Nature

RIC_5317-2, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Nature is not on the surface, it is inside. 

Colours, on the surface, show that inside. 

They show the roots of the world. 

Paul Cézanne in Cézanne by Joachim Gasquet

Hope

RC1_9265, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

If I have tried to bring anything to federal politics,
it is the idea that hope and optimism should be at their heart.

We CAN look after each other better than we do today.
We CAN have a fiscally responsible government.
We CAN have a strong economy; greater equality; a clean environment.
We CAN be a force for peace in the world.

I am as hopeful and optimistic about all of this as I was the day I began my political work, many years ago.
I am hopeful and optimistic about the personal battle that lies before me in the weeks to come.

And I am very hopeful and optimistic that our party will continue to move forward.  ...

And we WILL work with Canadians to build the country of our hopes

Of our dreams
Of our optimism
Of our determination
Of our values...
Of our love.

Thank you.

Jack Layton, Letter to his constituency on July 25, 2011 indicating he will be taking a temporary leave of absence as Leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada to focus on fighting cancer.


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Unbroken

RC1_5147, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

We are broken-hearted, but we are not broken.  ...

We will not allow our fear to break us. Evil can kill individuals, but it can never defeat a whole people.

Jens Stoltenberg,

     Prime Minister of Norway on the massacre on July 22, 2011

A single moment

DSC_0688, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Any life, no matter how long and complex it may be, is made up of a single moment — the moment in which a person finds out, once and for all, who they are. 

Jorge Luis Borges

Full of God

RCC_6081, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

The highest condition of the religious sentiment is when . . . the worshiper not only sees God everywhere, but sees nothing which is not full of God. 

Harriet Martineau

Love

DSC_3639a, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

We find the truest expression of ourselves in the people we love. 

Richard Wagamese, One Story, One Song

Unlearning of fear

RIC_2234-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Love is what we were born with. Fear is what we learned here. The spiritual journey is the relinquishment – or unlearning – of fear and the acceptance of love back into our hearts.

Marianne Williamson

Irises

RIC_5318-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

. . . over this dream of life,

this life of sleep, we waken dying —

violet becoming blue, growing

black, black — all that

an iris ever prays,

when it prays,

to be.

Li-Young Lee, Irises

Innocence

RCC_9260, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Innocence is more than lack of knowledge and experience, it’s learning to look at the world with wonder.

Richard Wagamese

To be truly wise

RIC_3078, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

To be truly wise is to understand

that knowing and not knowing are one.

Each has the power to transform. 

Richard Wagamese, One Story, One Song

Bridge

RC1_4208, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

A bridge never belongs to one side only.

Tariq Ramadan, What I Believe

Meaning of our lives

RC1_8047, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

The relationships that matter the most to us are characteristically to particular people to whom we love – husband or wife, parents, children, dearest friend – and sometimes to particular places – a home or personal territory that we invest with the same loving qualities. These specific relationships, which we experience as unique and irreplaceable, seem to embody most crucially the meaning of our lives.

Peter Marris

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Spiritual Living

RIC_6235-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

     The higher goal of spiritual living is not to

     amass a wealth of information, but to

     face sacred moments.

       Abraham Joshua Heschel

Sin

RIC_6439-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

The sin most insistently called abhorrent to God is the failure of generosity, the neglect of the widow and orphan, the oppression of strangers and poor, the defrauding of the labourer.

Marilynne Robinson

What home will we find?

RIC_2825, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

We are the children of tomorrow.

We are the ones who come from behind.

Earth is a home that you have borrowed;

What home will we find?

What home will we find?

Dennis Lee, Children of Tomorrow in So Cool

Story & Stories

RIC_6160-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

One’s story is not only one’s own.
It is always told against a background of others’ stories. 

Charlotte Linde, Working the Past: Narrative and Institutional Memory

The Risk to Bloom

RC1_4854a, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

And then the day came

when the risk to remain

tight in a bud was

more painful than the

risk to bloom.

Anais Nin

Quiz

RCC_7922, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

What gets you through the day?
Your best friend, being there.

…

What must you give to find the way?
The rest of your life.

Dennis Lee, Quiz, So Cool

Passion

RIC_6246-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Follow your bliss!

Joseph Campbell

Capacity to be alone

RIC_6171-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

The capacity to be alone thus becomes linked

with self-discovery and self-realization;

with becoming aware of one’s deepest needs, feelings, and impulses.

Anthony Storr, Solitude: A Return to the Self

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Spoken Words

RC1_4783, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

I can retract what I did not say, but I cannot retract what I have already said.

Solomon Ibn Gabriol, Pearls of Wisdom

Beauty

RIC_5347-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Rien n’est beau que le vrai,

le vrai seul est amiable.

Beauty is only in the true,

only the true is lovable.

Nicolas Boileau-Deéspreaux

Harmony

RIC_5304-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Together we have sought the good odour of our life,

where the flowers of many colours are growing,

not only one colour, but many colours;

we can listen to many sounds, not only one;

we can dialogue with many traditions, not only one;

where we can dance and break down the great walls

that do not allow dance,

to expose ourselves to the Wind,

to the Spirit that ruffles our hair and our lives.

Ivona Gebara

World of the imagination

RIC_5341-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

George Santayana once said, "Another world to live in is what we mean by religion." And so, too, the world of the imagination and the enlargement of human sympathy it provides.

Joyce Carol Oates, 3 Minutes or Less: Life Lessions from America's Greatest Writers

Art

RIC_5300-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Art liberates and purifies, and its tokens are those short moments when we look at a beautiful landscape forgetting about ourselves, when everything that concerns us disappears, is dissolved, and it does not matter whether the eye that looks is that of a beggar or a king.

Czeslaw Milosz, A Book of Luminous Things: An International Anthology of Poetry

Life

RIC_6378, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Life is this simple.

We are living in a world that is absolutely transparent and the divine is shining through it all the time.

Thomas Merton

When Death Comes

RCC_9838, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

... and I look upon time as no more than an idea,

and I consider eternity as another possibility,

and I think of each life as a flower, as common

as a field daisy, and as a singular ...

I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.

Mary Oliver, When Death Comes

Remembering Rhea Hildegarde Whitehead (January 22, 1936 - June 14, 2011) on a day of her funeral.

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Within

RIC_4629, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Wrapped within
young leaves:
the sound of water.

Soseki

Attitude

DSC_3859, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Those who wish to sing, always find a song.

Swedish Proverb

Epiphany

RC1_0137, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Epiphany may also mean a privileged moment in our life among the things of this world, in which they suddenly reveal something we have not noticed until now; and that something is like an intimation of their mysterious, hidden side.

Czeslaw Milosz, A Book of Luminous Things: An International Anthology of Poetry

Intense Love

RIC_3459, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Intense love does not measure;

It just gives. 

Mother Teresa