In the Labyrinth with Lao Tzu

"In the Labyrinth with Lao Tzu"

A poem by Erica Jong

Be broken to be whole.

Twist to be straight.

Be empty to be full.

--Lao Tzu (trans. Ursula Le Guin)

Hoping to walk
The circle of my life,
I put my toe
On the labyrinth's edge.

A crowd of black crows
Veers above
And drops fall
In this place
Where it never rains.

Writing has been my life
But my writing is stopped
By the crows
And the deaths they portend.

In the middle of the labyrinth of my twisting life,
I find myself under a cloud of crows
and the straight way is lost.


Lao Tzu would say
I must learn to write
Despite the haggling of the crows.


And perhaps he would also say
there is no
Straight way and no
Middle of the road
Of anyone's life.



Oh Lao Tzu, muse of labyrinths,
I should listen to you
And not the everlasting cawing
Of the crows.

Being Human

"The Guest House"

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

~ Rumi ~


(The Essential Rumi, versions by Coleman Barks)

The Bandaged Wound

Trust your wound to a teacher's surgery.

Flies collect on a wound. They cover it,

those flies of your self-protecting feelings,

your love for what you think is yours.

Let a teacher wave away the flies

and put a plaster on the wound.

Don't turn your head. Keep looking

at the bandaged wound. That's where

the light enters you.

And don't believe for a moment

that you're healing yourself.

--Rumi

"The Summer Day"

This is one of my favorite poems, "The Summer Day," by Mary Oliver:

Who made the world?

Who made the swan, and the black bear?

Who made the grasshopper?

This grasshopper, I mean--the one who the one who has flung herself out of the grass, the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,

who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down--

who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.

Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.

Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.

I don't know exactly what a prayer is.

I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down

into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,

how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,

which is what I have been doing all day.

Tell me, what else should I have done?

Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?

Tell me, what is it you plan to do

with your one wild and precious life?

The Fool in Me...

"I must learn to love the fool in me--the one who feels too much, talks too much, takes too many chances, wins sometimes and loses often, lacks self-control, loves and hates, hurts and gets hurt, promises and breaks promises, laughs and cries. It alone protects me against that utterly self-controlled, masterful tyrant whom I also harbor and who would rob me of my human aliveness, humility, and dignity but for my Fool."

--Theodore I. Rubin

KISS

The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.

--Hans Hoffman

Cooking with the Bible Now Available via iPhone apps

Just an update:

We've gotten word that 10 iPhone apps based on our book Cooking with the Bible are now live (the rest of the chapters should follow very soon).

Here's the direct link to the App Store webpage for one of the Cooking with the Bible apps, FYI (you can see the product without being in iTunes or on an iPhone/iPad):
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/by-numbers-by-anthony-f-chiffolo/id369857175?mt=8

If you want to check them all out, it's probably easiest to find them by searching either iTunes on your computer or the app store on your iPhone using the keyword "Chiffolo."

We hope you like them. Please spread the word!
Thanks.
Anthony & Rusty