Dailies: Body lines

Suzanne Valadon - Maurice Utrillo as a boy, drying up the back

I imagine myself walking on the beach of images next to the sea of words. Mostly I just listen, or look. Sometimes I stop to pick up what the sea has washed ashore. I keep my findings in a drawer and on quiet days I take them out and let them speak to me. At other times I feel their weight in my palm and run my fingers along their lines.

Lately I am fascinated by beautiful descriptions in literature of the human body or lack thereof.

~ ~ o ~ ~

Mr. Duffy lived at a little distance from his body.

~ James Joyce

She fitted into my biggest armchair as if it had been built round her by someone who knew they were wearing armchairs tight about the hips that season.

~ P.G. Wodehouse

Not body enough to cover his mind decently with; his intellect is improperly exposed.

~ Revd Sydney Smith

Had Cleopatra’s nose been shorter, the whole face of the world would have changed.

~ Blaise Pascal

… [he was] distinguished by an extremely long neck and … an extremely courteous ‘Adam’s apple’ which escorted each drop down through the loneliness of the gullet to the top of the collar, where it could not possibly lose its way, and then darted assiduously back to its post.

~ Rainer Maria Rilke

At 50, everyone has the face he deserves.

~ George Orwell

He had but one eye, and the popular prejudice runs in favour of two.

~ Charles Dickens

In the castle of my skin.

~ George Lamming

It gives me great pleasure, walking at the edge of the water. If you have discoveries of your own, I would love to see them!

George

Comments

Vanuit Die Restory - Gesprekke Tussen Reisgenote (110)

Die Week Na 'n Dood Sebastien op sy gelukkigste - by water, besig om vis te vang Die Gesprek Elemente Uit Die Gesprek Musiek Sebastien het altyd gesê, "I like old music.' Hy het. Billy Joel se Piano Man was vir baie lank die ringtone op sy foon. Dat ons só gelukkig kan wees, dankie Sebas. George & Matilda

Vanuit Die Restory / From The Restory (135)

Onlangse Oorsig / Recent Summary Foto's Van Onlangse Gebeure / Pictures Of Recent Events 'n Huis opgeknap en geverf met 'n nuwe badkamer, die koms van lente en reën, retreats, die CMR se breimarathon, aanbied en afsluiting van die Verfrissingskursus in geestelike begeleiding, bywoon van ons kleindogter Ariana se gradeplegtigheid ("Nee Oupa, dis 'n gradige plegtigheid!") voordat sy volgende jaar grootskool toe gaan. A house renovated and painted with a new bathroom, the arrival of spring and rain, retreats, the CMR's knitting marathon, presenting and finishing the Refresher course in spiritual guidance, attending our granddaughter Ariana's graduation before she goes to big school next year. Klank / Sound Die klank van sagte reën na die storm is op baie vlakke nou gepas. The sound of gentle rain after the storm is now appropriate on many levels. Met ons liefde, soos altyd. With our love, as always. George & Matilda

Vanuit Die Restory - Gesprekke Tussen Reisgenote (120)

Skuld as Motivering Die Gesprek Elemente Uit Die Gesprek ~ ❖ ~ "I am convinced that guilt and shame are never from God. They are merely the defenses of the False Self as it is shocked at its own poverty — the defenses of a little man who wants to be a big man. God leads by compassion toward the soul, never by condemnation. If God would relate to us by severity and punitiveness, God would only be giving us permission to do the same (which is tragically, due to our mistaken images of God, exactly what has happened!)." Richard Rohr ~ ❖ ~ "It is about as hard to absolve yourself of your own guilt as it is to sit in your own lap. Wrongdoing sparks guilt sparks wrongdoing ad nauseam, and we all try to disguise the grim process from both ourselves and everybody else. In order to break the circuit we need friends before whom we can put aside the disguise, trusting that when they see us for what we fully are, they won't run away screaming with, if nothing wors

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