Sometimes people let the same problem make them miserable for years when they could just say, "So what."
"My mother didn't love me." So what.
"My husband won't ball me. So what.
"I'm a success but I'm still alone." So what.
I don't know how I made it through all the years before I learned how to do that trick. It took a long time for me to learn it, but once you do, you never forget.”

- Andy Warhol -

Do not worry / if you find nothing. 

This is what I tell myself. 

/ Do not / worry. 

The search / alone is beautiful.

- Omar Sakr -

But what is art other 

 

than revealing human nature ?

 

 - Marina Abramovic -

RIP J.M.A. Biesheuvel

De gelukkigste man die ik ooit ontmoet heb, ben ik zelf, vreemd om dat te zeggen. Wat een avonturen heb ik in die stoel meegemaakt. Ik heb gezeten in mijn stoel mijn vrouw bedrogen met een liefje; ik heb op olifanten gejaagd; ik heb de Russische maatschappij, zoals die in de negentiende eeuw was, tot in de puntjes leren kennen; ik heb er de avonturen gelezen van een rat, een pad, een das en een mol in een mensloos landschap; gezeten in die stoel heb ik tyfonen meegemaakt; ik heb mijn broeder het eerst-geboorterecht verkocht; in die stoel ben ik naar de maan gevlogen, ben ik in tachtig dagen om de aarde gereisd; ik heb in die stoel opium gerookt en de gevolgen haast lijfelijk ervaren, het is kortom een wonderstoel. Na het eten drink ik een glaasje cognac en dan ga ik naar boven, meestal pak ik een boek en doe de stekker van dat ene lichtje in het stopcontact, het lichtje waardoor de stoel precies het omgekeerde van een elektrische stoel wordt, want al lezend kom ik tot leven, word ik gestimuleerd, krijg ik impulsen voor nieuwe verhalen. Vlak voor ik ga slapen pak ik de armleuningen en denk aan mijn dode moeder, droevig en tegelijk tevreden ga ik dan naar bed.

- 'Reis door mijn kamer'(1983)–J.M.A. Biesheuvel -

 

(Schiedam, 23 mei 1939 - Leiden, 30 juli 2020)

Zjef Vanuytsel -- De Zotte Morgen

Worker’s Parade, Photo by Tina Modotti, 1926

more involved 

and yet 

less attached

Own your womanhood. 

 

Own your age. 

 

Embrace it. 

 

It’s a wonderful thing.

 

- Sela Ward-

 

 

One's destination

 

 is never a place, 

 

but a new way of seeing things.

 

- Henry Miller - 

 

NITCH 

 

 

Brothers, 1934 

@Robert Doisneau

Often we allow ourselves to be upset by small things that we should forget about at once

Perhaps someone we helped has proven ungrateful, someone we believed to be a friend has spoken ill of us, some regard we thought we deserved has been denied to us.

We feel such disappointment so strongly that we can no longer work, or even sleep.

We lose many irreplaceable hours brooding over grievances that in a year’s time will be forgotten by us and everybody else.

Let us devote our lives to worthwhile feelings and actions, to great thoughts, real affections and enduring actions for others.

Life is too short to be little.

- Andre Maurois-

Quit trying.

 Quit trying not to try. 

Quit quitting. 

-Two Zen Sayings-

Nothing to do or undo.
Nothing to force,
nothing to want
and nothing missing.

 

 

Don't look for peace. 

Don't look for any other state than the one you are in now; otherwise, you will set up inner conflict and unconscious resistance. 

Forgive yourself for not being at peace. 

The moment you completely accept your non-peace, your non-peace becomes transmuted into peace. 

Anything you accept fully will get you there, will take you into peace. 

This is the miracle of surrender.

- Eckhart Tolle -

Windows (Facade of a House), 1914, Egon Schiele

Everybody has a secret world inside of them. 

 

All of the people of the world. 

 

Everybody. 

 

No matter how dull and boring they are on the outside, inside them they’ve all got unimaginable, magnificent, wonderful, stupid, amazing worlds. 

 

Not just one world.

 

 Hundreds of them.

 

 Thousands maybe. 

