Being

St. James United Church, Toronto 9 (2014, 2.15), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

You can't really be with others 

until you know how to be with yourself.

Richard Wagmese

Love

RIC_0500-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     Sometimes you actually have to watch somebody love something
     before you can love it yourself. 

        Richard Wagamese

Story

RIC_1665-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


The power of a story is the ability to bring us together.
The magic of a story is its power to keep us together. 
The wonder of a story is its ability to do all that 
without our even noticing.

Richard Wagamese

Why I write

Shadow 1 (2013, 6.18), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     I write because I seek to re-order all that comes 
     to me through my physical senses, my emotions, 
     my spirit, my intuition, onto a page so that I 
     might learn to experience it with integrity, 
     respect and honour.

        Richard Wagamese

Whole Story

RCC_1129, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


I don't know my whole story.
And if I don't know my whole story,
I can't heal myself.

Richard Wagamese

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

Within Me

RIC_1095, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

I can't understand where I'm going

if I don't understand where I've been. 

The answers are within me.

Richard Wagamese, Indian Horse

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

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

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

Sacrifice

RCC_1997, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Every spiritual enhancing experience demands a sacrifice of us. For me, the price of admission was a willingness to let that solid block of anger dissolve.

Richard Wagamese, One Story, One Song

We are One

RC1_7742, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

We are all Story. … We are energy moving forward to the fullest possible expressions of ourselves, …

We are one. We are, in the end, one story, one song, one spirit, one soul.

Richard Wagamese, One Story, One Song

Teachings

RCC_9504, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

The ancient teachings are not a romantic throwback to a vanished lifestyle

but a resonant of our contemporary responsibilities.

Richard Wagamese, One Story, One Song

Innocence

RIC_9333, 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, One Story, One Song

Humility

DSC_6926, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Humility is the ability to see yourself as an essential part of something larger.

It is the act of living without grandiosity. …

Humility teaches that there are no greater or lesser beings or things.

There is only the whole.

Richard Wagamese, One Story, One Song

Story

RCC_5893
Originally uploaded by rchoephoto

Everyone has a story. That’s what the circle teaches us. We become better people, a better species, when we take the time to hear them. That’s how you change the world, really. One story, one voice at a time.

Richard Wagamese, One Native Life