There is a very real relationship, both quantitatively and qualitatively, between what you contribute and what you get out of this world. ― Oscar Hammerstein II
“If I can stop one heart from breaking” — Emily Dickinson
If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.
- Give a Little Love by Ziggy Marley & The Melody Makers (reggae): https://youtu.be/WGCcPQSA-Zc?si=blwpkO9Jh1KxM5xf
- Do Something by Matthew West (Christian): https://youtu.be/b_RjndG0IX8
- Give Me Strength by Eric Clapton (folk/blues): https://youtu.be/M8cq5a_9lmg?si=qhRmPHeZbPKugHWj
- If I Had the World to Give by The Grateful Dead (rock): https://youtu.be/w4aoUf8KXD4?si=3bYtj1m_6PqDgBII
- Put a Little Love in your Heart by Jackie DeShannon (pop): https://youtu.be/8LgdRJmjNMY
- Give Blood by Pete Townshend (rock): https://youtu.be/VfggghQENsU
- Give Me Love by George Harrison (rock): https://youtu.be/s-KAvPbO8JY?si=euLsG8R481hti4lo
- What If We Give It Away? by R.E.M. (rock): https://youtu.be/JyYWOapn8ww?si=Am5KXl_YKgDZhgei
- Kind and Generous by Natalie Merchant (pop): https://youtu.be/uAwyIad93-c
- Humble and Kind by Tim McGraw (country): https://youtu.be/awzNHuGqoMc
- Try a Little Kindness by Glen Campbell (country): https://youtu.be/r3u86akEurY?list=OLAK5uy_mohQOneyDuMS8l9BnyD9nqPYej18snbcs
- One Voice by Billy Gilman (pop): https://youtu.be/-NlT-ELVWk0
- Give a Little Bit by Supertramp (rock): https://youtu.be/0dJ30dREjaE?si=SRDcXun-WQx7GgRH
- Compassion (Change the World) by Andrew Witt (pop): https://youtu.be/fQ6S_k88LKY
- Give to Live by Sammy Hagar (rock): https://youtu.be/85lGSnji8YQ?si=bwiT7zdiBAJW9LD6
- Friendship by Chris Stapleton (country): https://youtu.be/3W33TY6Oasg
- Hands by Jewel (pop): https://youtu.be/AfsS3pIDBfw
- What the World Needs Now by Jackie DeShannon (pop): https://youtu.be/XieZAjBTkr4
- If Everyone Cared? by Nickelback (rock): https://youtu.be/-IUSZyjiYuY
- Give It Away by Red Hot Chili Peppers (rock): https://youtu.be/BP1PsqBmbvM?si=VcMlK5Gpp8EvDrZn
- We Build by Nichole Nordeman (pop/country): https://youtu.be/sG3KSZuq64I
- He Ain’t Heavy, He’s my Brother by The Hollies (rock/pop): https://youtu.be/eUWZqbumaZo
- You Give Me All I Need by the Scorpions (rock): https://youtu.be/fUzI-rF4stQ
- Give A Little More by Maroon 5 (pop): https://youtu.be/tbb6Avei6f4?si=hXguw2FEgRe7bXSJ
- What You Give by Tesla (rock): https://youtu.be/9vwHuCC6nP8
To Begin With, the Sweet Grass — Mary Oliver
I.
Will the hungry ox stand in the field
and not eat of the sweet grass?
Will the owl bite off its own wings?
Will the lark forget to lift its body in the air or forget to sing?
Will the rivers run upstream?
Behold, I say—behold t
he reliability and the finery
and the teachings of this gritty earth gift.
II.
Eat bread and understand comfort.
Drink water, and understand delight.
Visit the garden where the scarlet trumpets
are opening their bodies for the hummingbirds
who are drinking the sweetness,
who are thrillingly gluttonous.
For one thing leads to another.
Soon you will notice how stones shine underfoot.
Eventually tides will be the only calendar you believe in.
And someone’s face, whom you love,
will be as a star both intimate and ultimate,
and you will be both heart-shaken and respectful.
