Playing in Jasmine Street at the Granary Barking: Blog 138

Good morning - 

Mostly photos for today - as I spent all day yesterday lugging tables and chairs up several flights of stairs and setting up the 'Canteen' at the Terrace Cafe in the Granary building. It was such a sunny day it was easy to imagine the terrace full of tables, umbrellas, relaxing people and a gentle breeze coming up from the river. I was also kitting out my new Jasmine Street studio with lots of kitsch fifties furniture and bits and bobs. I had a field day on E-bay!

Birds eye view of the Terrace and spiral staircase

The Granary - Barking

Jasmine Street - 1st Floor Studio on right!

Jasmine Street will launch properly in September and I will be holding a secret cinema style event - well if its a good idea - why not borrow it? with due respect and attribution of course! 

Recently people have started to ask me what exactly is Jasmine Street  - so here goes. Its actually a very simple idea.......

Jasmine Street is a Creative Laboratory, (some people like to call this an Ideas Factory - but I prefer lab). Its a virtual, literal and strategic space into which I will invite other artists from across disciplines, and collaborators from other sectors to come in for a cuppa and a conversation. In this space we will share ideas for projects, commissions and other initiatives. In this space ideas will gestate and be nurtured, tested and possibly taken forward. I will actively seek commissions, funding and partnerships to realise ideas that I believe have real potential. 

Currently Jasmine Street is taking its first steps - just a small amount in the bank to invest in making her real! But with two commissions already in planning and discussion in Poland and a couple of other interesting projects in the pipeline JS is ready to get going fully in the autumn. 

As part of the strategic direction of Jasmine Street I am working closely with Rooff, the owners of the Granary and Malthouse and the Council Regeneration Department to further develop the vision for the new Ice House Cultural Quarter in Abbey Road, which is seeing rapid building development with 113 new home coming on stream next year. This will offer great opportunities for new creative businesses to move into both buildings and draw artistic and creative events to its heart.

More work on it today - and the lovely Gemma coming to help me! 

Have a great day! 

On Inspiring Teachers and The Igniting of Passion: Blog 137

Good morning!

So I got back from Wroclaw in one piece, although a bit worse for wear from four days of highly charged creative stimulus. Enough to now need serious time to process. I knew I was flying back in to a different space but one equally as interesting and challenging. Just enough time to unpack and throw my clothes into the washing machine, pick up a few emails with details of yesterday's assignment and get my head around what I would say and do in my eight minute presentation at the Barking and Dagenham Headteacher's Conference.

I was delighted to have been invited as a guest speaker on culture by Jane Hargreaves, Divisional Director of Education at the Manor Of Groves Hotel in Sawbridgeworth.

Manor of Groves Hotel

I am part of a steering  group set up the Arts Council (Creative Education Partnership) which is an exciting space for national bodies - ACE, BFI, Heritage Lottery, education leaders and artists to come together to explore access to cultural experiences for children and young people. There are three such interventions in the UK, with the focus being on areas where there is a perceived lack of cultural engagement. In spite of the supporting statistics, Barking and Dagenham schools are in the top rung of success in arts subjects at GCSE, which counters the overall engagement picture in the borough at large.

Education is a natural place for discussion about a vision for cultural participation in all its manifestations. Art has always played a key role in educating children and young people and in spite of this government's inability to understand its vital importance, most teachers know instinctively that it is the secret weapon in their 'inspiration' armoury.

Ken Robinson is possibly the most influential voice for the past 25 years on cultural education  - I have met him many times and heard him speak to a room full of teachers in which you can always hear a piece of bluetack drop. 

Ken is uncompromising in his persistent call to policy makers, teachers and parents to avoid sleepwalking into a mechanistic era devoid of heart, passion and image. He says of modern education:

“One of the essential problems for education is that most countries subject their schools to the fast-food model of quality assurance when they should be adopting the Michelin model instead. The future for education is not in standardizing but in customizing; not in promoting groupthink and “de-individuation” but in cultivating the real depth and dynamism of human abilities of every sort.” 
― Ken Robinson, The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything

Ken is indeed an inspiring teacher for teachers. If you don't know his work I highly recommend a visit to his website http://sirkenrobinson.com/ where there is a wealth of fantastic material for educators.

