Earth, teach me freedom
as the eagle which soars in the sky.
Earth, teach me regeneration
as the seed which rises in the spring.
Earth, teach me to forget myself
as melted snow forgets its life.
Earth, teach me to remember kindness
as dry fields weep with rain.
- Ute prayer from Earth Blessings: Prayers, Poems and Meditations
I assert that the man who should know the true history of the bit of chalk which every carpenter carries about in his breeches pocket, though ignorant of all other history, is likely, if he will think his knowledge out to its…
Abandon the urge to simplify everything, to look for formulas and easy
answers, and begin to think multidimensionally, to glory in the mystery
and paradoxes of life, not to be dismayed by the multitude of causes and
consequences that are inherent in each experience — to appreciate the fact
that life is complex.— M. Scott Peck from The Road Less Traveled
For Courage
Know that you are not alone
And that this darkness has purpose;
Gradually it will school your eyes
To find the one gift your life requires
Hidden within this night-corner.
Invoke the learning
Of every suffering
You have suffered…
Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland.
- Isaiah 43:18–19
I am so thirsty for the marvelous that only the marvelous has power over me. Anything I can not transform into something marvelous, I let go.
― Anais Nin from The Diary of Anais Nin
Burning Man Blessing Prayer
The world now
is too dangerous
and too beautiful
for anything but love.
I bless your eyes be so you see God in…
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
-Matthew 5:9
In our joy, we think we hear a whisper.
At first it is too soft. Then only half heard.
We listen carefully as it gathers strength.
We hear a sweetness.
The word is Peace.
- Maya Angelou from Amazing Peace
Peace is not just about the absence of conflict; it’s also about the presence of justice. Martin Luther King Jr. even distinguished between “the devil’s peace” and God’s true peace. A counterfeit peace exists when people are pacified or distracted or so beat up and tired…
Because when all is said and done,
the last word is Immanuel — God With Us.
— Isaiah 8:10, The Message
Hope and Fear cannot occupy the same space at the same time. Invite one to stay. Invite one to stay.
— Maya Angelou from Sacred Threshold by Paula D’Arcy
A Pilgrimage of Discovery
There are no manuals for the construction of the individual you would like to become. You are the only one who can decide this and take up the lifetime of work that it demands. This is a wonderful privilege and such an exciting adventure. To grow into the person that…
Ideally, a human life should be a constant pilgrimage of discovery. The most exciting discoveries happen at the frontiers. When you come to know something new, you come closer to yourself and to the world. Discovery enlarges and refines your sensibility. When you discover something, you transfigure some of the forsakenness of the world.
John O’Donohue from Eternal Echoes
It has been quite a year! Thank you for your continued support of my blog. This post is to let you know that I will not be posting daily Advent meditations this year. With two cross-country moves, struggling to find employment…
Ideally, a human life should be a constant pilgrimage of discovery. The most exciting discoveries happen at the frontiers. When you come to know something new, you come closer to yourself and to the world. Discovery enlarges and refines your sensibility. When you discover something, you transfigure some of the forsakenness of the world.
John O’Donohue from Eternal Echoes
It has been quite a year! Thank you for your continued support of my blog. This post is to let you know that I will not be posting daily Advent meditations this year. With two cross-country moves, struggling to find employment…
Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.
Rumi
Go to the place inside that hurts. The part that’s lonely or sad. Your broken heart. Your bruised ego. The part of you that worries it will always be this way. Go there now and silently repeat:
May you be happy.
May you be safe.
May you be filled with love.
You’re not alone.
— Jason Garner from And I Breathed, My Journey from a Life of Matter to a Life That Matters
The Beauty and The Frailty
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.
— Martin Luther King, Jr from A Testament of Hope — The American Dream
As a product of my culture, my racial illiteracy has rested on a simplistic definition of a racist: an individual who consciously does not like people based on race and is intentionally hurtful to them. Based on this definition, racists are purposely mean. It follows that nice people with good intentions who are friendly to…
What if you thought of it
as the Jews consider the Sabbath-
the most sacred of times?
Cease from travel.
Cease from buying and selling.
Give up, just for now,
on trying to make the world
different than it is.
Sing. Pray. Touch only those
to whom you commit your life.
Center down.
And when your body has become still,
reach out with your heart.
Know that we are connected
in ways that are terrifying and beautiful.
(You could hardly deny it now.)
Know that our lives
are in one another’s hands.
(Surely, that has come clear.)
Do not reach…
