Ready for the bustle and hustle again?

Why did they make birds so delicate and fine as those sea swallows

when the ocean can be so cruel?

But man is not made for defeat, ‘

he said.

‘A man can be destroyed but not defeated.’

.

.

Ernet Hemigway, The Old Man and the Sea

.

.

.

I am not so separate and afraid.

The pain of life touches me, but the joy of life is so much stronger.

And it alone will heal.

Life is the healer of life,

and the most I can do for the earth is to be its loving child.

.

.

MJ, That One in the Mirror, Dancing the Dream

.

.

.
I cannot recreate that part of my life

nor would I change any part of my life.

However, today when I create my musicI feel like an instrument of nature.

I wonder what delight nature must feel

when we open our hearts and express our God-given talents.

The sound of approval rose across the universe and the whole world abounds in magic.

Wonder fills our hearts, for we have glimpsed,

for an instant

the playfulness of life

and that’s why I love childrenand learn so much from being around them

.……The magic, the wonder, the mystery

And the innocence of a child’s heart

are the seeds of creativity that will heal the world.

I really believe that.

What we need to learn from children isn’t childish.

Being with them connects us to the deeper wisdom of life

Which is ever-present and only asks to be lived.

.

.

MJ, speech in the Grammy Legend Award, 1993

.

.

.

I, the Teacher, when king over Israel in Jerusalem,

applied my mind to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven;

it is an unhappy business that God has given to human beings to be busy with.
I saw all the deeds that are done under the sun;

and see, all is vanity and a chasing after wind.

What is crooked cannot be made straight,

and what is lacking cannot be counted.

……This is an evil in all that happens under the sun,

that the same fate comes to everyone.

Moreover,

the hearts of all are full of evil;

madness is in their hearts while they live,

and after that they go to the dead.

But whoever is joined with all the living has hope,

for a living dog is better than a dead lion.

The living know that they will die,

but the dead know nothings;

they have no more reward,

and even the memory of them is lost.

Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished;

never again will they have any share in all that happens under the sun.

Go,

eat your bread with enjoyment, and drink your wine with a merry heart;

for God has long ago approved what you do.

Let your garments always be white;

do not let oil be lacking on your head.

Enjoy life with the wife whom you love,

all the days of your vain life that are given you under the sun,

because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun.

Whatever your hand finds to do,

do with your might;

for there is no work of thought of knowledge of wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going.

.

.

Ecclesiastes, the Old Testament, NRSV