Thursday, June 30, 2011

Beauty

RIC_3449 by rchoephoto
RIC_3449, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Beauty is what’s left
when all the illusions
are scoured away.

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


Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Becoming a butterfly

RIC_5590-1 by rchoephoto
RIC_5590-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

"How does one become a butterfly?"
she asked pensively.

"You mustwant to fly so much
that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar."

Trina Paulus, Hope for the flowers

Monday, June 27, 2011

Parting

RCC_9757 by rchoephoto
RCC_9757, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.




O how shall I warble myself for the dead one there I loved?
And how shall I deck my song for the large sweet soul that has gone?

Walt Whitman, When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Humour

RIC_3654 by rchoephoto
RIC_3654, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


Truth is more digestible when it’s marinated in humour.

Bill Moyers, Bill Moyers Journal: The Conversation Continues

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Faith

RIC_5229-1 by rchoephoto
RIC_5229-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


Faith is not a question of the existence or non-existence of God. It is believing that love without reward is valuable.

Emmanuel Levinas

Friday, June 24, 2011

Religion

RCC_8518 by rchoephoto
RCC_8518, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


Religion will be the medium by which people express their values for a long time to come, so it’s important to understand what brings out the best and worst in it.

Robert Wright

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Sacred Pause

RCC_8988 by rchoephoto
RCC_8988, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.



I need to take a sacred pause,
as if I were a sun-warmed rock
in the centre of a rushing river.
 
Dawna Markova

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

A Prayer of Thanksgiving

RIC_1127 by rchoephoto

RIC_1127, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Creator God,
We give you thanks for all creation –
         The planets, the cosmos, the waters, the land, the air, the plants, the trees,
         The four legged, the two legged, the wing-ed,
We give thanks for creation made whole and good and wise.

We give thanks that you speak to us
         In ways we can hear in our hearts.
We give you thanks that you hear us
         In ways we can be heard in truth.
We give thanks that you lead us
         In ways we can lead others in humility.
We give you thanks that you love us
         In ways we can love ourselves and others with courage.
And we give thanks that you gather us in community
         In ways we can live lives of justice, kindness, and humility.
Miigwech. Nya:weh
Amen.

Kim Uyede-Kai, Prayer offered at Francis Sandy Theological School Annual Celebration and Graduation (June 17, 2011)

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Monday, June 20, 2011

In Others

RIC_5349-1 by rchoephoto
RIC_5349-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


In others, we meet ourselves in a thousand disguises.

Marion Woodman,
Bone: A Journal of Wisdom, Strength, and Healing

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Friday, June 17, 2011

Harmony

_DSC5472 by rchoephoto
_DSC5472, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


Who sees all beings in one’s own Self
and one’s own Self in all beings,
loses all fear.

The Isa Upanishad



Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Stories

RIC_3005 by rchoephoto
RIC_3005, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


All stories are full of bias and uniqueness;
they mix fact with meaning.
This is root of their power.
Stories allow us to see something familiar through new eyes.

Rachel Naomi Remen, Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories That Heal

Monday, June 13, 2011

Where you are

RIC_3232 by rchoephoto
RIC_3232, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.



If you don’t know where you’re going,
turn around and make sure you know where you’re coming from.

African saying

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Friendship

RCC_4196 by rchoephoto
RCC_4196, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Nothing among human things
has such power to keep our gaze
fixed ever more intensively upon God
than friendship.

Simone Weil



Saturday, June 11, 2011

Life

RIC_5281-1* by rchoephoto
RIC_5281-1*, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Learn from yesterday,
live for today,
hope for tomorrow.

Albert Einstein


Friday, June 10, 2011

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Becoming Yourself

RIC_2926 by rchoephoto
RIC_2926, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

The things that is really hard, and really amazing,
is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself.

Anna Quindlen

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Solitude

RIC_3121 by rchoephoto
RIC_3121, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.



We must reserve a little back-shop, all our own, entirely free, wherein to establish our true liberty and principal retreat and solitude.

Montaigne

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Seen by the heart

RIC_2962 by rchoephoto
RIC_2962, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


When we are seen by the heart
we are seen for who we are.

Rachel Naomi Remen, Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories That Heal

Monday, June 6, 2011

First be who you really are

RIC_3213 by rchoephoto
RIC_3213, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


Often people attempt to live their lives backwards: they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want so that they will be happier. The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are, then do what you really need to do, in order to have what you want.

Margaret Young

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Kindness

RIC_4379-2 by rchoephoto
RIC_4379-2, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.

Mark Twain

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Friday, June 3, 2011

Question

RIC_4374-1 by rchoephoto
RIC_4374-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


If there is a question, there is a possibility of movement onwards.

Avivah Zornberg

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Stories

RC1_0151 by rchoephoto
RC1_0151, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


And true to what?
Stories always pose that question: what kind of truth is being told?
Stories never resolve that question:
their work is to remind us that we have to live with complicated truths.

Arthur W. Frank, letting stories breathe: a socio-narratology



Wednesday, June 1, 2011