Julia Bielke

We are missing you . . . We, unaccustomed to courage, exiles from delight, live coiled in shells of loneliness until love leaves its high holy temple and comes into our sight to liberate us into life. Love arrives and in its train come ecstacies, old memories of pleasure, ancient histories of pain. Yet if we are bold, love strikes away the chains of fear from our souls. We are weaned from our timidity in the flush of love's light, we dare be brave. And suddenly we see that love costs all we are and will ever be. Yet it is only love which sets us free . . . You are welcome . . . 

Maya Angelou

Suddenly we see that . . . Indem der Erwachsene sich am Kind bewährt, erreicht er das Soziale. Erwachsene brauchen im Fremden den Sohn, die Tochter, das Kind nicht zu erkennen, um im Kind, in der Tochter, im Sohn das Fremde zu beschützen und zu retten. Im Fremden halten wir uns selbst und die Zukunft offen. In der Sprache der Literatur: unsere Bereitschaft für das Unvorhergesehene, das Geheimnis, das Märchenhafte, das Überwältigende, das Verständnisvolle, das Anstrengende, das Tröstende oder das Wunder . . . If only . . . Yet it is only . . . 

mit Adolf Muschg & Toni Morrison 

If I lay here, if I just lay here would you lie with me and just forget the world? . . . If nostalgia is the one-story house you live in, I will be outside watering the roses. Watching someone die is the most intimate encounter. In grief, I keep, I cherish. I bring flowers or silences or music or stories for my dead. I learn how to stay. If I lay here, if I just lay here, would you lie with me and just forget the world? . . . 

with Snow Patrol & Alexis Aceves Garcia 

"The only dream worth having is to dream that you will live while you're alive and die only when you're dead." "Which means exactly what?" "To love. To be loved. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and vulgar disparity of life around you." "To remember that nobody has the right to obey." "To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair." "To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power." "Above all, to watch. To build shelters for joy and sadness. To try and understand. To never look away." "And never, never to forget." 

Arundhati Roy & Hannah Arendt

The shelter I will build for my Sadness will have light from the sun or from the moon and stars. And I will make my shelter strong, so that in winter Sadness will have a place amidst the storms. The windows will have blinds and there will be candles if need be. I will give Sadness a garden too, so that in spring, birds will come and build their nests and green will peek through the dark earth. Sometimes we will run into each other's arms and . . . 

Anne Booth & David Litchfield