Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Monday, May 30, 2011

Sacrifice

RCC_1997 by rchoephoto
RCC_1997, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


Every spiritual enhancing experience demands a sacrifice of us. For me, the price of admission was a willingness to let that solid block of anger dissolve.

Richard Wagamese, One Story, One Song

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Dive again and again

DSC_6597 by rchoephoto
DSC_6597, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


There are pearls in the deep sea,
but one must hazard all to find them.
If diving once does not bring you pearls,
you need not conclude that the sea is without them.
Dive again and again.

Ramakrishna

Friday, May 27, 2011

Integration

RIC_3465-1 by rchoephoto
RIC_3465-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


What is not integrated is repeated.

Angeles Arrien


Whether pain and suffering will have a proper place in our lives or whether we will be trapped in the canyon of pain and suffering depends on our efforts to integrate our experience into a wholeness that then releases its wisdom.

Mark Nepo, Facing the Lion, Being the Lion: Finding Inner Courage Where It Lives

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Everything is in its place

RIC_3225b by rchoephoto
RIC_3225b, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.



The soul is always beautiful,
The universe is duly in order, everything is in its place,
What has arrived is in its place and what waits shall be in its place.

Walt Whitman, Complete Poetry

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Love poems

RIC_3507 by rchoephoto
RIC_3507, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.



So tell me what it takes to write a love poem.
     A generous spirit and a willingness to make a fool of yourself.

It takes those to love, too.
     That’s love.

Conversation between Bill Moyers and Nikki Giovanni, Bill Moyers, Bill Moyers Journal: The Conversation Continues

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Solitude

RIC_2820 by rchoephoto
RIC_2820, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


Solitude does not mean living apart from others;
it means never living apart from one’s self.

Parker Palmer

Monday, May 23, 2011

Power

_DSC5506 by rchoephoto
_DSC5506, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Originally, the word power meant able to be.
In time, it was contracted to mean to be able.
We suffer the difference.

Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening



Sunday, May 22, 2011

Saturday, May 21, 2011

What we think

RIC_2874b by rchoephoto
RIC_2874b, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.



We are what we think.
All that we are arises with our thoughts.
With our thoughts, we make the world.

The Buddha

Friday, May 20, 2011

Being present

RIC_3239 by rchoephoto

RIC_3239, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Beauty and grace are performed whether or not we sense them.
The least we can do is try to be there.

Annie Dillard


Thursday, May 19, 2011

Strength

RIC_3250 by rchoephoto
RIC_3250, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.



Strength indeed lies in accepting one’s frailties and not in persuading oneself that one has “overcome” them.

Tariq Ramadan, What I Believe

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Sounds of Nature

RIC_3165 by rchoephoto
RIC_3165, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


Everything in life is speaking in spite of its apparent silence.

Hazrat Inayat Khan

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Living well with stories

_RIC3487 by rchoephoto
_RIC3487, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.



A good life requires living well with stories.
When life goes badly, a story is often behind that too.

Arthur W. Frank, letting stories breathe



Monday, May 16, 2011

Gardeners of the Spirit

DSC_4931 by rchoephoto
DSC_4931, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.



Help us to be the always hopeful gardeners of the spirit,
Who know that without darkness nothing comes to birth
As without light nothing flowers.

May Sarton, Journal of a Solitude



Sunday, May 15, 2011

Life experiences

_DSC4626 by rchoephoto
_DSC4626, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.



Our life experiences will have resonances
within our innermost being, so that we will
feel the rapture of being alive.

Joseph Campbell



Saturday, May 14, 2011

A Person

RIC_4312 by rchoephoto
RIC_4312, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.



The Earth is the centre of the universe
The house is the centre of the earth
The family is the centre of the house
The person is the centre of the family.

Basque Song

Friday, May 13, 2011

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Question of Faith

RIC_1548 by rchoephoto
RIC_1548, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.



What would happen if Christians devoted the same discipline and self-sacrifice to non-violent peacemaking that armies devote to war?

Ron Sider, quoted in James Loney, Captivity



Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Monday, May 9, 2011

Sedentary Agitation

RCC_9184 by rchoephoto
RCC_9184, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.



Sedentary Agitation:
Being regularly upset by all that you see
but not getting up and doing anything about it.

Cory Booker

Sunday, May 8, 2011

We are One

RC1_7742 by rchoephoto
RC1_7742, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

We are all Story. … We are energy moving forward to the fullest possible expressions of ourselves, …
We are one. We are, in the end, one story, one song, one spirit, one soul.

Richard Wagamese, One Story, One Song



Saturday, May 7, 2011

Every breath you take

_DSC5566 by rchoephoto
_DSC5566, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

To hold nothing back
in every breath
is a spiritual practice.

Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening



Friday, May 6, 2011

Perspective

RIC_9773 by rchoephoto
RIC_9773, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Out of clutter, find simplicity.
From discord, find harmony.
In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity

Albert Einstein



Tuesday, May 3, 2011

The Days

RCC_9469 by rchoephoto
RCC_9469, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

The days are too short for love;
how can there ever be time for quarrelling?

Margaret Gatty





Monday, May 2, 2011

Choices

RC1_0016 by rchoephoto
RC1_0016, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Probably no nation is rich enough to pay for both war and civilization.
We must make our choice; we cannot have both.

Abraham Flexner



Sunday, May 1, 2011

Lost in the act of becoming

RIC_2012 by rchoephoto
RIC_2012, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

… something is always
lost in the act of becoming —
as though necessity breeds
the loss of some universal truth ...

Michael Meyerhofer, Dinner Roll Zen in Illuminations, eds. by Mark L. Tompkins and Jennifer McMahon