Even I forget to use the vocabulary I have at times; the Thesaurus sits right next to me while I type, but I seldom break it out, a habit I need to break. I do pretty well at not using the same words over and over in the same piece of work, but I think that the more variety one uses, the larger the pool of available alternatives grows. All of us here at WordPress are trying, in our own ways, to become better writers (I hope that’s the case….), and using a larger vocabulary is a sure way to do that……

After such an auspicious opening, one would think that today’s Pearl is a doozie (another fine word…), but only time will tell us whether or not that is the case. Let us now leave this pompousness behind, and wash ourselves clean in the ocean of knowledge….. Shall we Pearl?……
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Happiness follows sorrow, sorrow follows happiness, but when one no longer discriminates between happiness and sorrow, a good deed and a bad deed, one is able to realize freedom.” — Buddha

I was married for 23 years. If I had my druthers, I’d still be married; I took vows, which I kept.  Still do, for that matter….. I promised to love her more every day than I did the day before, and in spite of her absence, that hasn’t changed a whit…. and that hurts.  It is only the lessons I’ve learned over the years from Buddhism and Taoism that have helped me to move beyond that pain. The lesson above is one of the most powerful of those lessons…..

In reality, this is pretty hard to accomplish; our western minds tend to take pain and make ourselves almost dependent upon it, using it as fuel for action. This is wrong action, however, and almost always leads to more pain. It is hard for most people, me included, to learn how to put aside pain by changing the way we look at reality. Difficult, but well worth the effort, as it is a sure-fire method of learning self-control.

In a relative sense, it is easy to see what needs to be done, but in reality, reaching this state of equilibrium is not quite so simple. It is also something that each person needs to learn to do all alone; no one can teach you how to change yourself, or your own desires. It can help to hold the duality of reality in mind when considering this; pain is merely one side of the coin that is reality. On the other side is joy.

Neither can be understood, or even felt without the other. This shows that if we can learn to feel both with equal equanimity, to realize that neither one is either permanent or harmful, then they both assume less importance, and can be more easily allowed to pass away, the fate of all transient emotion. Once we have learned to let them go, it is amazing to realize that such pain will no longer control us, and we now have the ability to approach life with the ability to choose our own reaction to events…. This is indeed a powerful tool, and one that can help us to achieve the life we desire….A life free of emotional strife and pain, which is true freedom….

“Perseverance is more prevailing than violence; and many things which cannot be overcome when they are together, yield themselves up when taken little by little.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Life of Sertorius
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The quality of mercy is not strain’d,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
‘T is mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway,
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God’s,
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this,
That in the course of justice none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy.
— William Shakespeare (1564-1616), The Merchant of Venice — Act iv, Sc. 1

A Lover’s Quarrel Among the Fairies

A moonlight moor. Fairies leading a child.

Male Fairies: Do not fear us, earthly maid!
We will lead you hand in hand
By the willows in the glade,
By the gorse on the high land,

By the pasture where the lambs
Shall awake with lonely bleat,
Shivering closer to their dams
From the rustling of our feet.

You will with the banshee chat,
And will find her good at heart,
Sitting on a warm smooth mat
In the green hill’s inmost part.

We will bring a crown of gold
Bending humbly every knee,
Now thy great white doll to hold —
Oh, so happy would we be!

Ah it is so very big,
And we are so very small!
So we dance a fairy jig
To the fiddle’s rise and fall.

Yonder see the fairy girls
All their jealousy display,
Lift their chins and toss their curls,
Lift their chins and turn away.

See you, brother, Cranberry Fruit —
He! ho! ho! the merry blade! —
Hugs and pets and pats yon newt,
Teasing every willful maid.

Girl Fairies: Lead they one with foolish care,
Deafening us with idle sound —
One whose breathing shakes the air,
One whose footfall shakes the ground.

Come you, Coltsfoot, Mousetail, come!
Come I know where, far away,
Owls there be whom age makes numb;
Come and tease them till the day.

Puffed like puff-balls on a tree,
Scoff they at the modern earth —
Ah! how large mice used to be
In their days of youthful mirth!

Come, beside a sandy lake,
Feed a fire with stems of grass;
Roasting berries steam and shake —
Talking hours swiftly pass!

Long before the morning fire
Wake the larks upon the green.
Yonder foolish ones will tire
Of their tall, new-fangled queen.

They will lead her home again
To the orchard-circled farm;
At the house of weary men
Raise the door-pin with alarm,

And come kneeling on one knee,
While we shake our heads and scold
This their wanton treachery,
And our slaves be as of old.

William Butler Yeats

Of late, I have been leaning more and more on poetry to soothe my fevered brow…. and I don’t regret a moment of that. Here is another from W.B. Yeats, that takes us on a short, wondrous journey into Irish myth….
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