I Hope You Live Without The Need To Dominate, And Without The Need To Be Dominated. I Hope You Are Never

“I hope you live without the need to dominate, and without the need to be dominated. I hope you are never victims, but I hope you have no power over other people. And when you fail, and are defeated, and in pain, and in the dark, then I hope you will remember that darkness is your country, where you live, where no wars are fought and no wars are won, but where the future is. Our roots are in the dark; the earth is our country. Why did we look up for blessing — instead of around, and down? What hope we have lies there. Not in the sky full of orbiting spy-eyes and weaponry, but in the earth we have looked down upon. Not from above, but from below. Not in the light that blinds, but in the dark that nourishes, where human beings grow human souls.”

—

Ursula K. Le Guin, “A Left-Handed Commencement Address” (Mills College, 1983)

this passage planted itself in my consciousness when i was 24, and 10 years later, it informs so much of my approach to living, thinking, creating.

(via nostalgicfuturity)

Closeup of Van Gogh’s Green Wheat Fields, Auvers from the National Gallery of Art

Cat on Constantine’s Foot, Palatine Museum, Rome

Czeslaw Milosz, from “Slow River,” in New and Collected Poems: 1931-2001

[text ID: There has not been for a long time a spring as beautiful as this one; the grass, just before mowing, is thick and wet with dew. At night bird cries come up from the edge of the marsh, a crimson shoal lies in the east till the morning hours. In such a season, every voice becomes for us a shout of triumph. Glory, pain and glory to the grass, to the clouds, to the green oak wood. The gates of the earth torn open, the key to the earth revealed. A star is greeting the day.]

Morocco.Neighbourhood of Mouassine. Wool dyers.1977

In my mind there are green hills

Sloping up and down

In my mind there's a calm sea,

Deep with azure

In my mind there are groves

Of orange, bergamot, and lime

In my mind there are linen sheets,

and acres of grape vine

In my mind there are dinners,

Strung lights, and plenty of wine

In my mind there's a cove I go

With my lover to dive

In my mind there are children,

With thick curly black hair,

And bright green eyes

In my mind there's a happy life,

Full of love and light and time