MJ

“The snow has not yet left the earth, but spring is already asking to enter your heart. If you have ever recovered from a serious illness, you will be familiar with the blessed state when you are in a delicious state of anticipation, and are liable to smile without any obvious reason. Evidently that is what nature is experiencing just now. The ground is cold, mud and snow squelches under foot, but how cheerful, gentle and inviting everything is! The air is so clear and transparent that if you were to climb to the top of the pigeon loft or the bell tower, you feel you might actually see the whole universe from end to end. The sun is shining brightly, and its playful, beaming rays are bathing in the puddles along with the sparrows. The river is swelling and darkening; it has already woken up and very soon will begin to roar. The trees are bare, but they are already living and breathing.”
― Anton Chekhov, The Exclamation Mark

“Grace is the permanent climate of divine kindness; the perennial infusion of springtime into the winter of bleakness.”
― John O'Donohue, Divine Beauty: The Invisible Embrace

“The caged eagle become a metaphor for all forms of isolation, the ultimate in imprisonment. A zoo is prison.”
― Nadine Gordimer, Get a Life

“...the important questions are answered by not liking only but disliking and accepting equally what one likes and dislikes. Otherwise there is no access to the dark night of the soul.”
― John Cage