And you will hear the air itself,
like a beloved, whisper: oh, let me, for a while longer,
enter the two beautiful bodies of your lungs.
III.
The witchery of living is my whole conversation with you, my darlings.
All I can tell you is what I know.
Look, and look again.
This world is not just a little thrill for the eyes.
It’s more than bones.
It’s more than the delicate wrist with its personal pulse.
It’s more than the beating of the single heart.
It’s praising. It’s giving until the giving feels like receiving.
You have a life—just imagine that!
You have this day, and maybe another, and maybe still another.
IV.
Someday I am going to ask my friend
Paulus, the dancer, the potter, to make me
a begging bowl which I believe my soul needs.
And if I come to you, to the door of your comfortable house
with unwashed clothes and unclean fingernails,
will you put something into it?
I would like to take this chance.
I would like to give you this chance.
V.
We do one thing or another;
we stay the same, or we change.
Congratulations, if you have changed.
VI. Let me ask you this.
Do you also think that beauty exists for some fabulous reason?
And, if you have not been enchanted by this adventure
— your life— what would do for you?
VII.
What I loved in the beginning,
I think, was mostly myself.
Never mind that I had to, since somebody had to.
That was many years ago.
Since then I have gone out from my confinements, though with difficulty.
I mean the ones that thought to rule my heart.
I cast them out, I put them on the mush pile.
They will be nourishment somehow
(everything is nourishment somehow or another).
And I have become the child of the clouds, and of hope.
I have become the friend of the enemy, whoever that is.
I have become older and, cherishing what
I have learned, I have become younger.
And what do I risk to tell you this, which is all I know?
Love yourself. Then forget it.
Then, love the world.
POEM — Alberto Rios
One river gives
Its journey to the next.
We give because someone gave to us.
We give because nobody gave to us.
We give because giving has changed us.
We give because giving could have changed us.
We have been better for it,
We have been wounded by it—
Giving has many faces: It is loud and quiet,
Big, though small, diamond in wood-nails.
Its story is old, the plot worn and the pages too,
But we read this book, anyway, over and again:
Giving is, first and every time, hand to hand,
Mine to yours, yours to mine.
You gave me blue and I gave you yellow.
Together we are simple green. You gave me
What you did not have, and I gave you
What I had to give—together, we made
Something greater from the difference.
On Giving
It’s the same struggle for each of us, and the same path out: the utterly simple, infinitely wise ultimately defiant act of loving one thing and then another, loving our way back to life… Maybe being perfectly happy is not really the point. Maybe that is only some modern American dream of the point, while the truer measure of humanity is the distance we must travel in our lives, time and again, “twixt two extremes of passion–joy and grief,” as Shakespeare put it. However much I’ve lost, what remains to me is that I can still speak to name the things I love. And I can look for safety in giving myself away to the world’s least losable things. ― Barbara Kingsolver, Small Wonder
You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give … You often say; I would give, but only to the deserving, The trees in your orchard say not so, nor the flocks in your pasture. Surely he who is worthy to receive his days and nights is worthy of all else from you. And he who has deserved to drink from the ocean of life deserves to fill his cup from your little stream. See first that you yourself deserve to be a giver, and an instrument of giving. For in truth it is life that gives unto life-while you, who deem yourself a giver, is but a witness.― Khalil Gibran, The Prophet
It’s not how much we give but how much love we put into giving. ― Mother Theresa
Every man has within him only one life and one nature … It behooves a man to look within himself and turn to the best dedication possible those endowments he has from his Maker. You do no wrong in questioning what once you held to be right for you, if now it has come to seem wrong. Put away all thought of being bound. We do not want you bound. No one who is not free can give freely. ― Ellis Peters, The Potter’s Field
One must be poor to know the luxury of giving. ― George Eliot
Oh! if the good hearts had the fat purses, how much better everything would go! ― Victor Hugo, Les Misérables
If nature has made you for a giver, your hands are born open, and so is your heart; and though there may be times when your hands are empty, your heart is always full, and you can give things out of that—warm things, kind things, sweet things—help and comfort and laughter—and sometimes gay, kind laughter is the best help of all. ― Frances Hodgson Burnett, A Little Princess
