Prayer for the World

It's late here. It's past one in the morning. Prayer for you, reader, and all the people around you; and a prayer for the world.

Lots of love,
Tuccia

Day Thirty

I kept the flame for thirty minutes.

That makes thirty days. I will recount tomorrow just to make sure.

Day Twenty-Nine

I kept the flame for thirty minutes.

Day Twenty-Eight

I kept the flame for thirty minutes. I took this picture on tonight's urban hike. 

Keeping the Flame

I kept the flame, last night and tonight.

성화

삼십분동안 성화를 지켰어요.

제목 없음

삼십분동안 촛불을 지켜봤어요.

모든 사람 위해 어디서나 기도 합니다.

Language Immersion

I'm doing self-imposed Korean language immersion until Friday evening. That means no English outside of work. To that end:

오늘은 촛불을 삼십 분 동안 지켜봤어요.

The Magic Hours

I kept the flame for thirty minutes.

A video of Seoul during the magic hours.

May 11th, 2014

I kept the flame for thirty minutes.

The Bad Novice

The candles I have are all almost used up. Tonight, none would light. I think I'm a bad novice--my first reaction was not to try, but just to assume that nothing could be done. 

It turns out it could be done. I just had to scrape some of the wax away from around the wick, and it stayed lit for thirty minutes.

Good night from Asia! 

Bedtime Prayer & Good Night from Asia

I kept the flame for thirty minutes. 

Prayer to Salacia for the crews working to retrieve bodies from the Sewol. Prayer to Concordia for Ukraine. 

And most of all, prayer to the most honorable Vesta that all people offer hospitality to one another and are in turn received with hospitality. 

Good night from Asia! 

Keeping the Flame

I guarded the flame for thirty minutes.

Good Night

I kept the flame for thirty minutes today. 

I went to Subway for dinner and had the veggie delight. While getting my sandwich, the speaker played a song from the soundtrack of The King and the Clown, the 2007 historical/forbidden love drama that became one of the biggest films in Korean movie history. I found this ocarina version on YouTube after I came back home. If you haven't seen the movie, of course, it's meaningless, but because I saw it, the song sends chills down my spine. 

It was hard not to get thinking about history after that. I got to reading about Deokhye Ongju, the last princess of Joseon. The Wikipedia article on her is here.

Tonight, prayers for Deokhye Ongju, all sides in Ukraine, and the diver who died today inside the Sewol ferry. 

Good night from Asia. 

Taking Sides in Conflicts

Taking sides in a conflict isn't all it's cracked up to be. After all, viewpoints, even if ultimately flawed in some fashion and to some degree, often have their own internal logic and emotional element. As Marcus Aurelius and Siddartha Gautama both said, everything is just perspective.

Furthermore, viewpoints are held by humans, humans all have the same basic needs (to eat, to find love, to have a job, to be a respected member of society), and viewpoints are often held in relationship to these needs (to fulfill them or to preserve their satisfaction, etc.)

Oops

The line, 'tell me where past years are', is from Go and Catch a Falling Star, by John Donne, not To His Coy Mistress, by Andrew Marvell. 

Yesterday, as I was hiking, by chance I was thinking about both poems. Not everything in each is to my taste; it's just that those lines made me think a lot about time when we had to read them in literary criticism class as an undergraduate English major. 

The line of Marvell's that I liked is also echoed later in The Waste Land, by T.S. Eliot:

Marvell: "But at my back I always hear time's winged chariot drawing near."

Eliot: "But at my back in a cold blast I hear the rattle of bones, and a chuckle spread from ear to ear."  

Today is Wesak, so it's a national holiday in Korea. My friend wants to do language exchange though it's a holiday, so I will. After that, maybe I will go to one of the big temples and have a look at all the festivities. 

Good Night

Public domain image from NASA: "10,000 Galaxies'.

Good night from Asia. 

Prayer to Janus, god of time, looking future-wards and looking past-wards: Tell me where past years are. (from Andrew Marvell)

Keeping the Flame

I guarded the flame for thirty minutes.

Like the Mountains in Springtime

When looking at the sky as a teen-ager, on those rare breezy, fresh, clear days, I often had the feeling of wonder, beauty, and possibility. 

I had that feeling today when I reached the ridge of one of my favorite hiking spots. I took some photos:

Dear World

Dear World,

I kept a candle lit on your behalf for thirty minutes tonight.

It was an honor, just a real honor.

Lots of love,
Tuccia

*     *     *     *     *     *     *

Such a beautiful cover. 

May 2014

My favorite cell phone photo from yesterday's urban hike. Much love to you on this weekend in May 2014, one weekend in this passing life. 

Good Night

Good night from Asia. I pray to Vesta that wherever you are in the world, you are received with hospitality of the heart.

Lots of love,
Tuccia

Prayer for the World

I will resume keeping the flame, to finish the thirty days. I've just been a little busy.

I want to offer a prayer for the world tonight. I wish I had to a bigger platform from which to launch my little prayer. I guess this will have to do! 

Prayer to Vesta for this world, and all the people in it, that they be safe from physical harm, that they be safe from emotional harm, that they have a safe and happy home to return to when their long day is done. 

Lots of love,

Tuccia