Lynxmama

“He said, “We realized that, for all that we had learned about religious ritual and language, none of it was effective in facing what we saw all around us. This destruction that we were living inside—it couldn’t be framed by the principles and theories of religion. Even as priests, we were close to the fear that people express when they say, ‘We see no God, we see no Buddha here.’ I realized then that religious language was an armor that we wore to protect ourselves, and that the only way forward was to take it off.”
― Richard Lloyd Parry, Ghosts of the Tsunami: Death and Life in Japan's Disaster Zone

“Boatman, I’ve spoken honestly to you, and I hope it doesn’t cast your earlier judgement of us in doubt. For I suppose there’s some would hear my words and think our love flawed and broken. But God will know the slow tread of an old couple’s love for each other, and understand how black shadows make part of its whole.”
― Kazuo Ishiguro, The Buried Giant

“Some pain has no relief,it can only be sealed
You can grasp the wound to feel the scar unhealed.”
― Munia Khan

“Shock

An easing of walls,
A shuddering through soles:
A petal loosens, falls

In the room, alone:
It begins, then it has gone
Ripples outlast stone.

Rain-smell stirs the heart
Nostrils flare. A breath. We wait
For something to start.

--Anthony Thwaite”
― Lloyd Parry