Wave and Muscle

“The breaking wave and the muscle as it contracts obey the same law. Delicate line gathers the body's total strength in a bold balance. Shall my soul meet so severe a curve, journeying on its way to form?”
-Dag Hammarskjold

In 1953, soon after his appointment as United Nations secretary general, Hammarskjöld was interviewed on radio by Edward R. Murrow. In this talk he declared: "But the explanation of how man should live a life of active social service in full harmony with himself as a member of the community of spirit, I found in the writings of those great medieval mystics [Meister Eckhart and Jan van Ruysbroek] for whom 'self-surrender' had been the way to self-realization, and who in 'singleness of mind' and 'inwardness' had found strength to say yes to every demand which the needs of their neighbours made them face, and to say yes also to every fate life had in store for them when they followed the call of duty as they understood it."
[Henry P Van Dusen. Dag Hammarskjold. A Biographical Interpretation of Markings Faber and Faber London 1967 p 47]

Dag Hammarskjold, (29 July 1905 – 18 September 1961) was a Swedish diplomat, economist and author. He was the second Secretary-General of the United Nations from April 1953 until his death in a plane crash in September 1961. He is the only person to have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize posthumously.

(Image: http://www.aikido-maastricht.nl/pics/spiral.jpg)

What makes time stop for you?

Condé Nast Traveler's piece Slow Boat to Bliss
by Jeffrey Tayler was excellent and I loved the ending - begging the question: what makes time stop for you?

I turn my eyes to the sea below, turquoise expanses foaming with breakers. I've surrendered to the healing charms of the islands, finding, as Kazantzakis declared, that "happiness is a simple, unaffected thing: a glass of wine, a chestnut, a humble little brazier, the roar of the sea." I wake up each day here wanting nothing more than to inhale the salty sea air and hold my face to the light. This is it, the utter tranquillity I've been searching for. I close my eyes, my breathing slows. Time, for me, has stopped.