We are

DSC_0351, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

We are already that we are seeking. 

Kyan Douglas

Love

DSC_4228, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Love looks not with the eyes,
but with the mind.

William Shakespeare

Grace

DSC_4219, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


I do not at all understand the mystery of grace –
only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us
where it found us. 

Anne Lamott

Justice

DSC_2204, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Justice constitutes the first condition of humanity. 

Wole Soyinka, The Burden of Memory, The Muse of Forgiveness

Creating meaning together

DSC_7406, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Social Constructionism:
We construct our world, our reality, through our language.

Mark Lau Branson, Memories, Hopes, and Conversations


As people create meaning together, so do they sow the seeds of action. Meaning and action are intertwined. As we generate meaning together we create the future.

Taos Institute website [http://www.taosinstitute.net/]


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Writer

DSC_5850, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

     The writer, unless he is a mere word
     processor, retains three attributes
     that power-mad regimes cannot
     tolerate; a human imagination, in
     many forms it may take; the power to
     communicate; and hope.
       
       Margaret Atwood

Hands

DSC_3578, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Hands that give also receive.

Ecuadorian Proverb

Nothing/Everything

DSC_4232, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

When we are nothing, we are in a fine position to receive everything from God.

Richard Rohr, Everything Belongs

Peace

DSC_4223
Originally uploaded by rchoephoto

The mind is never right but when it is at peace within itself. 

Seneca

Speaking Truth

DSC_6100
Originally uploaded by rchoephoto

Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act.

George Orwell

Words

Peace in Arabic[1]
Originally uploaded by rchoephoto

Lo que dicen las palabras no dura. Duran las palabras. Porque las palabras son siempre las mismas y lo que dicen no es nunca lo mismo.


What words say does not last. The words last. Because words are always the same, and what they say is never the same.

Antonio Porchia, trans., W. S. Merwin, Voices

Children & War

DSC_3938
Originally uploaded by rchoephoto

The time has come to make the protection of children – all our children – a common cause that can unite us across the boundaries of our political orientation, religious affiliation and cultural traditions. We must reclaim our lost taboos, and make the abuse and brutalization of children simply unacceptable.

*   *   *

But today, to paraphrase the poet W.B. Yeats, things have fallen apart, the moral centre is no longer holding. In so many conflicts today, anything goes. Children, women, the elderly, granary stores, crops, livestock – all have become fair game in the single-minded struggle for power, in an attempt not just to prevail but to humiliate, not simply to subdue but to annihilate the “enemy community” altogether. This is the phenomenon of total war.

Olara Otunnu, Ugandan 2011 Presidential Candidate

Asleep

DSC_6116
Originally uploaded by rchoephoto

There's nothing more difficult than waking someone who is only pretending to be asleep.

The Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Upright

DSC_6188
Originally uploaded by rchoephoto

There is only one position for an artist anywhere; and that is, upright.

Dylan Thomas

Saint or Communist?

RCC_6307
Originally uploaded by rchoephoto

When I feed the poor they call me a saint. When I ask why so many people are poor they call me a communist.

Dom Helder Câmara, late archbishop of the Brazilian Diocese of Olinda and Recife

Simplicity

DSC_8012
Originally uploaded by rchoephoto

Simplicity of living, if deliberately chosen, implies a compassionate approach to life. It means that we are choosing to live our daily lives with some degree of conscious appreciation of the condition of the rest of the world.

Duane Elgin

Being

DSC_5099
Originally uploaded by rchoephoto

We have learned so much about how to do that we have forgotten how to be.

Steven Harrison

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

Imperative of Humanity

To make pain real is the task of the writer.  To pursue the end of pain is the imperative of humanity.

Alice Sebold

Mutuality 2

Everything that lives,

lives not alone,

not for itself.

William Blake