In preparation for my presentation I had decided some weeks ago to forgo the powerpoint default and do something active to demonstrate the power of impact and inspiration that can be achieved through authentic engagement with the arts. I knew that better than me standing and spouting, possibly incoherently in my desire to keep a lid on my intense passion about this subject, that it would make infinitely more sense to invite Jen (15) and Phoebe (16) to share their insights about their involvement with our young women's programme Finding The Words generously funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation 

I had the great pleasure of working earlier in the month with Nigel Sagar, Principal Adviser for Education. We were to share our presentation and we had a flurry of excellent conversations and emails and discovered a shared irreverance and rebelliousness in our beliefs about children and arts participation. We planned our session together and it was a great opportunity to understand more about the deep and considered creative education practice that Nigel personifies. 

So I started as I often do with a couple of little stories. The first an acknowledgement of the fact the Barking and Dagenham Education department was the first to take Arc under its wing when it was a fledgling in 1986. With no money, no space, no show yet the Advisory teacher for English, Bess Haire invited us to use an old classroom in the Westbury Teacher's Centre. This belief in these green 20-something artists was a huge support in enabling our little dream of a theatre company to grow. I am always indebted to Bess. Indeed our first show Fallen by Polly Teale was conceived and born at the Westbury and went on to win a Fringe First at the Edinburgh Festival in 1986. So no wonder really that our home has always been here in Barking and Dagenham.

My next little anecdote was very personal and for me illustrates the powerful impact and inspiration of one of my own teachers. 'Bonzo' aka Mr. Richardson was my teacher in my last year at St Augustine's Catholic Junior School in Southborough, Kent. He was a true teacher in every sense of the word - and yes he did wear Hush Puppies - sorry! But most of all he loved working with children and spotting the very things that would ignite them individually. He 'saw' me when I didn't even know there was a me to be seen. Bonzo had a passion for France and its romantic language, and when the mood took him would spout Baudelaire and Voltaire to a slightly bemused class of 10 year olds. We didn't have a clue what he was going on about - but we listened with the innocence and openness of young children. I remember the richness of these strange sounds and words in his mouth and the fire in Bonzo's eyes as he spoke them. 

It was because of him that I wanted to learn French, and speak it still today with a pleasure that I am convinced was inspired by his. Anyway - with my early predilection for drama and all things dressing-up I came up with an idea and passed it by him. I wanted to write a play in French. Without a bat of an eyelid he got out the well thumbed-through Children's Illustrated French Dictionary and threw it on my desk, "get on with it then Carole". 

Left to my own devices I did just that - and over the next week or so I painstakingly wrote my script. I thought it was easy although long and a little boring to execute. It consisted of going through word by word and looking up the French equivalent. I had no notion then about declining or conjugating, it seemed a simple matter of copying the 'mot juste'. It did take a long time, and Bonzo left me to it, with an occasional word of encouragement, usually in French! 

When I finally finished my 20 minute script - he read it with a smile and glint in his eyes. The genius of the man was that not for one moment did he tell me it was a load of old gobbeldygook, nor indicate that he would correct it.

He allowed me to realise my script with encouragement and delight. I cast it with several unsuspecting classmates and took to afternoon rehearsals in the hall. I must have missed out on a lot of spelling and arithmetic I think. Stealing my props and costumes from home and making what I could, I embarked on a full scale directing exercise. Eventually and after some strict marshalling of my poor friends we rehearsed until we had it done. And then I was allowed to present my first piece of direction to the whole school - God only knows what they thought of it but they laughed and clapped loudly. And that was the sum of it - no fuss, done and dusted and back to the Saxons. 

This experience laid the ground for me for what I wanted to do in my life, although I could not understand or articulate it then. 

Bonzo, if he is still with us would probably never know his impact, because for him it was natural - just business as usual. But what is significant in sharing this story I believe is that Bonzo was innately able to see my passion for theatre and to create a safe space for me to practise it for the first time. Dear Bonzo - thank you for recognising the acorn in me. Great teachers do this for kids, if they are perceptive to the differences and spot the light in the eyes of their pupils. And they still do today, many of them. Sadly with the standardisation and pressures of today's classroom its easy for us to forget this kernal of genius and inspiration. The establishment of the Cultural Education Partnership in Barking and Dagenham and the passion of the group leading it gives me great hope for our children. 

