As I sit here watching the world go by, I remind myself that those who sign up to terrorize their fellow human beings suffer from a lifetime of anger, fear, loneliness, and trauma. In this way they’re like the wealthy, powerful bullies whose unconscionable bidding they do. Their outlook is beyond sad. Isolated as they are, seeking security and a sense of belonging in numbers, they epitomize the tragedy of […]
What they suffered, they suffered together. Material wealth was never their concern, their poverty being the inherited kind. Yet kindness is their inheritance. It’s been said that they died the same day, within hours of each other, their shared dream having run its course. There were children, one of whom, we are told, made these sketches of her parents when they were both very old, using a piece of charcoal […]
If this is my calling, so be it. If it’s simply something I like or love to do, again, so be it. And yet, at the beginning of my Perspective statement, which was written a dozen or so years later, and has remained unchanged to this day, I say, Each word I write and line I draw is an artist’s statement — not because I am an artist, but because […]
And Man probably reveals more about me than it does the human condition, though I can’t separate myself from that condition, and wouldn’t care to if I could. I don’t want to see myself as something apart from everyone and everything else. If I’m lucky, I’ll rise as far as the condition allows, while it’s clear by this drawing I have already fathomed its depths. There’s a key element here: […]
Allow the miracle — not just the small one you desire or imagine, but the universal one that brought you here to wonder at the stars, and which reveals itself in spontaneous, infinitely wise order. Why seek wealth, or an end to your private suffering, when you are already the entire cosmos? . If it takes effort to smile, work at it a little harder. Let a little light into […]
The storm’s over, the sun’s returned, and you’re the last snowflake to fall. When you land, the other snowflakes are already melting. And you think, In another life, I might have been rain. * Your eyes, looking back at you in wonder from the still water of a shimmering pond, and you, not noticing, as you comb your hair in front of the mirror. * I, me, mine — we […]
If ours isn’t a true friendship, maybe it’s because we aren’t really listening to each other. * From Emerson’s journal, 1869: In the heavy storm I heard the cathedral bells squeaking like pigs through the snout. * Time and energy given to hurt feelings is time and energy taken from feeling compassion for the person you think has hurt them — the result being, there are two feeling hurt instead […]
Health, leisure, good fortune, and very modest means. Blueberries, and other transitory things. No desire to possess or own. Catkins and birch-bits. Sunflowers. Bees. Cucumbers. The spider in my hair, taken back outside. Aware — yes, aware — there are troubles in the world. Hunger. Suffering. Violence. Greed. Pain. Wildfire. Drought. Climate change. The poses we assume. The lies we tell. The games we play. Aware — yes, aware — […]
Grateful upon waking. Grateful at rest. Grateful with each step and each breath. Without gratitude, what would I be? I would be both victim and hero — an egotistical survivor of my own self-chosen, self-made suffering. . [ 1373 ]
William Michaelian 