–Neil Gaiman-

 

 

Photo by Shuichi Machimoto

Stop speaking ill of others to make you feel better about yourself, it doesn't work this way, when we stab someone in the back initially you may feel better, but over time it erodes the value of who you are within.

People are in our lives for a reason, a season, and all the way to the end, when a relationship is over cut the cord, wish them well, and simply stay in your confidence and power and move on.

 

- Barb Schmidt -

 

 

Why oh man,

 

 do you spend such energy

 

 seeking to please those

 

 you wish to never be like?

 

- St John Chrysostom -

Painting (Man with a Pipe), 1925, Joan Miro

A joyful life isn’t about others; 

 

it’s about the brightness that is associated with being alive.

 

 Your path to it is through anything

 

 that replaces thinking with pure flight, pure joy.

– Martha Beck -

Als je geest vastzit, 

beweeg je lichaam.

Als je lichaam vastzit,

beweeg je geest.

Frankly speaking, 

 

Frank was always frank.

 

- Gail Zappa -

We are constantly confronted 

With three versions of self:

Who we are. 

Who we think we are. 

Who the world thinks we are. 

 

 

Many people do not know

 

 how to make use of a conversation. 

 

They pay too much attention 

 

to what they themselves intend to say in response, 

 

whereas the true listener often contents himself 

 

with a brief answer, plus a little for politeness’ sake.

 - Human, All Too Human -

L'ENFANT VIT EN MOI.

 

 

L’enfant vit en moi.

 

 

Il a été conservé, écouté, entretenu, magnifié. 

 

Souvent, les gens qui passent quelques heures en ma compagnie s’exclament en conclusion que, malgré mon physique dense, tout en épaules et en muscles, je suis un enfant. Je prends leur surprise pour le compliment ultime.

 

S’il réussit sa vie, l’adulte devient le fils de l’enfant qu’il fut.

 

Aujourd’hui, je suis mon fils.

 

Enfin.

 

Et maintenant que je suis devenu mon enfant, j’espère 

l’être pour toujours.

 

(Plus tard, je serai un enfant - Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt)

 

 

 

 

You learn nothing from life

 

if you think you are right all the time 

 

 

If you wish others to know about your good deeds,

 

 they are not truly good deeds.

 

❖ Master Hsuan Hua❖ 

 

 

Love is the capacity to take care, to protect, to nourish.

 

 If you are not capable of generating that kind of energy toward yourself - if you are not capable of taking care of yourself, of nourishing yourself, of protecting yourself - it is very difficult to take care of another person. 

 

In the Buddhist teaching, it’s clear that to love oneself is the foundation of the love of other people. 

 

Love is a practice. 

 

Love is truly a practice.

- Thich Nhat Hanh -

Manakara Peche, Photo by Pierrot Men

There’s actually no such thing as an adult. 

 

That word is a placeholder. 

 

We never grow up. 

 

We’re not supposed to. 

 

We’re born and that’s it. 

 

We get bigger. 

 

We live through great storms. 

 

We get soaked to the bone. 

 

We realize we’re waterproof.

 

 We strive for calm. 

 

We discover what makes us feel good. 

 

We do those things over and over. 

 

We learn what doesn’t feel good. 

 

We avoid those things at all cost. 

 

Sometimes we come together: huge groups in agreement. 

 

Sometimes we clap and dance. 

 

 Sometimes we look like a migration of birds. 

 

We need to remind ourselves - each other - that we’re mere breaths. 

 

But, and this is important, sometimes we can be magnificent, to one person, even for a short time, like the perfect touch - the first time you see the ocean from the middle.

 

 Like every time you see the low, full moon. 

 

We keep on eating: chewing, pretending we know what’s going on.

 

 The secret is that we don’t. 

 

We don’t, and don’t, and don’t.

 

 Each day we’re infants: plucking flower petals, full of wonder.

 

- Micah Linghobart -

Sometimes it was hard to say things. 

Things were so complicated. 

People might resent what you said. 

They might use your remarks against you. 

They might take you seriously and act upon your words, actually do something. 

might not even hear you, which perhaps was the only thing worth hoping for. 

