Jackson Community Church

Summit, Spirit, Sky: connect to community and creation!

commencement

Events with JCC and around town: Mon, June 3 – Sun, June 9

By jacksonnhccPosted on Posted in Calendar, Home, Mt Washington Valley, YouthTagged , , , , , , , , , , ,

MON, June 3

  • Community Event: CHOOSING APPLIANCES: Energy Performance and Appliance Rebates
    7-8:30 pm • Whitney Community Center

    • New appliances are not only a great facelift, but they can help you save big in the long run.
    • Learn about ENERGY STAR certified electric appliances that reduce energy use by 10 to 50 percent without sacrificing performance. Find out about rebate options that reduce the cost of your purchase.
    • This program is taught by NHEC Energy Solutions Program Administrators, Haley Kuplin and Eric Sandberg, is FREE.
    • Reservations not required, but to help us better plan Click Here to sign up.
  • Community Event: SINGERS WORKSHOP
    6:30pm • Majestic Theater

    • The Monday night Singers’ Workshop participants share the results of their spring term efforts. Come hear a variety of performances with piano accompaniment. Free, but donations to Mountain Top Music are gratefully accepted.
    • Tickets: https://mountaintop.ludus.com/index.php?step=seats
  • Community Resource: LIBRARIES
    2-8pm • Bartlett Library

TUE, June 4

WED, June 5

  • YOGA with Anjali Rose
    9am • Jackson (check with Anjali Rose re location)

  • CHILD LOSS GRIEF GROUP
    1pm • Old Red Library, Jackson

    • Free, and open to the community. Rev. Gail Doktor, trained as a hospice chaplain, will facilitate. Pass along this info to anyone whom you know, who might need such a support network.
    • Questions should be directed by text or voicemail to Rev Gail’s cell: 9078.273.0308. — Rev Gail Doktor, gaildoktor@mac.com, cell: 978.273.0308
  • Community Event: FRENCH CONVERSATION CLUB
    4pm • Jackson Public Library
  • Community Event: ENVIRONMENTAL BOOK CLUB – Wasteland by Oliver Franklin-Wallis
    4pm • Tin Mountain Conservation Center

  • Community Event: EVENING PADDLE – Iona Lake
    5:30 – 7pm • Tin Mountain, 1245 Bald Hill Rd, Albany, NH 03818

    • Join us for an evening paddle on Albany’s Iona Lake. During our early summer’s evening paddle, we’ll enjoy each other’s company while we look and listen for the lake’s wildlife. Use your own canoe or kayak or rent one of ours. All paddling levels are welcome to join us. Advanced registration is required.
    • Program Fee: TMCC Members: Free / Non-Members: $15/person /Canoe rental: $10/person
  • Community Event: CANASTA GAMES
    4-6pm • Old Red Library
  • Community Resource: LIBRARIES
  • Community Event: MAJESTIC CAFE with Heather Pierson & The Potboilers
    7pm • Majestic Cafe

    • Doors at 6 pm; music  at 7pm.
    • Come in early and grab a panini before the music starts
    • Info and tickets ($5):: https://www.conwaymajestic.com/cafe
    • The Majestic Cafe has tables for parties of 2 and a limited number of tables for 3 or 4.  If you are a party larger than 4, some of your party will be seated at a different table.  Please note that on busy nights you may be seated at a table with another party.
  • Community MUSIC & ENTERTAINMENT around town:
    • Wildcat Tavern: Trivia • 6:30pm • $5 cover
    • Red Parka: Giving Wednesdays with Raffle • Project Graduation (evening)
    • Shovel Handle Pub: Randy Messineo • 6-9pm

THURS, June 6

  • Community Resource: LIBRARIES
  • Community Event: KNITTING in KNOTS
    4pm • Jackson Public Library

    • Bring your knitting or any portable needling project you may have to the library.  All levels are welcome.
  • Community Event: BECOMING WOLF with Chris Schadler
    7pm • Jackson Public Library

