Moonriver Lodge, Sigar Highlands
FOR OUR CHILDREN'S CHILDRENArchive for Art & Poetry
Generation To Generation
In a house which becomes a home,
one hands down and another takes up
the heritage of mind and heart,
laughter and tears, musings and deeds.
Love, like a carefully loaded ship,
crosses the gulf between the generations.
Therefore, we do not neglect the ceremonies of our passage: when we wed, when we die, and when we are blessed with a child; When we depart and when we return; When we plant and when we harvest.
Let us bring up our children. It is not
the place of some official to hand to them their heritage.
If others impart to our children our knowledge and ideals, they will lose all of us that is wordless and full of wonder.
Let us build memories in our children,
lest they drag out joyless lives,
lest they allow treasures to be lost because they have not been given the keys.
We live, not by things, but by the meanings of things. It is needful to transmit the passwords from generation to generation.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Epictetus (AD 55–AD 135) was a Greek Stoic philosopher.
All philosophy lies in two words, sustain and abstain.
First learn the meaning of what you say, and then speak. All religions must be tolerated… for every man must get to heaven in his own way.
Freedom is the right to live as we wish.
Be careful to leave your sons well instructed rather than rich, for the hopes of the instructed are better than the wealth of the ignorant.
If evil be spoken of you and it be true, correct yourself, if it be a lie, laugh at it.
Do not seek to bring things to pass in accordance with your wishes, but wish for them as they are, and you will find them.
It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.
It is not he who reviles or strikes you who insults you, but your opinion that these things are insulting.
Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens.
First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.
Freedom is not procured by a full enjoyment of what is desired, but by controlling the desire. Is freedom anything else than the right to live as we wish? Nothing else.
Know, first, who you are, and then adorn yourself accordingly.
No greater thing is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig, I answer you that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen.
No man is free who is not master of himself.
God has entrusted me with myself.
Google Images
The Children’s Stand Carnival, Singapore on 19 Mar-2011
In conjunction with World Down Syndrome Day, Moonriver Lodge was proud to sponsor the childrens’ T-Shirts for the Children’s Stand (16-19 Mar). All T-shirt were individually and creatively designed by children. Besides artwork and pillowcase dresses, there were also spontaneous games and songs. The Childrens’ Stand booth was a lovely myriad of colours and screamed the word “FUN!”
All proceeds from the sales of the Childrens’ Stand were donated to DSA Singapore.
Another proud project by Khoo Peng Ean (Poet-Artist, charKOL )
Please click here for details and pictures http://www.thechildrensstand.wordpress.com
or go to our Moonriver Facebook for more pictures.
I Dream Of A Forest
PKK 29 March 2011
Hum-hum-humming Bird
I can imagine, in some other world
Primeval-dumb, far back
In that most awful stillness, that only gasped and hummed,
Humming-birds raced down the avenues.
Before anything had a soul,
While life was a heave of matter, half inanimate,
This little bit chipped off in brilliance
And went whizzing through the slow, vast, succulent stems.
I believe there were no flowers then,
In the world where the humming-bird flashed ahead of creation.
I believe he pierced the slow vegetable veins with his long beak.
Probably he was big
As mosses, and little lizards, they say, were once big.
Probably he was a jabbing, terrifying monster.
We look at him through the wrong end of the telescope of Time,
Luckily for us.
(Source : by D.H. Lawrence)
Sumiregusa – Wild Violet
Music: Enya
Lyrics: Roma Ryan
Sumiregusa-Wild Violet
Mono no awarē
Murasaki iro no hana
To fuyu mo koyuki
Harahara
Shizēn no bi kana
Ah! Midori no ha to
Aki no iro
Kaze no koe
Tori no saezuri
Kanashii umi
Yorokobino umi
Yama
Koishi
Ayamegusa
The poignancy of things
A purple flower
The blossom of springs
and the light snow of winter
How they fall
The beauty of nature
A green leaf and
Autumn colours
The voice of the wind
The song of birds
A sad sea
A joyful sea
Mountains
Pebbles
A wild iris
Roma Ryan’s notes to the song:
The lyrics for Sumiregusa were inspired by a Hokku, or Haiku, written by the Japanese poet, Bashō, while he was traveling to Ōtsu. He says that on his way through the mountain road the sight of a wild violet touched his heart. We have all been moved by the beauty of nature, so I am sure we can all relate to those seventeen syllables that Bashō wrote. We have all had a moment that pulls at our heartstrings. One such moment for me was when I was walking in the woodlands andÝI came across an old, broken, dying thistle. He was such a sad sight. There was a small history in him that would soon be lost. And yet he struggled on. I called him Don Quixote. I went every day to see him until he wasn’t there any more. The following year his children bloomed, he did not return. Even today, although that place has been taken over by the ever vigorous bramble, and there are no signs of any thistles, I still pass by and remember him. Perhaps these moments are an epiphany. Perhaps it is our own acceptance of the world and the way it is. Perhaps it is a celebration of life, or just a moment that is ours alone. In Sumiregusa all of nature is equal in its power to inspire, to move, to touch – from a small pebble to a great mountain, from one green leaf to the many colours of autumn, from the song of birds to a purple flower.
Your Children Are Not Your Children
This beautiful verse from Kahlil Gibran (The Prophet) is another contribution from Metamorphosis Ranger.
” Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts. For they have their own
thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls, For their
souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even
in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make
them like you. For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent
forth. The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He
bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far. Let
your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness; For even as he
loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable.”
By Kahlil Gibran
A Path with a Heart & Soul
Thank you for this contribution from Metamorphosis Ranger from Sydney, Australia.
We hope it can help you as much as it has helped us make important decisions for Moonriver Lodge and her interfaces.
“ Any path is only a path, and there is no affront, to oneself or to
others, in dropping it if that is what your heart tells you. . . .
Look at every path closely and deliberately.
Try it as many times as you think necessary.
Then ask yourself, and yourself alone,
one question. . . .
Does this path have a heart?
If it does,
the path is good; if it doesn’t, it is of no use. “
By Carlos Castaneda
A Kenyan Proverb
I saw this in one of the lodges in Kinabalu Base Camp. It is in line with our dreams for Moonriver Lodge – “For Our Children’s Children”.
If we don’t treasure it well, it can be taken away so quickly and transformed into yet another monstrosity for commercial agriculture which concentrates on maximising yield and profit margins, with little regard for our Earth, our Land and our Childrens’ Future.
Treat the earth well
It was not given to you
by your parents
it was loaned to you
by your children
- Kenyan Proverb -