Speak the truth, do not become angered, and give when asked, even be it a little. By these three conditions one goes to the presence of the gods. ― Buddha
Do you not know that God entrusted you with that money (all above what buys necessities for your families) to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to help the stranger, the widow, the fatherless; and, indeed, as far as it will go, to relieve the wants of all mankind? How can you, how dare you, defraud the Lord, by applying it to any other purpose? ― John Wesley
Your days are numbered. Use them to throw open the windows of your soul to the sun. If you do not, the sun will soon set, and you with it. ― attributed to Marcus Aurelius
For so many centuries, the exchange of gifts has held us together. It has made it possible to bridge the abyss where language struggles. ― Barry Lopez, About This Life
Generous giving comes from a generous place, which implies that you have taken care of your own needs and can put forth energy toward others. It comes from a full heart. Over-giving, on the other hand, is not the ultimate form of selflessness. Instead, it essentially comes from an inability to receive. That means you give, give, give because you think (or hope) it will be appreciated, or because it makes you feel good about yourself, or because you feel morally obliged to. The truth is, if you are unable to take in love, attention, or help from others and accept it completely, you are giving from an empty heart. Think about some of your relationships and try to be honest about whether your giving is from a generous place or a depleted one. Generous giving feels light and joyful. Over-giving feels burdensome because it is a one-way flow of energy. — Karen Kleiman
Practice giving things away, not just things you don’t care about, but things you do like. Remember, it is not the size of a gift, it is its quality and the amount of mental attachment you overcome that count. So don’t bankrupt yourself on a momentary positive impulse, only to regret it later. Give thought to giving. Give small things, carefully, and observe the mental processes going along with the act of releasing the little thing you liked. ― Robert AF Thurman
Behold I do not give lectures or a little charity, when I give I give myself. ― Walt Whitman
How would your life be different if…You decided to give freely, love fully, and play feverously? Let today be the day…You free yourself from the conditioned rules that limit your happiness and dilute the beautiful life experience. Have fun. Give – Love – Play! ― Steve Maraboli, The Power of One
Giving yourself some loving attention is not selfish. It is sensible. If you feel loved and cherished–even if it is only by yourself–then you will have more love to give to others, too. ― Penelope Quest, Reiki for Life: A Complete Guide to Reiki Practice
Helping and giving are character strengths, as far as I’m concerned. But sometimes our helpful intentions give way to dysfunctional helping and giving. The solution isn’t to stop helping altogether; it’s to set helping boundaries when telltale signs of unhealthy helping appear. — Psychology Today
Gracious acceptance is an art – an art which most never bother to cultivate. We think that we have to learn how to give, but we forget about accepting things, which can be much harder than giving…. Accepting another person’s gift is allowing him to express his feelings for you. ― Alexander McCall Smith, Love Over Scotland
POEM — Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi
When I am with you, everything is prayer.
I prayed for change,
so, I changed my mind.
I prayed for guidance
and learned to trust myself.
I prayed for happiness
and realized I am not my ego.
I prayed for peace
and learned to accept others unconditionally.
I prayed for abundance
and realized my doubt kept it out.
I prayed for wealth
and realized it is my health.
I prayed for a miracle
and realized I am the miracle.
I prayed for a soul mate
and realized I am with the One.
I prayed for love
and realized it is always knocking,
but I have to allow it in.
This Day We Say Grateful
A Sending Blessing
— Jan Richardson
It is a strange thing
to be so bound
and so released
all in the same moment,
to feel the heart
open wide
and wider still
even as it turns
to take its leave.
On this day,
let us say
this is simply the way
love moves
in its ceaseless spiraling,
turning us toward
one another,
then sending us
into what waits for us
with arms open wide to us
in welcome
and in hope.
On this day,
in this place
where you have
poured yourself out,
where you have been
emptied
and filled
and emptied again,
may you be aware
more than ever
of what your heart
has opened to
here,
what it has tended
and welcomed
here,
where it has broken
in love and in grief,
where it has given
and received blessing
in the unfathomable mystery
that moves us,
undoes us,
and remakes us
finally
for joy.