    • Chris Schadler, the NH and VT representative for Project Coyote and Co-Founder of the NH Wildlife Coalition, which advocates for better conservation for predators, will talk about a topic which embodies her interest in wild canids, ‘Becoming Wolf: The Eastern Coyote in New England’: “An eastern coyote is defined as much by its western coyote ancestry as by its DNA contribution from the Eastern wolf.  “Our” coyotes vary physically and behaviorally from its smaller relative – while still carrying the incredible adaptability and canniness of Wile E. Coyote.  This program takes a deep dive into the ecology and behavior of this creature, its indefatigability and how it is the human who must adapt to live with the ‘One Who Cannot Be Removed’. On the horizon, however, is a native carnivore which fled the northeast during wolf removal and now may be trying to return:  The eastern wolf.  A look-alike to the coyote, it has been killed mistakenly for its similarity of appearance to the coyote. We’ll talk about how the wolf and coyote might negotiate a truce in the northeast and how we might do the same.”
  • Community Event: COMMON LOON
    7pm • Tin Mountain Conservation Center, Albany, NH 03818

    • Register Now
    • Add To My Calendar
    • For many, the haunting call of the loon is an important part of the New Hampshire lake experience. Often seen as a symbol of the northern wilderness, loons are a beloved fixture on New Hampshire lakes and many lake goers enjoy watching them as they raise their young. However, the breeding season can be a vulnerable time for loons as they face many threats, both natural and human-caused, while on our lakes. This presentation will focus on the biology and life history of loons, the threats that loons face, and the work that the Loon Preservation Committee and our volunteers have performed since 1975 to help New Hampshire’s threatened loon population recover.
    • Program Fee: TMCC Member: free / Non-Member: $5/person
  • JCC ATTENDS BOOTS n BLING for Starting Point (Ladies Night Event for JCC)

    5pm • Fairbank Lodge, Cranmore Resort, North Conway

    • An evening of dinner, dancing, entertainment, and live auction! Individuals are responsible for purchasing their own tickets, but we hope to put together a table of attendees for the event
    • Get your boots, belt buckles and hats ready!
    • Purchase your own ticket, and type in JACKSON COMMUNITY CHURCH as a company to be grouped with JCC (they will create more than one grouping if we have an overflow, so it’s possible you will be seated at a mixed table).
    • Ticktes ($120/each): https://secure.qgiv.com/event/bootsnbling2024/
  • Community Event: THURSDAY NIGHT JAZZ: Kevin Dolan and Simon Crawford
    7pm • Majestic Cafe

    • Doors at 6 pm; music  at 7pm.
    • Come in early and grab a panini before the music starts
    • Info and tickets:: https://www.conwaymajestic.com/cafe
    • An intimate nearly 50 seat venue in the storefront next to the Majestic Theatre, the Majestic Cafe serves wine, beer, craft cocktails, non-alcoholic drinks and paninis with a close-up view on music from the region’s most creative performers.
    • Walk-ins are welcome, but space is limited; reservations are available to guarantee your seat and to indicate a seating choice.  The Friday Night jazz series typically has a $10 per person cover charge.  Thursdays and Saturdays at times have a cover charge but others do not; for the latter no cost reservations are accepted. Doors at 6 pm; come in early and grab a panini before the music starts.  Music starts generally at 7pm unless otherwise indicated.
    • Email boxoffice@mountaintopmusic.org with questions or other inquiries.
  • Community MUSIC & ENTERTAINMENT around town:
    • Wildcat Tavern: Jonathan Sarty • 7-9pm – $5 cover
    • Red Parka: Carbon 14 • 8-11pm
    • Shannon Door: Jeremy Dean • 6-9pm
    • Shovel Handle Pub: Bobby Sheehan • 6-9pm

FRI, June 7

  • FITNESS CLASS  with Laurie McAleer 
    9:30am • Jackson Community Church

    • Free to all participants.
    • Gentle, chair-based stretch and fitness for all levels of ability
  • Community Resource: LIBRARIES
    2-5pm • Jackson Library (more info: https://jacksonlibrary.org/)
  • Community Event: FIRST FRIDAY – Jane O’Brien and Mikey Levine
    1pm • Majestic Cafe

