Saturday, July 16, 2011

The Rain Within the Fire

John William Waterhouse - Nymphs Finding the Head of Orpheus (1900)

The suffering of this world is not an illusion; except in so far as we and this world itself are illusions.

Our capacity to experience joy despite intimate knowledge of this suffering is not an escape; it is a sacred weapon, a weapon with which to wage peace.

Nor is this joy a luxury, it is a vital necessity; it is the medicine within the poison, it is the livingness within the decay, it is the rain within the fire.

-- Richard Power