Our presentation culminated in Jen and Phoebe talking about what it was like for them to take part in our Finding The Words Programme. Jen started with a spoken word recitation of the signature poem from the project - No Means No and once again you could hear a piece of bluetack drop in the room of teachers. Because they all get it and I think enjoyed being reminded and stirred by the possibilities in their own practice, and I trust to honour that which they already do. The girls presented with passion, poise and authenticity and are living examples of the ignited artist in all of us. I was hugely proud of them and of Natalie, Neelofer and Grace for leading them on this journey.

So that was yesterday - and today will be more work on applications for funding for Arc, a foray into Jasmine Street for a bit more work on my fifties installation and then off to a photography course to get to know my new Canon 600 better!

Have a great Friday y'all.

The Polish Character: Stereotype Health Warning! Blog 136

Dzień dobry

So last day here in Wroclaw. This trip has been significant - the third in two months. I feel like I have earned a strange kind of residency status - quite usual now for me to wave good morning to people we see every day in the street cafes. An odd feeling of already living here. I have said to a number of friends over past weeks that I am quite drawn to living in Poland, there really is no other country that speaks to my heart quite in the way this one does. 

And goodness knows - I am not entirely sure why. It just feels like home. It may be something to do with the familiar catholic narrative that weaves its way through every sinew of this country, coupled with a rebelliousness that suits me, a kind of sacred and profane meeting place. 

Penny for them Maciej?

Maciej tells me that I have a romantic view of the country and Poles in general and insists that at some time soon I should come back and live a bit in its underbelly - the bit that demands of people that they leave to find work elsewhere, often in England. I get a feel for why many Poles feel the need to come home after a period of self chosen exile. I must also accept that I have not lived in the Polish underbelly. Never say never.

Its true that there is a schism here. The bureaucratic system is monolithic - think papers in duplicate, carbon copies in triplicate, emails unanswered and payments stuck in the system and you may get a sense of the sluggishness that is at one end of the Polish continuum. 

At the other is the poetry, laughter, sheer madness of this country, there is such a level of vitality it is intoxicating - well at least it demands of me a daily siesta. Having lived in the States for over 30 years this practical 'stuckness' incenses Maciej. It takes forever to get things done and yet the conversations continually going on in bars and cafes are intense, important - full of passionate urgency and debate about music, art and politics. You name it - there is an opinion not far away!

Lech Twardowski

I spent some time yesterday with Lech, discussing the piece that he has asked me to collaborate with him on. He shared his scale drawings - and we talked about how the relationship will work between actor and painter - I love it. I do think though that there is every likelihood that we might kill each other in the process.


Before that I had spent some time at Literatka (artists cafe) with Wanda and she introduced me to a historian/journalist friend of hers. I began tentatively to ask the question about the Polish 'character'  and  the mood music of this place - she began to say something very interesting just as we had to leave........

I did a bit of sleuthing later when we got back from a visit to Kristof and Ewa in the country...

Nervous always about the dangers of stereotyping and exacerbating ignorance  I am however deeply interested in the rhythms of culture and how they play out in our everyday lives - not least when we butt up against each other - in commonality and difference. Found this on a search:

Wyspianski Unwinding
Living in Krakow

The central mystery of the Polish character, possibly
March 14, 2008 by Jamie Stokes - A Brit in Poland

I feel I’m getting close to the central mystery of the Polish character. I’m probably completely wrong in this belief but it makes me feel better so humour me. I’ve written recently about the strange behaviour of Polish people on pavements and on the road. I’ve written that I’m very confused by the way that Polish people seem to wander around in a daze without any awareness of the people around them and about the way that they drive as if they were the only person on the road. I’m starting to get the feeling that both of these things point to a fundamental feature of the Polish psyche.

Walking down an average Polish street I observe Polish people trying to walk through each other. It’s almost as if they literally cannot see the people around them, or if they can see them they treat them as ghosts of some kind. When people look into your eyes it’s with an expression of suspicion. For a long time I thought it was just me they were looking at this way, that my foreignness was somehow obvious from my appearance, but I don’t believe that any more. Polish people look at other Polish people with just the same latent suspicion they look at me with. Nobody trusts anybody. Everybody expects everybody else to be a bastard. I got a cold feeling down my spine when I finally saw this.