    • Tickets: https://mountaintop.ludus.com/index.php?step=seats
      Jane O’Brien, vocals, with Mike Levine, guitar, treat you to some classic jazz favorites and more! The Majestic Cafe opens at 11:30 for charcuterie, fresh paninis and all your favorite beverages: beer, wine, spirits, craft cocktails and mocktails, soft drinks and bottled water. First Friday performers include Mountain Top faculty and staff, as well as other Mount Washington Valley musicians, who share their music with the community without compensation. All First Friday concerts are open to the public by donation, in keeping with Mountain Top Music Center’s mission of “enriching lives with music.”
  • HEART & SOUL: Presentation by Dr. Anthony DeLuca on Abbe Pierre

    6pm • JCC Parish Hall

    • Refreshments available (cookies & hot beverages)
    • Event is free and open to the public
    • Co-hosted by Bartlett Congregational and Jackson Community Church
    • Any donations to benefit the Way Station in honor of the lifework of Abbe Pierre
    • Dr. Anthony DeLuca serves as a guest preacher at the Bartlett Church. He will focus on the global impact of the inspirational life and legacy of a 20th century cultural hero whose name is Abbe Pierre. Pierre’s remarkable journey began when he followed in the footsteps of Saint Francis of Assissi and entered a monastery at age 17. There, he committed himself to spreading a global message of giving and good will. During World War II, he joined the French Resistance and risked his own life in saving the lives of Jews who faced the prospect of being sent to labor camps inside Gemany, or worse yet, being arrested and sent to their death in concentration camps.After the war, he focused his efforts on the creation of an international network of community centers to serve the needs of the poor, the hungry and the homeless around the world.
  • Community MUSIC & ENTERTAINMENT around town:
    • Wildcat Tavern: Al Shafner • 7-9pm – $5 cover
    • Red Parka: TBA • 8-11pm
    • Shannon Door: Sheehan & Holden • 6-9pm
    • Ledge Brewing: Powerline • 6-8pm
    • Shovel Handle Pub: Don Pride • 6-9pm
  • Community Event: MAJESTIC CAFE FRIDAY: TBA
    7pm • Majestic Cafe, Conway

    • Walk-ins are always welcome, but space is limited; reservations are available to guarantee your seat and to indicate a seating choice.
    • The Friday Night jazz series has a $10 per person cover charge.
    • Doors at 6 pm; music  at 7pm.
    • Come in early and grab a panini before the music starts
    • Info and tickets:: https://www.conwaymajestic.com/cafe

SAT,  June 8

  • Community Resource: LIBRARIES
  • Community Event: KENNETT HIGH SCHOOL COMMENCEMENT

    10am • KHS Millen Stadium

  • Community Event: DACAPO Concert

    7pm • Majestic Theater, Conway

    • Under the direction of Mary Bastoni Rebmann and John Waldie, the program will feature music from The Rolling Stones, Smokey Robinson, Stephen Sondheim, Christopher Cross, Cole Porter, The Beatles and many more
    • Other performances: Sun, June 9 @ 4pm at Whitney Community Center;  Thurs, June 13 @ 7pm  at Brick Church for the Performing Arts, Lovell, Maine.
    • Tickets: https://mountaintop.ludus.com/index.php?step=seats
  • Community Event: OPEN HOURS @ Jackson Historical Society
    1-3pm • Jackson Historical Society

  • Community MUSIC & ENTERTAINMENT around town:
    • Wildcat Tavern: Face to Face with George Mallory • 7-9pm
    • Shannon Door: Dan Aldrich • 7-10pm
    • Ledge Brewing: Diana’s Bath Salts • 6-8pm

SUN, June 9

  • INTERFAITH SERVICE
    8am • Old Red Library (or outside if weather permits)

    • Come for poetry, conversation, and prayer
  • WORSHIP
    10:30am   • Jackson Community Church & Livestream to Facebook & jxncc.org – which also appears on jxncc.orgwebsite).Worship through zoom is discontinued, watching livestream is now the way to connect.

