Monday, November 30, 2009

Great Thoughts


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Originally uploaded by rchoephoto


I say to you in all sadness of conviction, that to think great thoughts you must be heroes as well as idealists.

Oliver Wendell Holms, Jr.

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Mother


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Originally uploaded by rchoephoto


“Mother” does not mean being the woman who gives birth to and cares for a child; to be a mother is to feel in your own flesh the suffering of all the children, all the men, and all the young people who die, as though they had come from your own womb.

Luz Beatriz Arellano [Nicaragua]

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Look into your heart


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Originally uploaded by rchoephoto


When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find that it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.

When you are sorrowful, look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for what has been your delight.

Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

Friday, November 27, 2009

Greatest disease


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Originally uploaded by rchoephoto


The greatest disease in the West today is not TB or Leprosy; it is being unwanted, unloved, and uncared for. We can cure physical diseases with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, despair, and hopelessness is love.

Mother Teresa, A Simple Path

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Who am I?


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Originally uploaded by rchoephoto


Who I am is what fulfills me and what fulfills the vision I have of a world.

Audre Lorde

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Door


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Originally uploaded by rchoephoto


A door is truly an amazing thing.

Closed, it is an agent of separation. …
But swing it open and it becomes an invitation,
uniting what before was separate.

Drew Leder

Monday, November 23, 2009

Truth


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Originally uploaded by rchoephoto


The truth knocks on the door and you say,
"Go away, I'm looking for the truth"
and so it goes away. Puzzling.

Robert Pirsig

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Friday, November 20, 2009

Seed of growth and liberation


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Originally uploaded by rchoephoto


Every painful event contains in itself a seed of growth and liberation.

Anthony de Mello

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Homeless


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Originally uploaded by rchoephoto


Probably no word better summarizes the suffering of our times than the word “homeless.” It reveals one of our deepest and most painful conditions, the condition of not having a sense of belonging, of not having a place where we can feel safe, cared for, protected, and loved.

Henri J. M. Nouwen

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Anthropology


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Originally uploaded by rchoephoto


The key revelation of anthropology is the idea that distinct cultures represent unique visions of life itself, morally inspired and inherently right. ... To dismiss indigenous peoples as trivial, to view their societies as marginal, is to ignore and deny the central revelation of anthropology.

Wade Davis, Light at the Edge of the World

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Heaven on Earth


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Originally uploaded by rchoephoto


Sing like no one's listening, love like you've never been hurt, dance like nobody's watching, and live like its heaven on earth.

Mark Twain

Monday, November 16, 2009

Emptiness


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Originally uploaded by rchoephoto


Emptiness is the footprint on which the centred person moves.

Tibetan sage

Sunday, November 15, 2009

The World


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Originally uploaded by rchoephoto


The world is not like a picture painted by an artist centuries ago which now hangs untouchable in a museum. It is more like a work of art in constant process of creation, still in a studio.

Ernesto Cardenal

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Miracles


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Originally uploaded by rchoephoto


But that is the thing about miracles: it is perception that determines them as such, not facts.

Camilla Gibb, sweetness in the belly

Friday, November 13, 2009

Story


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Originally uploaded by rchoephoto

Everyone has a story. That’s what the circle teaches us. We become better people, a better species, when we take the time to hear them. That’s how you change the world, really. One story, one voice at a time.

Richard Wagamese, One Native Life

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Door


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Originally uploaded by rchoephoto


The traveler has to knock at every alien door to come to his own.

Rabindranath Tagore

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Resurgam






     Exiled afar from youth and happy love,

     If death should ravish my fond spirit hence

     I have no doubt but, like a homing dove,

     It would return to its dear residence,

     And through a thousand stars find out the road

     Back into earthly flesh that was its loved abode.

       Alan Seeger

Monday, November 9, 2009

Exceptional



Eventually it comes to you: the thing that makes you exceptional is also what makes you lonely.

Lorraine Hansberry

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Gift



It is not because we have value that we are loved, but because we are loved that we have value.  Our value is a gift, not an achievement.

William Sloane Coffin

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Quality of Life


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Originally uploaded by rchoephoto

The quality of life is initially and inevitably predicated by love. ... And what is at stake is always the quality of life, which people know cannot be bettered, unless love is factored in.


Pier Giorgio Di Cicco, Municipal Mind: Manifestos for the Creative City

Friday, November 6, 2009

Miracle



A miracle is not defined by an event.  A miracle is defined by gratitude.

Kate Braestrup, Here If You Need Me: A True Story

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Forgiveness


   
    God's forgiveness is more than a blessing;
    it's a challenge.

        William Sloane Coffin

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Democracy



We can have a democracy or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of the few.  We cannot have both.

Justice Louis Brandeis

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Character



Ultimately my character is defined by the quality of my sensitivity to other people.  I exist in equilibrium.  I am here to the degree I am there.

Hugh Prather, Love and Courage

Monday, November 2, 2009

Reading & Writing



Reading and writing are in themselves subversive acts.  What they subvert is the notion that things have to be the way they are, that you are alone, that no one has ever felt the way you have.

Mark Vonnegut on his Dad Kurt Vonnegut's writing

Sunday, November 1, 2009

A poem in progress



Isn't a city a poem in progress?  ...  The citizen must self-identify as an artist,
with the same moral commitment to ideals, before we can have any credible allegiance to our environment.  This is the key to sustainability.

Pier Giorgio Di Cicco, Municipal Mind: Manifestos for the Creative City