To a person who expects every desert to be barren sand dunes, the Sonoran must come as a surprise. Not only are there no dunes, there's no sand. At least not the sort of sand you find at the beach. The ground does have a sandy color to it, or gray, but your feet won't sink in. It's hard, as if it's been tamped. And pebbly. And glinting with -- what else -- mica.
Jerry SpinelliWe live in a silent explosion, Everything is flying away from everything else... flying away... flying away...
Jerry SpinelliWhen was the last time you used the words 'teach me'? Maybe not since you started first grade? Here's an irony about school: The daily grind of tests, homework, and pressures sometimes blunts rather than stimulates a thirst for knowledge.
Jerry SpinelliHe said even if it's too cloudy to see, the sun will still rise, it will still be there. "But that's the whole point," I said. "Seeing it." "Is it?" he said.
Jerry SpinelliIโm erased. Iโm gone. Iโm nothing. And then the world is free to flow into me like water into an empty bowlโฆ. Andโฆ I see. I hear. But not with eyes and ears. Iโm not outside my world anymore, and Iโm not really inside it either. The thing is, thereโs no difference between me and the universe. The boundary is gone. I am it and it is me. I am a stone, a cactus thorn. I am rain. I like that most of all, being rain.
Jerry SpinelliLive today. Not yesterday. Not tomorrow. Just today. Inhabit your moments. Donโt rent them out to tomorrow. Do you know what youโre doing when you spend a moment wondering how things are going to turn out with Perry? Youโre cheating yourself out of today. Today is calling to you, trying to get your attention, but youโre stuck on tomorrow, and today trickles away like water down a drain. You wake up the next morning and that today you wasted is gone forever. Itโs now yesterday. Some of those moments may have had wonderful things in store for you , but now youโll never know.
Jerry Spinelli