To be hopeful

RCC_2293, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

To be hopeful,

to embrace one possibility after another – that is surely the basic instinct.

Barbara Kingsolver, High Tide in Tucson

.

Just a story?

RIC_3108, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

If you’re ready, you’ll get it.

If not, then it will be just a story.

Robert Matthew, quoted by Jo-ann Archibald

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

Patience

RIC_3116, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Patience is the companion of wisdom.

St. Augustine

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

A Prayer of Thanksgiving

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)

.

Solitude

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

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

Seven Whispers of Spiritual Common Sense

RCC_7910
Originally uploaded by rchoephoto

Maintain peace of mind.
Move at the pace of guidance.
Practice certainty of purpose.
Surrender to surprise.
Ask for what you need and offer what you can.
Love the folks in front of you.
Return to the world.

Christina Baldwin, The Seven Whispers

Stillness

To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything is itself to succumb to the violence of our times.

Thomas Merton