The curriculum of a good life

"I vow to live fully in each moment and to look at all beings with eyes of compassion." 

Thich Nhat Hanh

The sounds of engines leave the air.

The Sunday morning silence comes at last.

At last I know the presence of the world made without hands, 

the creatures that have come to be out of their absence.

Calls of flicker and jay fill the air. 

Titmice and chickadees feed among the green and the dying leaves.

Gratitude for the gifts of all the living and the unliving,

gratitude which is the greatest gift, quietest of all,

passes to me through the trees.

Learn by little the desire for all things

which perhaps is not desire at all 

but undying love

which perhaps is not love at all but gratitude

for the being of all things

which perhaps is not gratitude at all

but the maker's joy in what is made,

the joy in which we come to rest.

Wendell Berry

from Leavings