Literature

Fort Qu'Appelle 3, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     Literature is the written expression of revolt
     against accepted things.

        Thomas Hardy

Agent of Hope

Offering Plate, Christian Island, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     Perhaps faith is only created in the doing, happiness
     in the giving, and meaning in the courage to take
     risks for the sake of an ideal. All I know is that the
     greatest achievement in life is to have been, for one
     other person, even for one moment, an agent of
     hope.

        Jonathan Sacks, To Heal a Fractured World

The only failure

Remembering the Original Rights, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

     
     The only real failure is the failure to try.

        Evelyn Greenslade, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Liberation

RIC_3093, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


The way to help the blind is to understand, correct, remove the incapacities and inequalities in our entire civilization. 

Helen Keller

To Dream

RIC_6806-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

To dream is to imagine a world and a life better

than the one we know now.

Harold S. Kushner, Overcoming Life's Disappointments: Learning from Moses

How to Cope with Frustration 

What Matters

RIC_4301, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

What matters is what we bear away within us:

the story, the song of our living.

Richard Wagamese, One Story, One Song

Storytelling

RIC_4237, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     If we want to live at peace ourselves, we need to
     tell our stories.

       Richard Wagamese, Indian Horse

Doorway to God

RC1_6161, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

The wailing of broken heart is the doorway to God.

Rumi

Imperfection

RIC_9404-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

   To deny imperfection is to disown
     oneself, for to be human is to be
     imperfect.

    Ernest Kurtz and  Katherine Ketcham,

    The Spirituality of Imperfection

Peaceful Revolution

RIC_9580-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

   Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make
     violent revolution inevitable. 

    John F. Kennedy

Fear

RIC_9552-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Some of the worst events in my life never happened. 

Mark Twain

Story Telling

RIC_9581-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

   A story must be told in such a way it constitutes help in
     itself. My grandfather was lame. Once they asked him to
     tell a story about his teacher. And he related how his
     teacher used to hop and dance while he prayed. My
     grandfather rose as he spoke, and he was so swept away by
     his story that he began to hop and dance to show how the
     master had done. From that hour, he was cured of his
     lameness. That’s how to tell a story.

    Martin Büber

Stories

RIC_9595-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

We often need to tell our stories over and over, not

because we are forgetful or compulsive, but because their

meaning is too great to be digested in any one telling.

So we recount them, again and again, till we can absorb

their meaning and learn to love each other on the way.

Mark Nepo, As Far As the Heart Can See

.

The road to freedom

RIC_9556-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

“Why is the road to freedom so long?"

Asked a troubled apprentice.

And the master replied,

“Because it has to go through you.”

Zen story

Love

RIC_9377-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

   Love is the extremely difficult
     realization that something other than
     oneself is real.

    Iris Murdoch

Rewriting & rerighting

DSC_9574
Originally uploaded by rchoephoto

Every issue has been approached by indigenous peoples with a view to rewriting and rerighting our position in history. Indigenous peoples want to tell our own stories, write our own versions, in our own ways, for our own purposes. It is not simply about giving an oral account or a genealogical naming of the land and the events which raged over it, but a very powerful need to give testimony to and restore a spirit, to bring back into existence a world fragmented and dying.

Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Decolonizing Methodologies

Becoming

RCC_3092
Originally uploaded by rchoephoto

We always were who we have become, and we are always becoming who we always were.

Christina Baldwin, Life's Companion: Journal Writing as a Spiritual Practice

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

Whole Heart

The only whole heart is a broken heart.

Mitch Albom, have a little faith: a true story

Rememberance

Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.

George Santayana