    • Music by Sharon Novak
    • Message by Rev Gail Doktor
  • HOSPITALITY following church
    11:30am • Parish Hall
  • Community Event: DACAPO Concert

    4pm • Whitney Community Center

    • Da Capo will be performing at the Whitney Community Center
    • Under the direction of Mary Bastoni Rebmann and John Waldie, the program will feature music from The Rolling Stones, Smokey Robinson, Stephen Sondheim, Christopher Cross, Cole Porter, The Beatles and many more
    • Other performances are: Saturday, June 8 at 7:00 pm – The Majestic, Conway Thursday, June 13 at 7:00 pm -Brick Church for the Performing Arts, Lovell, Maine.
  • Community Event: OPEN HOURS @ Jackson Historical Society
    1-3pm • Jackson Historical Society (Also open by appointment.)

  • Community MUSIC & ENTERTAINMENT around town:
    • Shannon Door: Jeremy Dean • 6-9pm
    • Red Parka: Becca & Mike  • 4-7pm
    • Ledge Brewing: Bakery Band • 6-8pm

Events with JCC and around town: Sat, June 1 and Sun, June 2

By jacksonnhccPosted on Posted in Calendar, HomeTagged , , , , , , , , , , , ,

SAT,  June 1

  • Community Event: Mountain Garden Club PLANT SALE
    Morning • North Conway Community Center
  • Community Event: ALICE in WONDERLAND10am / 2pm / 6pm • Majestic Theater, Conway (Arts in Motion)
    • Arts in Motion and Project SUCCEED created a unique opportunity for students participating in after-school theater programming. Each school’s production of “Alice in Wonderland” will be performed at the Majestic
    • John Fuller students will be performing at 10 a.m.,
    • Conway Elementary performing at 2 p.m. and
    • Pine Tree at 6 p.m.
    • Tickets are available to reserve at artsinmotiontheater.com at no cost
  • Community Resource: LIBRARIES
  • Community Event: IMARI & SAHARA DESERT DANCERS with M&D Playhouse
    7pm • Eastern Slope Inn Playhouse

    • Info and tickets: https://www.mdplayhouse.com/
    • All seats: $20
    • Once upon a time, in a mystical land far away, there existed a magical lantern that held the power of a thousand Kings and Queens.  One day, a group of beautiful Moroccan Goddesses danced in unison with golden veils and costumes of shimmering gold, and behold, the magic lantern appeared.  And so the journey begins….the Goddesses will use the enchantment of dance to bring the lantern to it’s rightful home in the Valley of the Kings, across the Nile from Luxor, Egypt.

SUN, June 2

  • INTERFAITH SERVICE
    8am • Old Red Library (or outside if weather permits)

    • Come for poetry, conversation, and prayer
  • WORSHIP with RECOGNITION of UPCOMING GRADUATES & COMMUNION
    10:30am   • Jackson Community Church & Livestream to Facebook & jxncc.org – which also appears on jxncc.orgwebsite).Worship through zoom is discontinued, watching livestream is now the way to connect.

    • Music by DellaValla Bluegrass Trio
    • Message by Autumn Verran with Rev Gail
    • Recognition of upcoming graduates
    • Communion
  • HOSPITALITY following church
    11:30am • Parish Hall
  • Community Event: Joyce ANDERSEN & Harvey REID with The Knotty Pine Boys
    4pm • Majestic Theater

    • Andersen & Reid are treasures of American acoustic music, known for their surprisingly versatile solo performances as well as their peerless duet singing and instrumental interplay. For this performance, they will share the stage with their stellar band of Seacoast musicians, the Knotty Pine Boys. Andersen & Reid take you on a tour of Americana & folk with guitars, violin and autoharp, plus their crackerjack pedal steel player and rhythm section, in this show put together especially for the Majestic Theatre audience.
    • Info and tickets: https://www.conwaymajestic.com/
  • Community Event: OPEN HOURS @ Jackson Historical Society
    1-3pm • Jackson Historical Society (Also open by appointment.)