But it was more complicated than that.

 The sheer effort of speaking.

 Easier to stay apart, leave things as they are, avoid responsibility for reflecting the world and all its grave weight. 

Things that should be simple are always hard. 

But hard things are never easy. 

 Don DeLillo

You have an inclination: 

 

In the flash of one second, you feel what needs to be done.

 

 It is not a product of your education; it is not scientific or logical; you simply pick up on the message. 

 

And then you just act: You just do it. 

 

That basic human quality of suddenly opening up is the best part of human instinct.

-Trungpa-

 

 

Last year a foolish monk 

This year no change 

For what is a man, what are we all, 

but bits of time

 caught for a moment in a tangle of blood, bones, skin, and brain? 

She was time. Mauser was time.

 I am a sorry bit of time myself. 

We are time’s containers.

 Time pours into us and then pours out again.

 In between the two pourings we live our destiny.

- Louise Erdrich -Four Souls

 

Nothing is permanent

in this wicked world,

not even our troubles.

- Charlie Chaplin -

 

 

Patti Smith by Richard Avedon

Het is helemaal ok om te zeggen 

"weet je wat, dit maakt me niet gelukkig” 

 en dan ook wat afstand te nemen

 van wat of wie het ook is dat je weghoudt 

van de rust en het evenwicht dat je verdient en nodig hebt.

- Rustpunt -

Photo by Marcel Giró, 1960-70s 

 

 

I find workaholism really anti-fertile. 

For example, in my work with Scandinavian schools with biophilia, it is very apparent that short schooldays and a lot of free time inspires the imagination most and not only makes the kids happier but also they make more original things in the end

I’ve seen how the working until midnight in the biggest cities is really destructive...and you aren’t coming up with any new ideas but just repeating old stuff on a loop.

-  Björk -

NITCH

 

When you criticize someone, 

 

see if you are doing it out of envy.

 

 Your criticism reveals more about yourself

 

 than you realize.

 

❖ Haemin Sunim❖ 

 

 

Stephen Howard - Morning Light (Tree Island series), 2007 

The ego is a monkey catapulting through the jungle:

Totally fascinated by the realm of the senses,

it swings from one desire to the next,

 one conflict to the next,

one self-centered idea to the next.

 If you threaten it, it actually fears for its life.

 Let this monkey go.

 Let desires go.

conflicts go.

the fiction of life and death go.

Just remain in the centre, watching.

-Lao Tzu -

Have an uncomfortable mind; be strange.

 

 Be disturbed: by what is happening on the planet, and to it;

 

 by the cruelty, and stupidity humanity is capable of; 

 

by the unbearable beauty of certain music, 

 

and the mysteries and failures of love, 

 

and the brief, confusing, exhilarating hour of your own life.

 

- Kim Addonizio - Bukowski in a Sundress -

When patterns are broken

 new worlds emerge.

 -Tuli Kupferberg-

Maarten Van Der Kamp

Finally, ultimately, you write...for yourself.

 I mean, I need a public, I need people to play, I need everything else. 

I'm not working in isolation. 

But finally the man...is alone. 

And I have to respond to those criteria which are almost like inner needs or inner responses.

-  Philip Glass -

NITCH 

 

There is no coming to consciousness without pain.

People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own soul.

One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.

- Carl Jung -

Christer Strömholm. Paris, 1962.

Gedachten hebben op zichzelf geen kracht. 

 

 

Het is jouw geloof in een gedachte

 

 die de gedachte leven geeft

 

 

Field of children at summer camp,

 near Bad-Kissingen, Germany, 1929

Who will you love if not yourself? 

 

Other people? 

 

How can you love someone for anything but their raw, naked humanity? 

 

How can you say you love someone if it is not for their flaws and quirks, snorts and hurts, triggers and tears? 

 

Anything else is not love.

 

 It is idealization.

 

 And, as long as you do it to yourself, you will do it to everyone. 

 

You will not love anyone or anything until those eyes in the mirror soften up and embrace the beauty that is already within.

 

 

- Vironika Tugaleva -

- Shel Silverstein -