Izumi Shikibu Quote – “Nothing in the world is usual today…”

Nothing
in the world
is usual today.
This is
the first morning.

Come quickly — as soon as
these blossoms open,
they fall.
This world exists
as a sheen of dew on flowers.

Life is so generous a giver. But we, judging its gifts by their covering, cast them away as ugly or heavy or hard. Remove the covering, and you will find beneath it a living splendor, woven of love by wisdom, with power. Welcome it, grasp it, and you touch the angel’s hand that brings it to you. Everything we call a trial, a sorrow or a duty, believe me, that angel’s hand is there. The gift is there and the wonder of an overshadowing presence. Your joys, too, be not content with them as joys. They, too, conceal diviner gifts. Life is so full of meaning and purpose, so full of beauty beneath its covering, that you will find earth but cloaks your heaven. Courage then to claim it; that is all! But courage you have, and the knowledge that we are pilgrims together, winding through unknown country home.

Giovanni Giocondo (circa 1433 – 1515)

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