I remember some wise person making a comment on one of my posts somewhere that said something like “all Polish people believe that all other Polish people are idiots, anti-semites, drunks, thieves, or religious maniacs

APART FROM the ones they know.” In other words the average Pole wouldn’t trust another Pole as far as he could throw him unless he was part of his extended family or clique of friends. If I meet an Englishman I’ve never met before my default position is positive; I’m expecting him to be a decent honest bloke. When a Pole meets a Pole he’s never met before it seems the default assumption is precisely the opposite. I find that kind of scary.

It explains a lot. People who work in shops are rude because they assume you’re an idiot or a thief. People fail to get out of each other’s way on the pavement because they assume the other person is a rude and uncivilised

person and they are damned if they are going to give way to a rude and uncivilised person. People drive as if they were blind because they literally have no respect for the lives or limbs of the inferior people around them.

It can’t be that simple… can it?

Get the feeling that this is the beginning of the next chapter in My Big Polish Adventure! 

Back home later today - to contrast - oh yes! 60% of the folks where I live are Polish - so home from home. Don't call me obsessive! Ok - call me obsessive!

Have a great day - I hope to! 

Poland: I Swear Four Days In One - In Images; Blog 135

Sunflowers in the Market

 ARKA Actors waiting outside Wroclaw City Hall for the Ceremony of Citizenship

A long and fascinating Civic Ceremony at the City Hall to honour citizens of Wroclaw for their contribution to the city. ARKA Teatr and their Artistic Director Renata Jasińska receive their award for outstanding contribution to culture and the arts in the city.It was lovely to be invited on behalf of Arc. I really must learn Polish though.

Lovely Agatha (you might remember images of her from my April workshop at ARKA) shows me the commemorative book with a photo of the whole ARKA ensemble. 

 The ARKA Team - Celebrated.

Me looking rather demented with Wanda and Rafał Dutkiewicz the President of Wroclaw! 

Wanda and I in a deep and meaningful with the Polish Minister of Culture Bogdan Zdrojewski.  He is keen to visit Barking and Dagenham and to meet people.

Wanda enjoyed it. Job done - we got to meet those whom we needed to in order to move our international cultural exchange project forward. Is that Maciej - contemplating?


Have a great day! 

Soul Rich Poland - and Bumping into Grotowski Actor Mieczysław Janowski: Blog 134

Dzień dobry

My photo of Sunflowers on sale in the market square 8.30 pm 

Mietek in Constant Prince

Today is very simple - yesterday was very full on. Within an hour of arriving Maciej and I found ourselves sitting in a bar with Mietek having a beer (well mine was a diet coke actually - it was 10.30 am after all). Mietek is one of Grotowski's original actors from the ensemble, and we got to swapping stories about the early eighties. 

He regaled us with some from the rehearsal room. He told me how Grotowski would work with one individual actor for hours, and demanded the others to keep working by themselves. We talked about the dangers of exposure and the rigorous demands of birthing authentic images, narratives and more - nothing less was ever acceptable to Grotowski. 

I managed to get a bit of our conversation on video on my Iphone and have uploaded it to my Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/carole.pluckrose as I am struggling to embed it here for some reason! The video is set to public so you can see it - and I have Mietek's permission to share it with you.

It was great to sit in the warm Sunday Wroclaw sunshine and listen to a first hand recounting of some of the exercises Grotowski did with his actors - and to manage to capture some of Mietek's expressiveness on my little camera. The territory of discussion is of course very familiar to me - and we talked a great deal about the real job of the actor - ie; to conjur, spirit up from deep interior spaces an idea, image, voice and character. And as Mietek put it - its like giving birth to something that you don't know. Or at least you think you don't know.

It was fabulous to spend time in this space - and we are now talking about Mietek coming to Barking in the autumn to run a workshop for actors/students/teachers at which he will also share original footage of some of Grotowski's 'Etudes'. Think it might get some take up.

Renata Jasinska - Artistic Director - ARKA Teatr

Later yesterday was the reason for my visit - the performance at ARKA Teatr of their new play MORALNOŚĆ PANI DULSKIEJ² 

The Artistic Director Renata Jasinska plays the lead and splendidly too! In spite of my distinct lack of Polish
the physical and vocal humour just jumped out making itself known throughout the performance with a fluidity and naturalness that was breathtaking. I am so looking forward to sharing this work with our community in Barking and Dagenham.