This day
may you know
this joy
in full measure.
This day
may you know
this blessing
that gathers you in
and sends you forth
but will not
forget you.
O hear us
as this day
we say
grace;
this day
we say
grateful;
this day
we say
blessing;
this day
we release you
in God’s keeping
and hold you
in gladness
and love.
Blessing the Way — Jan Richardson
With every step
you take,
this blessing rises up
to meet you.
It has been waiting
long ages for you.
Look close
and you can see
the layers of it,
how it has been fashioned
by those who walked
this road before you,
how it has been created
of nothing but
their determination
and their dreaming,
how it has taken
its form
from an ancient hope
that drew them forward
and made a way for them
when no way could be
seen.
Look closer
and you will see
this blessing
is not finished,
that you are part
of the path
it is preparing,
that you are how
this blessing means
to be a voice
within the wilderness
and a welcome
for the way.
Meditation on seeing and blindness: themes from Mark. To what are you called to bear witness? When and how have you been blind in your life, and what or who opened your eyes?
I think we all suffer from acute blindness at times. Life is a constant journey of trying to open your eyes. I’m just beginning my journey, and my eyes aren’t fully open yet. — Olivia Thirlby
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind … — William Shakespeare
Helping, fixing, and serving represent three different ways of seeing life. When you help, you see life as weak. When you fix, you see life as broken. When you serve, you see life as whole. ― Joan Halifax
I have looked into your eyes with my eyes. I have put my heart near your heart. — Pope John XXIII
Songs about ‘Blindness’:
- Blind Leading the Blind by Mumford & Sons (rock)
- Blind Fools by Megan Davies & Curtis Peoples (country)
- I Am Free by Newsboys (Christian rock)
- I Go Blind by Hootie & The Blowfish (rock)
- I Wish I Were Blind by Bruce Springsteen (rock)
- Seeing Blind by Niall Horan & Maren Morris (country)
- Sky Blue by Peter Gabriel with Blind Boys of Alabama (ballad/gospel)
- Blind Boy by Musical Youth (pop)
- Loving Blind by Clint Smith (country)
- Love Is Blind by David Coverdale/Whitesnake (rock)
- Lord You’ve Been Good To Me by 5 Blind Boys (gospel)
- He Saw It All by the Booth Brothers (Christian country)
- If You Me To by Ginny Owens (Christian)
- Live Music with Blind Boys of Alabama (gospel)
- Blind Man by Aerosmith (rock)
- Blind Love by Tom Waits (country)
- You’re Blind by Run/DMC (rock/rap)
- Blind by Dababy (rap – includes explicit lyrics/some cursing)
Songs about Sight & Seeing:
- My Father’s Eyes by Eric Clapton (rock)
- Have You Ever Seen the Rain? by Creedance Clearwater Revival (country/rock)
- Doctor My Eyes by Jackson Browne (rock)
- Look at Me by Sarah Vaughan (jazz/blues)
- I Only Have Eyes for You by The Flamingos (rock/soul)
- The Light In Your Eyes by LeAnn Rimes (country)
- When I Look at the World by U2
- I Look to You by Whitney Houston (rock)
- The Way You Look Tonight by Frank Sinatra (jazz/big band)
- Eyes Open by Taylor Swift (pop)
- Close Your Eyes by Meghan Trainor (country)
- Fresh Eyes by Andy Grammer (pop)
- In Your Eyes by Peter Gabriel (rock ballad)
- Don’t Close Your Eyes cover by Tim McGraw
- In Another’s Eyes by Trisha Yearwood & Garth Brooks (country)
- In My Daughter’s Eyes by Martina McBride
- Sue Looks Good to Me by Alicia Keys (pop)
- Look It Here by Public Enemy (rap)
- Look Me In the Heart by Tina Turner (rock)
- Look at Me Now by Kirk Franklin (rock/rap/gospel)
- Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You by Frankie Valli (rock)
- Close Your Eyes by Peaches & Herb & again Close Your Eyes The Five Keys (soul/rock)
- Total Eclipse of the Heart by Bonnie Tyler (rock ballad)
- When I Look in Your Eyes by Firehouse (rock)
- Close Your Eyes by Michael Buble (pop)
- Close My Eyes Forever by Ozzy Osbourne & Lita Ford (rock ballad)
- Take a Look at Me Now (Against All Odds) by Phil Collins (pop ballad)
- Angel Eyes by the Jeff Healey Band (rock)
- My Eyes Have Seen You and I Looked at You by The Doors (rock)
- Sight for Sore Eyes by Aerosmith (rock)
- Look at Me Now by Charlies Puth (pop)
- Ocean Eyes by Billie Eilish
- The Way I Am by Ingrid Michaelson (pop ballad)
- The Eyes of a Woman by Journey (rock)
There are things you can’t reach. But
You can reach out to them, and all day long.
