"Life has no meaning. Each of us has meaning and we bring it to life. It is a waste to be asking the question when you are the answer."

"You swallowed everything, like distance.
Like the sea, like time."

"Isn’t hate merely the result of wounded love?"

"Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world."

"It is funny how you do not miss affection until it is given, but once it is, it can never be enough; you would drown in it if possible."

"I keep thinking you already know. I keep thinking I’ve sent you letters that were only ever written in my mind."

"I have a million things to talk to you about. A million things we have to talk about. All I want in this world is you. I want to see you and talk. I want the two of us to begin everything from the beginning."

"Half asleep in prayer I said the right thing
And felt a sudden pleasure come into
The room or my own body. In the dark,
Charged with a change of atmosphere, at first
I couldn’t tell my body from the room.
And I was wide awake, full of this feeling,
Alert as though I’d heard a doorknob twist,
A drawer pulled, and instead of terror knew
The intrusion of an overwhelming joy.
I had said thanks and this was the response.
But how I said it or what I said it for
I still cannot recall and I have tried
All sorts of ways all hours of the night.
Once was enough to be dissatisfied."

"Drunk on the Umbrian hills at dusk and drunk
On one pink cloud that stood beside the moon,
Drunk on the moon, a marble smile, and drunk,
Two young Americans, on one another,
Far from home and wanting this forever—
Who needed God? We had our bodies, bread,
And glasses of a raw, green, local wine,
And watched our Godless perfect darkness breed
Enormous softly burning ancient stars.
Who needed God? And why do I ask now?
Because I’m older and I think God stirs
In details that keep bringing back that time,
Details that are just as vivid now—
Our bodies, bread, a sharp Umbrian wine."

"Stay close to anything that makes you glad you are alive."

"Whenever two people meet, there are really six people present. There is each man as he sees himself, each man as the other person sees him, and each man as he really is."

Female 'Purity' is Bullshit

"That’s a real story, too. My friend had this roommate who is this Orthodox Jewish girl. And she basically started a relationship with an Arab guy at the falafel shop. The funny thing is, this is a falafel shop that we used to go to because it’s near Columbia. I always thought it was so amazing. It’s called “Jerusalem Falafel Shop”. So I love the idea that in New York the Orthodox Jewish girl and the Arab guy can come together and fall in love in Jerusalem. Unfortunately, it’s only a falafel shop – but that’s why I’m very happy that I live in New York, where things like that seem normal sometimes."

saturnrising:

“In contemporary usage… the words ‘crone,’ ‘witch,’ ‘bitch,’ and ‘virgin’ describe women as threatening, evil, or heterosexually inexperienced and thus incomplete. In prepatriarchal times, however, these words evoked far different images. The crone was the old woman whose life experience gave her insight, wisdom, respect, and the power to enrich people’s lives. The witch was the wise-woman healer, the knower of herbs, the midwife, the link joining body, spirit, and Earth. The bitch was Artemis-Diana, goddess of the hunt, most often associated with the dogs who accompanied her. And the virgin was merely a woman who was unattached, unclaimed, and unowned by any man and therefore independent and autonomous. Notice how each word has been transformed from a positive cultural image of female power, independence, and dignity to an insult or a shadow of its former self so that few words remain to identify women in ways both positive and powerful.”

— Allan G. Johnson, “Patriarchy, the System: An It, Not a He, a Them or an Us” (1997) (via jatigi)

(Source: aloofshahbanou)