As was I preparing today’s Pause for Beauty, and looking at potential paintings to include, I came across September Sandhill Sunrise, a painting I’ve been saving for the last several months for September. It is a painting I did years ago after a trip to Bosque Del Apache to see the tens of thousands of Sandhill Cranes that congregate there, and where I’ll soon be headed.

And then I realized that September had passed without me remembering the painting. That reminded me of the poem by Tu Fu with the poignant line, “Life whirls past like drunken wildfire.”

My fortieth year. Borne headlong
Towards the long shadows of sunset
By the headstrong, stubborn moments,
Life whirls past like drunken wildfire.
- Tu Fu, translated by Kenneth Rexroth, One Hundred Poems From The Chinese

. . .

Life whirls past like drunken wildfire.
My sixty-ninth year. Carried along
Toward shadows, toward the end
Whatever it may be, whenever
Stubborn, persistent, focused, searching
I pray for guidance
Still, life whirls past like drunken wildfire.
- from a journal note

The following two quotes are from the two-page spread in the upcoming Heron Dance book, Meditations on Gratitude, Beauty and Mystery.

From the age of six to 14 I took violin lessons but had no luck with my teachers, for whom music did not transcend mechanical practicing. I really began to learn only after I had fallen in love with Mozart's sonatas. The attempt to reproduce their singular grace compelled me to improve my technique. I believe, on the whole, that love is a better teacher than sense of duty.

 . . .

A human being is part of the whole, called by us "Universe" — a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest — a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. The delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace the wholeness of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such an achievement is in itself a part of the liberation, and a foundation for inner security.