What We Mean

RIC_0378-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

What we say with our words is so much less important than what we mean with our lives.

Only our lives give weight to our words. 

Mary Jo Leddy, Radical Gratitude

True Peace

RIC_1284-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

True peace is not merely the absence of tension;

it is the presence of justice.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Memory

RIC_0345-3, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Memory is just another form of fiction.

Antanas Sileika

The Contemplative

RIC_0346-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


The poet enters into oneself in order to create.
The contemplative enters into God in order to be created.

Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation

Tools

RIC_1421-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     The tools matter less than the skill with
     which they're employed.

       David Kopulos

Watch

RIC_0949-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


Watch your thoughts, for they become words.
Watch your words, for they become actions.
Watch your actions, for they become habits.
Watch your habits, for they become character.
Watch your character, for they becomes your destiny.

Mother Teresa

Imagination

RIC_1900-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     The fundamental job of the imagination in ordinary life, then,
     is to produce out of the society we have to live in, a vision of the
     society we want to live in.

       Northrop Frye

Clarity

RIC_0349-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

When the mind is clear, behavior is always impeccable. 

Sylvia Boorstein

Fear the unlived life

RIC_0350-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


Don’t fear death; fear the unlived life.
You don’t have to live forever,
you just have to live.

Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth

Final Vision

RIC_4404-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

In your Oneness I am one          

in your eye, the pupil am I          

Not seen except by seeing          

Unheard except by hearing          

What song will be my music?          

What utterance be my name?          

God knowing — such may I be.          

Love loving unto love.          

Paul Quenon, Final Vision               

Contribution

RIC_4919-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

The idea of contribution is especially instructive because it lies in the area that unites the “I” and the “we.” We contribute because we are part of something larger than our own lives and efforts, but the form of our contribution is based on our uniqueness and our individuality. 

Carol Ochs, Women and Spirituality

Stories

RCC_0371, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Stories, like tools,
may be best understood by what they are able to do. 

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

Faith

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

Kindness

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

Question

RIC_4374-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

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

Avivah Zornberg

Religion

RCC_0245
Originally uploaded by rchoephoto

Religion is what people believe and what they do about it.

James Christie

Time to think

RCC_0186
Originally uploaded by rchoephoto

Sit down and be quiet.

You are drunk, and this is the

edge of the roof.

Rumi

Real Answers

RCC_0177
Originally uploaded by rchoephoto

When we shift the paradigm,
we find answers, real answers.

Margaret J. Wheatley, Finding Our Way: Leadership For an Uncertain Time

What we need

RCC_0154
Originally uploaded by rchoephoto

... what we need
is here. And we pray, not
for new earth or heaven, but to be
quiet in heart, and in eye,
clear. What we need is here.

Wendell Berry, The Wild Geese