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Dear Editor:

I wanted to let you know that I enjoyed the poignancy inherent in "since the universe is everywhere, where is the one and the many?" by Paul Dolinsky. Many of the lines I enjoyed, but I found this line especially lovely:

And so it goes,
      from dream to dream,
and life to life,
      from thoughts enlivened
            to lives awakened.

To the awakening of one's life, my life, I wanted to express my gratitude for your sharing.

—Sharon
   Brooklyn, NY (for a moment anyway)

Dear Editor:

I so much liked "A Blessing and a Curse," by Anne Whitehouse. It expressed for me beautifully the problems inherent in trying to live in two cultures simultaneously, even though in our modern world we need to do so.

—Piri Halasz,
   New York, NY

Dear Editor:

We're past the grey line when the slab groans down over the lake from Ontario. White grass reflects the tail lights at the end of the street and everything goes mechanical for six months or so. This is when I look. Look within, to the flesh heart and hope to find something warm and true to carry me through. But what can carry a person through Iraq? Ice covered paranoia still creaks threateningly "remember viet nam. It swallowed so many, they can take yours". And mine just left for school and I wonder will they take mine. Send them off to be killed as occupiers. Drinking coffee on a cold snow morning, consciousness hovers just below the surface. Rising to mix with steam, sometimes tasting like rational fear, sometimes like paranoia, sometimes like dream mixed with Columbia.

—Dave
   North Coast 2003
   http://dharmacrumbs.blogspot.com

Dear Editor:

I have enjoyed browsing through your site. Thank you for the poems, links and beautiful appearance of The Golden Lantern.

—Ginny

Dear Editor:

I received the following in an email at a point in my day when I really needed it...

Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air. You name them: Work, Family, Health, Friends, and Spirit, and you're keeping all of these in the air. You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back.

But the other four balls of Family, Health, Friends, and Spirit are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged, or even shattered. They will never be the same. You must understand that and strive for balance in your life. How?

Don't undermine your worth by comparing yourself with others.
It is because we are different that each of us is special.

Don't set your goals by what other people deem important.
Only you know what is best for you.

Don't take for granted the things closest to your heart.
Cling to them as you would your life, for without them, life is meaningless.

Don't let your life slip through your fingers by living in the past or for the future.
By living your life one day at a time, you live ALL the days of your life.

Don't give up when you still have something to give.
Nothing is really over until the moment you stop trying.

Don't be afraid to admit that you are less than perfect.
It is this fragile thread that binds us to each together.

Don't be afraid to encounter risks.
It is by taking chances that we learn how to be brave.

Don't shut love out of your life by saying it's impossible to find. The quickest way to receive love is to give; the fastest way to lose love is to hold it too tightly; and the best way to keep love is to give it wings.

Don't run through life so fast that you forget not only where you've been but also where you are going.

Don't forget that a person's greatest emotional need is to feel appreciated.

Don't be afraid to learn. Knowledge is weightless, a treasure you can always carry easily.

Don't use time or words carelessly. Neither can be retrieved.

Life is not a race, but a journey to be savored each step of the way.

Yesterday is History
Tomorrow is a Mystery
Today is a gift: that's why we call it - The Present.

—Melanie Thomas
   Scotch Plains, NJ

Dear Editor:

I would like to share my favorite passage from the Tao Te Ching (Stephen Mitchell translation):

I have just three things to teach:
simplicity, patience, compassion.
These three are your greatest treasures.
Simple in actions and in thoughts,
you return to the source of being.
Patient with both friends and enemies,
you accord with the way things are.
Compassionate toward yourself,
you reconcile all beings in the world.

—Sam Turner
   Washington, D.C.

Dear Editor:

I'd like to share this parable that I recently came across:

God and the devil are walking in the countryside. As they look out on the landscape, God says to the devil:

"Look at how beautiful the world is! Look at the hills, the grass, the trees. Look at the sky with all those beautiful colors. And the air! The fragrant aromas, the sun on your face! Isn't the world a beautiful place?"

The devil turns to him and says: "Yes it is, Master. Let me organize it for you."

—Ruth Medina
   in the middle of Iowa

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