The wind, the bird flying away. The idea of god.
And it can keep you busy as anything else, and happier.
I look; morning to night I am never done with looking.
Looking I mean not just standing around, but standing around
As though with your arms open.
― Mary Oliver
I said: What about my eyes?
God said: Keep them on the road.
I said: What about my passion?
God said: Keep it burning.
I said: What about my heart?
God said: Tell me what you hold inside it?
I said: Pain and sorrow?
He said: Stay with it.
The wound is the place where the Light enters you.
— attributed to Rumi
PRAYER by Richard Rohr
God of all Light and Truth, just make sure that I am not a blind man or woman.
Keep me humble and honest, and that will be more than enough work for you.
PRAYER by Nadia Bolz-Weber
God of desert prophets and unlikely messiahs, humble us.
Show us that there is more to see than what we look for.
More possibility. More love. More forgiveness …
Restore our sight so that we may see you in each other.
PRAYER by St Augustine
Late have I loved you, O beauty ever ancient, ever new.
Late have I loved you. You have called to me, and have called out,
and have shattered my deafness. You have blazed forth with light and
have put my blindness to flight! You have sent forth fragrance,
and I have drawn in my breath, and I pant after you.
I have tasted you, and I hunger and thirst after you.
You have touched me, and I have burned for your peace.
At the End of the Day: A Mirror of Questions — John O’Donohue
What dreams did I create last night?
Where did my eyes linger today?
Where was I blind?
Where was I hurt without anyone noticing?
What did I learn today?
What did I read?
What new thoughts visited me?
What differences did I notice in those closest to me?
Whom did I neglect?
Where did I neglect myself?
What did I begin today that might endure?
How were my conversations?
What did I do today for the poor and the excluded?
Did I remember the dead today?
When could I have exposed myself to the risk of something different?
Where did I allow myself to receive love?
With whom today did I feel most myself?
What reached me today? How did it imprint?
Who saw me today?
What visitations hd I from the past and from the future?
What did I avoid today?
From the evidence – why was I given this day?
On Seeing
Knowing it and seeing it are two different things. ― Suzanne Collins, Mockingjay
After all, the true seeing is within. ― George Eliot, Middlemarch
The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God’s eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love. ― Meister Eckhart, Sermons of Meister Eckhart
The only reason we don’t open our hearts and minds to other people is that they trigger confusion in us that we don’t feel brave enough or sane enough to deal with. To the degree that we look clearly and compassionately at ourselves, we feel confident and fearless about looking into someone else’s eyes. ― Pema Chodron
Rachel Carson said most of us go through life “unseeing.” I do that some days … I think it’s easier to see when you’re a kid. We’re not in a hurry to get anywhere and we don’t have those long to-do lists you guys have. ― Jim Lynch, The Highest Tide
The Eternal looked upon me for a moment with His eye of power, and annihilated me in His being, and become manifest to me in His essence. I saw I existed through Him. — Rumi
What we do see depends mainly on what we look for. … In the same field the farmer will notice the crop, the geologists the fossils, botanists the flowers, artists the colouring, sportmen the cover for the game. Though we may all look at the same things, it does not all follow that we should see them. ― John Lubbock, The Beauties of Nature and the Wonders of the World We Live in
I look at the world
— Langston Hughes
I look at the world
From awakening eyes in a black face—
And this is what I see:
This fenced-off narrow space
Assigned to me.
