Came across this quote and was compelled to post. Bertrand Russell’s declaration, in his 1925 essay ‘What I Believe’ I believe that when I die I shall rot, and nothing of my ego will survive. I am not young and I love life. But I should scorn to shiver with terror at the thought of annihilation. Happiness is nonetheless true happiness because it must come to an end, nor do thought and love lose their value because they are not everlasting. Many a man has borne himself proudly on the scaffold; surely the same pride should teach us to think truly about man’s place in the world. Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cozy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigor, and the great spaces have a splendor of their own.

gone tomorrow

~ gone tomorrow ~

tomorrow they will not know me
they have lost who I am
now only a shell to observe
a cocoon dangling in the air
motionless until they pass
adjusting only to the current
of their movement
inside growing, changing,
transforming, waiting
until my time
to emerge anew
beautiful
and gone
forever

Published in “The Colors of Life”, © Robert William Sullivan, 2003, ISBN 0-7951-5239-6

One of my old poems

~ Buddha’s belly ~

I rub old Buddha’s belly
I rub it every day
And when I rub his tummy
This is what I say
Woe and pain and solitude
Will surely come my way
But let me live another day
Be that what it may
Now Buddha always looks at me
He even cracks a smile
But never has he giggled
And I’ve watched him quite a while
So as my teacher teaches me
I smile at all I pass
But try to hold my giggles in
Till they are gone at last

© Robert William Sullivan

Double or Nothing

After eating my Chinese takeout (shrimp with mixed vegetables with white rice and brown sauce) I carefully opened my Fortune Cookie. Quite honestly I don’t believe in the ability of accurate predictions of future events, based through mystical or supernatural means, but nonetheless I cracked it open to have a look.

The small slip of paper read “You will witness a miracle this month.”

Miracles too find confrontation with my reason, unless used in a more causal sense related to the statistical likelihood of an event.

As it is rather vague and general, I suppose I will have to wait for the remainder of the month, careful to observe “my miracle” thus stopping my world for a moment to ponder the impossible.

Happy New Year

Another year past, another year new, with expectations that outweigh regrets.

Not one to make new years resolutions often I actually have a few that this new year has brought to mind, better, healthier life, a better attitude with those that push my buttons, and more time and more effort in doing things new and doing them with people I love.

So I blasted the past.  All my blog entries are gone.  This is a new slat, but with the same writer, just a new perspective.  I can only get so frustrated with the world and then its best just to let it go, taking action where needed, but sparing my head from the wall.