  • Community MUSIC & ENTERTAINMENT around town:
    • Shannon Door: Mike & Becca • 6-9pm
    • Red Parla: Blues Sunday with Bonnie Edwards and Practical Cats • 4-7pm
    • Inn at Thorne Hill: Mel Stiller -The Piano Man- Sing Along• 6-8pm

SUNDAY, JUNE 6

By jacksonnhccPosted on Posted in Calendar, Home, WorshipTagged , , , ,
  • INTERFAITH GATHERING (in-person @ pavilion & virtually on zoom)
    8am • Pavilion and zoom (password and link required)
    Join us for poetry, prayer and conversation. **We will meet in person at pavilion behind Whitney Community Center or join us by zoom for hybrid gathering experience.**
  • **NO CHOIR TODAY**
  • Virtual  (Zoom) & In-Person WORSHIP with graduating senior CALEB WHITE
    10:30am •  In-person or by zoom (password and link required)
    • Join us for worship with music, scripture, prayer and reflection.
    • Music by Alan Labrie
    • Interview with graduating KHS senior Caleb White facilitated by Rev Gail Doktor
    • Stay for virtual coffee hour (via Zoom only).
    • In-person attendance requires masks and social distancing.
    • Service will also be live-streamed to website and Facebook (if technology supports this function on the day of event). Afterward, recordings of worship service will be posted to Facebook, Vimeo.com channel & Youtube.com channel.
  • NANCY LUNDQUIST MEMORIAL (private family-hosted function by invitation only due to venue restrictions)
    1pm • Private Event
    Rev Gail officiates. Family is hosting a *private memorial* with restricted attendance list due to venue limitations on seating. They regret that the event couldn’t be open to the whole church community at this time, but COVID precautions remain in place.

Reflections on water, wellsprings, and milestones such as upcoming graduation

By jacksonnhccPosted on Posted in Home, Weekly MeditationsTagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

In a season of drought, let’s focus on water stewarsdhip and appreciation. Let’s also consider its spiritual resonances, and take time to savor upcoming milestones such as graduations.

Songs about water:

Water — Wendell Berry
I was born in a drought year.
That summer my mother waited in the house,
enclosed in the sun and the dry ceaseless wind,
for the men to come back in the evenings,
bringing water from a distant spring.
Weins of leaves ran dry, roots shrank.
And all my life I have dreaded
the return of that year,
sure that it still is somewhere,
like a dead enemy’s soul. 
Fear of dust in my mouth is always with me,
and I am the faithful husband of the rain,
I love the water of wells and springs
and the taste of roofs in the water of cisterns.
I am a dry man whose thirst is praise of clouds,
and whose mind is something of a cup.
My sweetness is to wake in the night
after days of dry heat, hearing the rain.

Blessing of the Well
— Jan Richardson
If you stand at the edge of this blessing
and call down into it,
you will hear your words return to you.
If you lean in and listen close,
you will hear this blessing
give the story of your life back to you.
Quiet your voice, quiet your judgment, quiet the way
you always tell your story to yourself.
Quiet all these and you will hear
the whole of it and the hollows of it:
the spaces in the telling,
the gaps where you hesitate to go.
Sit at the rim of this blessing.
Press your ear to its lip, its sides, its curves
that were carved out long ago
by those whose thirst drove them deep,
those who dug into the layers
with only their hands and hope.
Rest yourself beside this blessing
and you will begin to hear
the sound of water entering the gaps.
Still yourself and you will feel it
rising up within you, filling every hollow,
springing forth anew.