Later we went to La Scala for dinner at the kind invitation of Wanda, the larger than life City Councillor who is helping us to realise our Wroclaw/Barking ideas! Can't wait to introduce her to Cllr Cameron Geddes!

And that was day one - I had to have a siesta!

Today promises much more of the same - there is a ceremony in the Town Hall at 12pm to award ARKA for its contribution to the arts. This is also being set up to announce the new international partnership between the two companies  - A Tale of Two Arcs So it will be pretty much a full on day with interviews etc; still wish I could speak a bit more Polish that the cursory five words - feels so rude.

See you later. Have a good one. It was very hot here yesterday! 


****FUNDRAISING FOR ARKA LONDON VISIT******

As I have no funding to bring ARKA to Barking this summer but am determined to do so I have set up a fundraising page https://fundrazr.com/stories/e4I0pa#.UcfSTYNMUG4.facebook
And hope that if you are in a generous mood you might stop by with a fiver! All donations much appreciated! Thanks in advance.

Stop Press Blog: First Morning in Wroclaw - Meeting Mietek Janowski

Ok - so I'd been here for just over an hour when Maciej and I bump into Mietek Janowski - one of Grotowski's oldest actors - beer enjoyed - great conversation about acting - and he's signed up to come to Barking in October to do a workshop - share original Grot films and talk! It wasn't even lunch time yet!

For those of you theatre loves - here is a bit more about Mietek -Mieczyslaw Janowski worked in Grotowski's Polish Laboratory Theatre for 8 years, playing in all their core productions, including Faust, Akropolis, and The Constant Prince, and he traveled with the company to such theatre festivals as the Theatre Des Nations in Paris, the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, and the Holland Festival in Amsterdam.

After leaving the Laboratory Theatre, Janowski received a one-year scholarship in Paris from the French Ministry of Culture. He continued acting in the Dramatic Theatre in Walbrzych and the Wspolczesny Theatre in Wroclaw in Poland. Janowski's acting was not limited to the theatre; from 1962 to 1986 he appeared in over 85 feature films. In 1999 he was honored by the President of Poland for his artistic oeuvre with the Golden Order of Merit. Janowski leads educational youth projects and continues to speak about the actor's craft and his work with Grotowski at seminars and conferences worldwide.

Janowski talks about daily life in the Polish Laboratory Theatre - from physical and voice training, rehearsals, role preparation, and performances, to what it was like to work with Grotowski at that time.

We are discussing an October visit to London - so watch this space!

Things I love: A Tiny Anthology of Poetry and Fragments of Prose: Blog 133

Good Morning on this summer solstice.

I just saw a post by a friend on Facebook curious as to why she was awake listening to the dawn chorus at 4.30am. She sounded a bit annoyed with herself for the lack of sleeping and at the same time relishing in the secrets and beauty of dawn. I am a fan of dawn  - always have been, just like me old Pop. It feels so fresh, and the little droplets on the leaves of my patio plants full of expectations of the day. Me too. And each day never fails to surprise, enrage, disappoint, embrace and very often fill with fun and tear-rolling laughter at the exquisiteness of it all.

Today I would like to share a small miscellany of things I love and which inspire me to remain relentlessly curious about life and what's going to pitch up next! 

So here goes -  a random selection of poems, prose fragments and quotations from some of the people who inspire me. If you dip into them I hope they touch you too.

Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.

Percy Bysshe Shelley, A Defence of Poetry

                 On love - For my daughters and the men they hold dear:

Relationships - Khalil Gibran (1883-1931)

You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore.

You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days.

Ay, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.

But let there be spaces in your togetherness,

And let the winds of the heavens dance between you. 

Love one another, but make not a bond of love:

Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.

Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.

Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf

Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,

Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music. 

Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping.

For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.

And stand together yet not too near together:

For the pillars of the temple stand apart,

And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.

'If you love somebody, let them go, for if they return, they were always yours. And if they don't, they never were'

How Do I Love Thee?

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight

For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.

I love thee to the level of every day's

Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.

I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;

I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.

I love with a passion put to use

In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.

I love thee with a love I seemed to lose

With my lost saints, I love thee with the breath,

Smiles, tears, of all my life! and, if God choose,

I shall but love thee better after death.

