Joan Didion On Death
As I approached the casket, my eyes were fixed on my father lying there, gently cradled between the wooden frames. A part of me couldn’t help but believe that he would suddenly rise from his eternal sleep, as if his departure was simply a fleeting illusion in a cosmic dream. But as I stood there, […]
Henry Miller On Surrendering To Life.
We deserve love, but we also must learn to accept love. Our happiness depends on how well we bear our responsibility. Our prayers are manifesting, but the actualization waits on us to allow life to unfold. Because of our own self-denigration, we struggle accepting love, wealth, and even the possibility of peace. Through surrendering we […]
Henry Miller Speaks on Marriage.
We find that every culture expresses love differently, and I watch my peers spouting love so loosely, and constantly that I feel it reaffirms my suspicion in our collective loneliness. We have little community; work families are a myth, and our partners, unfortunately, replace the community we so desperately desire. Marriage, sometimes, is treated like […]
Henry Miller On The Pain Of Love.
Love makes us delusional, and loneliness makes us liars. Sometimes love is unrequited, sometimes it dies, withers, and wilts changing it texture like the seasons. But loneliness enters us into relationships that makes us deny someone for who they are, we are presenting ourselves as ready to create love, but truly, internally, we confess to […]
Henry Miller On Love
If we knew our worth we would spend more days alone. Instead, like hopeless romantics we accept everyone in order to fall in love. However, it may be best to spend those nights alone rather than with someone unable to unmask us. We are always wearing masks, and love as James Baldwin says, “Love takes […]
Anais Nin On A Meaningful Life.
We have lived through many stages that have caused much pain– we experience this pain and shame during suddenly moments when our memories transport us to those moments. We must create a life in spite of our mistakes. Our relationship between the temporal and ancestral world heals every trauma. Furthermore, we must have the knowledge […]
Anais Nin On Artistry
We need a kind of talk between strangers that drops the veil of strangeness and leads to intimacy. James Joyce and Anais Nin call this special type of conversation of “furrawn.” We need spaces to have conversations that enhance the human spirit. Spaces that let us know our suffering isn’t special but universal. Our conversations […]
Anais Nin On Love
We depend on one another. We depend on people to provide the sustenance to make it through our days. Our self-knowledge increases as we learn to create intimacy and love. Bell Hooks told us long ago that, To truly love we must learn to mix various ingredients—care, affection, recognition, respect, commitment, and trust, as well […]
Anais Nin On Independence
The people we admire–the artists, thought-leaders, painters, and craftsman–have found a way to overcome the obstacles that continuously limit us gaining an admirable independence. These people were not born with an exceptional brain, or special gifts, however some, very few, may actually come from a different planet, but for the most part these people contain […]
Anais Nin On Refusing Despair
Every man, if he intends on being happy, must find a way to live without the masks, walls, and facades that prevent us from recognizing our brother’s humanity. In order to assist in the creation of a compassionate, gracious, and honest world we must develop this sense of community and fellowship. We forget that the […]