Life’s Milestones & Passages: Quotes

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. —Sun Tzu

That clock you hear is the sound of your own heart. Sink your teeth into this life, and don’t get let go. —Lin-Manuel Miranda

Remember this: You are awesome. I’m not suggesting you be boastful. No one likes that in men or women. But I am suggesting that believing in yourself is the first necessary step to coming even close to achieving your potential. —Sheryl Sandberg

It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up. —Babe Ruth

If I must give any of you advice it would be say yes. Say yes, and create your own destiny. — Maya Rudolph

The best remedy for those who are frightened, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be alone with the sky, nature, and God. For only then can you feel that everything is as it should be and that God wants people to be happy amid nature’s beauty and simplicity. —Anne Frank

I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed. —Michael Jordan

You can’t do it alone. Be open to collaboration. Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you. Spend a lot of time with them and it will change your life. — Amy Poehler

Now go, and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here. —Neil Gaiman

Change takes courage. —Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Woman at the Well: Buddhist and Christian Stories (excerpts from reflection by Jyoti Sahi, Indian-Christian artist)

… I find myself often returning to … the story of Jesus conversing with a Samaritan woman at the well. I feel that this dialogue between a Jewish Rabbi and a woman who was considered by orthodox Jews as an outcaste, is similar to the dialogue between Ananda, one of the main disciples of the Buddha, and a Dalit woman who he asked to give him some water to drink. Finally the issue was concerning the line between purity and pollution, between water which should be for all, and which is essential for life on this planet earth, and the ritual distinctions which are made between individuals and communities. … The story is in that sense not only about the relation of Jesus or Ananda, with a particular woman, but about the basis for dialogue itself. I have felt that the story could be the beginning of a dialogue between the Christian tradition, and the essence of Indian spirituality. It is about a meeting which takes place beyond boundaries. … The same theme is also represented by a Buddhist monk artist in Sri Lanka who is … actually depicting not the Buddhist story, but his understanding, as a Buddhist, of the story of Jesus with the woman at the well. What struck me about this picture was that the woman is not alone, and it is not just a dialogue between the Guru and the disciple, but the woman is part of a whole community. In the Biblical story, the woman who comes to the well is alone with him, and it is only later that the disciples find Jesus talking to a woman, and that too a Samaritan, and feel shocked. And then it is later that this woman goes and tells her other Samaritan villagers about Jesus, and wonders if he is in fact a Prophet. In my own paintings on this theme, I suggested that the Woman was not only the human person, but was the water itself. Jesus in this dialogue is addressing, like Francis who talked to the birds, the whole of Creation.

Rain (c) 2016 — Gail Doktor
 
Around me the earth
My little garden plot
My sweet spot of earth
The piece I own for now
Where seeds and hopes
Are sown
 
Oh, and everywhere else
The fields where our children play
The rivers in which we fish
The lakes in which we paddle and boat
The fresh wells on which we draw
Have been thirsty
And slow to refill
 
Parched
Deep and empty
Dry and dehydrated
Tapped out
Below any level of refreshing
 
And so
Unable to give back
When we turn the tap
Drop the bucket
Open the flow
 
Oh, we ask
For lots
Or a little more
Or just the essential quotient
That assures survival
Of green seedlings
And desperate beings
Seeking life
 
We hear a guarded maybe
A firm no
A resigned shrug
There isn’t anything to offer
When you ask
 
Until today
When water falls
Like an answer
Late in coming
Just enough to assure us
Some One is listening
Or there’s yet balance in creation
Sufficient to let loose
What we need
What our environment craves
What our homes require
What life itself must have
Or nothing else matters
 