The Sun Rising

John Donne (1572-1631)

               
Busy old fool, unruly sun,

               Why dost thou thus,

Through windows, and through curtains call on us?

Must to thy motions lovers' seasons run?

               Saucy pedantic wretch, go chide

               Late school boys and sour prentices,

         Go tell court huntsmen that the king will ride,

         Call country ants to harvest offices,

Love, all alike, no season knows nor clime,

Nor hours, days, months, which are the rags of time.

               Thy beams, so reverend and strong

               Why shouldst thou think?

I could eclipse and cloud them with a wink,

But that I would not lose her sight so long;

               If her eyes have not blinded thine,

               Look, and tomorrow late, tell me,

         Whether both th' Indias of spice and mine

         Be where thou leftst them, or lie here with me.

Ask for those kings whom thou saw'st yesterday,

And thou shalt hear, All here in one bed lay.

               She's all states, and all princes, I,

               Nothing else is.

Princes do but play us; compared to this,

All honor's mimic, all wealth alchemy.

               Thou, sun, art half as happy as we,

               In that the world's contracted thus.

         Thine age asks ease, and since thy duties be

         To warm the world, that's done in warming us.

Shine here to us, and thou art everywhere;

This bed thy centre is, these walls, thy sphere.

Song: To Celia

Ben Jonson (1572-1637)

Come, my Celia, let us prove,

While we can, the sports of love;

Time will not be ours forever;

He at length our good will sever.

Spend not then his gifts in vain.

Suns that set may rise again;

But if once we lose this light,

’Tis with us perpetual night.

Why should we defer our joys?

Fame and rumor are but toys.

Cannot we delude the eyes

Of a few poor household spies,

Or his easier ears beguile,

So removèd by our wile?

’Tis no sin love’s fruit to steal;

But the sweet thefts to reveal,

To be taken, to be seen,

These have crimes accounted been.

I loved you first: but afterwards your love

Christina Rossetti (1830 - 1894)

Poca favilla gran fiamma seconda. – Dante 

Ogni altra cosa, ogni pensier va fore, 

E sol ivi con voi rimansi amore. – Petrarca 

I loved you first: but afterwards your love

    Outsoaring mine, sang such a loftier song

As drowned the friendly cooings of my dove.

    Which owes the other most? my love was long,

    And yours one moment seemed to wax more strong;

I loved and guessed at you, you construed me

And loved me for what might or might not be –

    Nay, weights and measures do us both a wrong.

For verily love knows not ‘mine’ or ‘thine;’

    With separate ‘I’ and ‘thou’ free love has done,

         For one is both and both are one in love:

Rich love knows nought of ‘thine that is not mine;’

         Both have the strength and both the length thereof,

Both of us, of the love which makes us one.

Love's Philosophy

by Percy Bysshe Shelley  (1792-1822) 

The fountains mingle with the river  
And the rivers with the ocean,

The winds of Heaven mix for ever

With a sweet emotion;

Nothing in the world is single,

All things by a law divine

In one spirit meet and mingle -

Why not I with thine?

See the mountains kiss high Heaven

And the waves clasp one another;

No sister-flower would be forgiven

If it disdained its brother;

And the sunlight clasps the earth,

And the moonbeams kiss the sea -

What are all these kissings worth

If thou kiss not me?

On Love in Community (Agape)The First Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians 13 

Love 

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. 

And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. 

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. 

Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; where there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. 
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.For now we see through a glass, darkly, but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

Khalil Gibran

'Of life's two chief prizes, beauty and truth, I found the first in a loving heart and the second in a labourer's hand'

                                On being yourself

Thomas Hardy  1840 −1928

I was court-martialed in my absence, and sentenced to death in my absence, so I said they could shoot me in my absence. 

Matthew 5:14-16

Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Marianne Williamson (b.1952)
 Return To Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles, Harper Collins, 1992. From Chapter 7, Section 3 (Pg. 190-191).

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

Che Guevara (1928-1967)

'Many will call me an adventurer - and that I am, only of a different sort: one of those who risks his skin to prove his platitudes.'

'Silence is argument carried out by other means'

Gautama Budda 

“You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection” 

“In the end
these things matter most:  
How well did you love?
How fully did you live?
How deeply did you let go?” 

Imagine if you could invite all of the above to dinner - it would be a riot! That's it for today folks - have a good one.