help listening to the noises; then the snow that beat against the left-hand window and stuck to the glass, and the sight of a conductor passing by, all bundled up and covered with snow on one side, and the talk about the terrible blizzard outside, distracted her attention. Further on, it was all the same: the same jolting and knocking, the same snow on the window; the same quick transitions from steaming heat to cold and back to heat, the same flashing of the same faces in the semi-darkness, and the same voices, and Anna began to read and understand what she was reading. Anna Arkadyevna read and understood, but it was unpleasant for her to read, that is, to follow the reflection of other people’s lives. She wanted too much to live herself. When she read about the heroine of the novel taking care of a sick man, she wanted to walk with inaudible steps round the sick man’s room; when she read about a Member of Parliament making a speech, she wanted to make that speech; when she read about how Lady Mary rode to hounds, teasing her sister-in-law and surprising everyone with her courage, she wanted to do it herself. But there was nothing to do, and so, fingering the smooth knife with her small hands, she forced herself to read.

Extension is either in length, height, or depth. Of these the length strikes least, an hundred yards of even ground will never work such an effect as a tower an hundred yards high, or a rock or mountain of that altitude…the effects of a rugged and broken surface seem stronger…carry us out of our way to enter in this place into the cause of these appearances…as the great extreme of dimension is sublime, so the last extreme of littleness is…when we attend to the infinite divisibility of matter, when we pursue animal life into these excessively small, and yet organized beings, that escape the nicest inquisition of the sense, when we push our discoveries yet downward, and consider those creatures so many degrees yet smaller, and the still diminishing scale of existence, in tracing which the imagination is lost as well as the sense, we become amazed and confounded at the wonders of minuteness; nor can we distinguish in its effect this extreme of littleness from the vast itself. For division must be infinite as well as addition…

—Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Sublime and Beautiful

Anna Arkadyevna, a character in a novel reading a novel in the closeness of a dim train compartment, living beyond experience, experience beyond words, the details of her person reflected in the frost-streaked window. Reality. Appearances. Disappearances.

Better to see the face than to hear the name. 

                                             Zen saying

Life extends…

Sixth day of the Seventh month

After a long succession of noises, as the fall of waters, or the beating of forge hammers, the hammers beat and the water roars in the imagination long after the first sounds have ceased to affect it; and they die away at last by gradations which are scarcely perceptible. If you hold up a strait pole, with your eye to one end, it will seem extended to a length almost incredible. Place a number of uniform and equidistant marks on this pole, they will cause the same deception, and seem multiplied without end. The senses strongly affected in some one manner, cannot quickly change their tenor, or adapt themselves to other things; but they continue in their old channel until the strength of the first mover decays. This is the reason of an appearance very frequent in madmen; that they remain whole days and nights, sometimes whole years, in the constant repetition of some remark, some complaint, or song; which having struck powerfully on their disordered imagination, in the beginning of their phrensy, every repetition reinforces it with new strength; and the hurry of their spirits, unrestrained by the curb of reason, continues it to the end of their lives.

—Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Sublime and Beautiful

Socrates his cicuta [hemlock], Lucretia’s dagger, Timon’s halter, are yet to be had; Cato’s knife and Nero’s sword are left behind them, as so many fatal engines, bequeathed to posterity, and will be used to the world’s end by such distressed souls: so intolerable, insufferable, grievous, and violent is their pain, so unspeakable and continuate…the cramp and convulsion of the soul, an epitome of hell…

                           Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy

So first of all, we accept ourselves as we are. Then we can accept the other person as she or he is. Looking deeply, we see how that person has been formed. Just as a flower is made only of non-flower elements, that person has been made of elements that are not him – his ancestors, his parents, his society, and so on…“Looking with the eyes of compassion” is an expression from the Lotus Sutra, describing Avalokiteshvara [Kanzeon]. When you look at others with the eyes of compassion, not only do they feel pleasant but you also feel very pleasant, because understanding and love pervade your heart. The amount of happiness you have depends on the amount of compassion that is in your heart. Compassion always carries with it joy and freedom…We learn how to touch the beauty of the sky and the autumn leaves even if pain and sorrow are still there.

                                    Thich Nhat Hanh

And whoever walks a furlong without sympathy walks to his own funeral, dressed in his shroud,

And I or you pocketless of a dime may purchase the pick of the earth,

And to glance with an eye or show a bean in its pod confounds the learning of all times,

And there is no trade or employment but the young man following it may become a hero,

And there is no object so soft but it makes a hub for the wheeled universe,

And any man or woman shall stand cool and supercilious before a million universes.

…

I hear and behold God in every object, yet I understand God not in the least, 

Nor do I understand who there can be more wonderful than myself.

…

I see something of God each hour of the twenty-four, and each moment then,

In the faces of men and women I see God, and in my own face in the glass;

I find letters from God dropped in the street, and every one is signed by God’s name,

And I leave them where they are, for I know that others will punctually come forever and ever.           —Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

Perspective. Lines receding to infinity. Perhaps in a state of trauma, a fractal—like Ophelia. Perspectives. Weather. Seasons. Leaves. Us. Always.

Seventh day of the Seventh month

The greatest gift we can make to others is our true presence.

The Four Mantras:

1.  I am here for you.

2.  I know you are there, and I am very happy.

And if you are truly present, this mantra will produce a miracle. You become real, the other person becomes real, and life is real in that moment. You bring happiness to yourself and to the other person.

Whenever you are really there, you are able to recognize and appreciate the presence of the other – the full moon, the North Star, the magnolia flowers, or the person you love the most.

The Four Mantras:

3. I know you suffer. That is why I am here for you.

4.  I suffer. Please help. 

In true love, there is no place for pride…When you are hurt by the person you love, when you suffer and believe that your suffering has been caused by the person you love the most…Do not let pride stand in the way. Practice the fourth mantra, “Darling, I suffer. Please help.” If you really consider her to be the one you love the most in this life, you have to do that. When the other person hears your words, she will come back to herself and practice looking deeply. Then the two of you will be able to sort things out, reconcile, and dissolve the wrong perception.

                                             Thich Nhat Hanh

True love shares truth. Across the Universe. Orihime and Hikoboshi—the weaver-girl and the cowherd. Only this night of the year they meet, Tanabata. True love is true. It is in the stars. The arrow flickers.

A dark sky sanctuary is a remote piece of protected land that is prized for the quality of its starry nights. Geographic isolation makes reaching one of these rare sanctuaries difficult, which also makes it all the more worthwhile. Orihime and Hikoboshi will leave the light on for you.

Certified IDA International Dark Sky Sanctuaries

• !Ae!Hai Kalahari Heritage Park (South Africa)
• Aotea / Great Barrier Island (New Zealand)
• Cosmic Campground (U.S.)
• Devils River State Natural Area - Del Norte Unit (U.S.)
• Gabriela Mistral (Chile)
• Massacre Rim (U.S.)
• Pitcairn Islands (B.O.T.)
• Rainbow Bridge National Monument (U.S.)
• Stewart Island / Rakiura (New Zealand)
• The Jump-Up (Australia)

www.darksky.org