As essential as breath: Water

In Praise of Water
— John O’Donohue
Let us bless the grace of water:
The imagination of the primeval ocean
Where the first forms of life stirred
And emerged to dress the vacant earth
With warm quilts of color.
The well whose liquid root worked
Through the long night of clay,
Trusting ahead of itself openings
That would yet yield to its yearning
Until at last it arises in the desire of light
To discover the pure quiver of itself
Flowing crystal clear and free
Through delighted emptiness.
The courage of a river to continue belief
In the slow fall of ground,
Always falling farther
Toward the unseen ocean.
The river does what words would love,
Keeping its appearance
By insisting on disappearance;
Its only life surrendered
To the event of pilgrimage,
Carrying the origin to the end,
Seldom pushing or straining,
Keeping itself to itself
Everywhere all along its flow,
All at one with its sinuous mind,
An utter rhythm, never awkward,
It continues to swirl
Through all unlikeness, With elegance:
A ceaseless traverse of presence
Soothing on each side
The stilled fields, Sounding out its journey,
Raising up a buried music
Where the silence of time
Becomes almost audible.
Tides stirred by the eros of the moon
Draw from that permanent restlessness
Perfect waves that languidly rise
And pleat in gradual forms of aquamarine
To offer every last tear of delight
At the altar of stillness inland.
And the rain in the night, driven
By the loneliness of the wind
To perforate the darkness,
As though some air pocket might open
To release the perfume of the lost day
And salvage some memory
From its forsaken turbulence
And drop its weight of longing
Into the earth, and anchor.
Let us bless the humility of water,
Always willing to take the shape
Of whatever otherness holds it,
The buoyancy of water
Stronger than the deadening,
Downward drag of gravity,
The innocence of water,
Flowing forth, without thought
Of what awaits it,
The refreshment of water,
Dissolving the crystals of thirst.
Water: voice of grief,
Cry of love, In the flowing tear.
Water: vehicle and idiom
Of all the inner voyaging
That keeps us alive.
Blessed be water,
Our first mother.
Like The Water — Wendell Berry
Like the water of a deep stream,
love is always too much.
We did not make it.
Though we drink till we burst,
we cannot have it all, or want it all.
In its abundance it survives our thirst.

In the evening we come down to the shore to drink our fill,
and sleep, while it flows
through the regions of the dark.
It does not hold us, except we keep returning to its rich waters
thirsty.

We enter, willing to die,
into the commonwealth of its joy.

PASSAGES REVISITED: Graduation Thoughts

Commencement Address (1982) excerpts to women of Wellesley College — Maya Angelou

… Since you have worked this hard, since you have also been greatly blessed, since you are here, you have developed a marvelous level of courage, and the question then which you must ask yourself , I think, is will you really do the job which is to be done: Make this country more than it is today, more than what James Baldwin called “these yet to be United States”…

…It takes a phenomenal amount of courage.  For around this world, your world, my world, there are conflicts, brutalities, humiliations, terrors, murders, around this world.  You can almost take any Rand McNally map and close your eyes and just point, and you will find there are injustices, but in your country, particularly in your country, young women, you have, as the old folks say, your work cut out for you.  For fascism is on the rise, and be assured of it, sexism, racism, ageism, every vulgarity against the human spirit is on the rise.  And this is what you have inherited.

It is upon you to increase your virtue, the virtue of courage—it is upon you.  You will be challenged mightily, and you will fall many times.

It is upon you to increase your virtue, the virtue of courage—it is upon you.  You will be challenged mightily, and you will fall many times.  But it is important to remember that it may be necessary to encounter defeat, I don’t know.  But I do know that a diamond, one of the most precious elements in this planet, certainly one in many ways the hardest, is the result of extreme pressure, and time.  Under less pressure, it’s crystal.  Less pressure than that, its coal, less than that, its fossilized leaves are just plain dirt.

You must encounter, confront life.  Life loves the liver of it, ladies.  It is for you to increase your virtues.  There is that in the human spirit which will not be gunned down even by death.  There is no person here who is over one year old who hasn’t slept with fear, or pain or loss or grief, or terror, and yet we have all arisen, have made whatever absolutions we were able to, or chose to, dressed, and said to other human beings, “Good morning.  How are you? Fine, thanks.”

Therein lies our chance toward nobleness—not nobility—but nobleness, the best of a human being is in that ability to overcome.

If — Rudyard Kipling (written to his son)

If you can keep your head when all about you       
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,   
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,    
But make allowance for their doubting too;   
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,    
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,    
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:  
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;       
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;   
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster    
And treat those two impostors just the same;   
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken    
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,    
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:  
If you can make one heap of all your winnings    
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings    
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew    
To serve your turn long after they are gone,   
And so hold on when there is nothing in you    
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’  
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,       
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,    
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute    
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,   
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,       
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

Scroll to top