(Source: luke-iam-yourfather)
All moments, past, present, and future, always have existed, always will exists… It’s just an illusion here on Earth that one moment follows another one, like beads on a string, and that once that moment is gone it is gone forever.
—Kurt Vonnegut (via pollgold)
pattern designs by Hélèné Georget
My friend who I met in India is now living in Sydney. He was talking to a someone on the bus yesterday about the House of Worship in Delhi when the person behind them said he’d been there over Christmas and remembered meeting me. I wish I could see this person again! What a small world. Imagine how many people you sit next to every day on the bus who could be connected to you in the most amazing ways..
(Source: brooklynvoyager)
I was so fortunate to meet Miyazaki at the 2002 Toronto film festival. I told him I love the “gratuitous motion” in his films; instead of every movement being dictated by the story, sometimes people will just sit for a moment, or sigh, or gaze at a running stream, or do something extra, not to advance the story but only to give the sense of time and place and who they are.
“We have a word for that in Japanese,” he said. “It’s called ‘ma.’ Emptiness. It’s there intentionally.” He clapped his hands three or four times. “The time in between my clapping is ‘ma.’ If you just have non-stop action with no breathing space at all, it’s just busyness.”
I think that helps explain why Miyazaki’s films are more absorbing than the frantic action in a lot of American animation. “The people who make the movies are scared of silence” he said, “so they want to paper and plaster it over,” he said. “They’re worried that the audience will get bored. But just because it’s 80 percent intense all the time doesn’t mean the kids are going to bless you with their concentration. What really matters is the underlying emotions—that you never let go of those.
“What my friends and I have been trying to do since the 1970’s is to try and quiet things down a little bit; don’t just bombard them with noise and distraction. And to follow the path of children’s emotions and feelings as we make a film. If you stay true to joy and astonishment and empathy you don’t have to have violence and you don’t have to have action. They’ll follow you. This is our principle.”
He said he has been amused to see a lot of animation in live-action superhero movies. “In a way, live action is becoming part of that whole soup called animation. Animation has become a word that encompasses so much, and my animation is just a little tiny dot over in the corner. It’s plenty for me.”
It’s plenty for me, too.
Robert Ebert
(Source: joshtierney, via swampkhaleesi)
:3
Act in such a way that your heart may be free from hatred. Let not your heart be offended with anyone. If some one commits an error and wrong toward you, you must instantly forgive [them]. Do not complain of others. Refrain from reprimanding them, and if you wish to give admonition or advice, let it be offered in such a way that it will not burden the bearer. Turn all your thoughts toward bringing joy to hearts. Beware! Beware! lest ye offend any heart. Assist the world of humanity as much as possible. Be the source of consolation to every sad one, assist every weak one, be helpful to every indigent one, care for every sick one, be the cause of glorification to every lowly one, and shelter those who are overshadowed by fear.
—‘Abdu’l-Baha (via lgbtbahai)
(Source: deadstockdev, via mellowbeats11)
A few more photos of my summer in India.
Did you know the sun is huge in Delhi? It’s this bold, soft orange; it looms there all day, veiled by smog yet somehow still capable of turning pale skin honey-coloured.
The Baha’i House of Worship attracts around 10,000 visitors a day, rising to 30,000 visitors on Sundays. For those 9 hours of every day that the gates are open it seemed like the entire world was passing by, dropping in to say hello.
The Israeli man who in his haste to get inside practically shouted at me “I have only ever felt God in one place! It’s a church in Barcelona- it felt like I was inside a uterus!” Then rushed inside to join his tour group, leaving me shaking with laughter.
The daily requests for “just one snap- please, I request you”. The streams of school children, thankfully relenting over New Year.
Standing for hours inside the temple, gently hushing the babies who cooed with glee as they realised the echoes were theirs; trying to protect the silence of those who sought to meditate or pray; to answer the myriad questions ranging from “Where are the statues? Who do you pray to?” to people who wanted hours-long conversations about life, love, God.
It felt like this platform, a space, unlike any I can find back here at home, to connect with utter strangers, to be of assistance, to be happy every day because the vitality of our world was right there on display.
There’s something about creating ties and building meaning with people who you’d never meet if you stayed comfortably at home. I’ll probably never see most of them again in this life but when we do meet it’ll be with spiritual hi-5s and that deep love you build through serving together.