I look then at the silly walls
Through dark eyes in a dark face—
And this is what I know:
That all these walls oppression builds
Will have to go!
I look at my own body
With eyes no longer blind—
And I see that my own hands can make
The world that’s in my mind.
Then let us hurry, comrades,
The road to find.
by Toni Morrison
In the version I know the woman is the daughter of slaves, black, American, and lives alone in a small house outside of town. Her reputation for wisdom is without peer and without question. Among her people she is both the law and its transgression. The honor she is paid and the awe in which she is held reach beyond her neighborhood to places far away; to the city where the intelligence of rural prophets is the source of much amusement.
One day the woman is visited by some young people who seem to be bent on disproving her clairvoyance and showing her up for the fraud they believe she is. Their plan is simple: they enter her house and ask the one question the answer to which rides solely on her difference from them, a difference they regard as a profound disability: her blindness. They stand before her, and one of them says, “Old woman, I hold in my hand a bird. Tell me whether it is living or dead.”
She does not answer, and the question is repeated. “Is the bird I am holding living or dead?”
Still she doesn’t answer. She is blind and cannot see her visitors, let alone what is in their hands. She does not know their color, gender or homeland. She only knows their motive.
The old woman’s silence is so long, the young people have trouble holding their laughter.
Finally she speaks and her voice is soft but stern. “I don’t know”, she says. “I don’t know whether the bird you are holding is dead or alive, but what I do know is that it is in your hands. It is in your hands.”
Her answer can be taken to mean: if it is dead, you have either found it that way or you have killed it. If it is alive, you can still kill it. Whether it is to stay alive, it is your decision. Whatever the case, it is your responsibility.
For parading their power and her helplessness, the young visitors are reprimanded, told they are responsible not only for the act of mockery but also for the small bundle of life sacrificed to achieve its aims. The blind woman shifts attention away from assertions of power to the instrument through which that power is exercised…
On Blindness
Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see. — Mark Twain
Blind don’t mean you can’t, you know, listen. — Stevie Wonder
Hatred is blind, as well as love. — Oscar Wilde
You can become blind by seeing each day as a similar one. Each day is a different one, each day brings a miracle of its own. It’s just a matter of paying attention to this miracle. — Paulo Coelho
As a blind man has no idea of colors, so have we no idea of the manner by which the all-wise God perceives and understands all things. — Isaac Newton
What spirit is so empty and blind, that it cannot recognize the fact that the foot is more noble than the shoe, and skin more beautiful than the garment with which it is clothed? — Michelangelo
Each of you, as an individual, must pick your own goals. Listen to others, but do not become a blind follower. — Thurgood Marshall
Until justice is blind to color, until education is unaware of race, until opportunity is unconcerned with the color of men’s skins, emancipation will be a proclamation but not a fact. — Lyndon B. Johnson
The superpowers often behave like two heavily armed blind men feeling their way around a room, each believing himself in mortal peril from the other, whom he assumes to have perfect vision. — Henry Kissinger
You’re not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that you can’t face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who says it. — Malcolm X
There is an orderliness in the universe, there is an unalterable law governing everything and every being that exists or lives. It is no blind law; for no blind law can govern the conduct of living beings. — Mahatma Gandhi
how my light is spent
— John MiltonWhen I consider
how my light is spent,
Ere half my days,
in this dark world and wide,
And that one Talent
which is death to hide
Lodged with me useless,
though my Soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker,
and present
My true account,
lest he returning chide;
‘Doth God exact day-labour,
light denied?’
I fondly ask.
But patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies,
‘God doth not need
Either man’s work
or his own gifts;
who best
Bear his mild yoke,
they serve him best.
His state
Is Kingly.
Thousands at his bidding speed
And post o’er Land and
Ocean without rest:
They also serve who only
stand and wait.’
I was Blind.
Coming when others called me,
I was Lost.
Then I left everyone,
myself as well.
Then I found Everyone,
Myself as well.
― Rumi