A Japanese Prayer

Give us the unchanging bravery of the pine, that we too may face the storms of life unconquered and unafraid.
Give us the courage of the plum, to flower gloriously in the midstof bleak adversity
And give to us through the years the straight tough fibre and resiliency of the green bamboo

Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting--
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
Source - unknown ( to me)