Truth

RIC_7937-2 , a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Truth lifts the heart,
Like water refreshes thirst.

Rumi

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

by our children

DSC_5661, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     The world has not left us by our parents,
     it was lent us by our children.

        African Proverb

Sanctuary

RIC_8136-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


May you never
feel alone or
lose sight of the
sacred seasons of your soul.

Paula Timpson, Let Your Soul Create a Sanctuary

Opening to wisdom

RIC_7971-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

     Known is a drop, Unknown is an Ocean. 

        Tamil Proverb.

Take responsibility

RIC_7918-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

     Take responsibility for the energy you bring.

        Jill Bolte Taylor

The Journey

RIC_7885-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

The road of life twists and turns and no two directions are ever the same. Yet our lessons come from the journey, not the destination.

Don Williams, Jr.

I am ...

RIC_7941-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

          I am larger, better than I thought,
          I did not know I held so much goodness.

                Walt Whitman,
                Song of the Open Road [http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/178711]

Coming Alive

RIC_8384-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

     Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you

     come alive, and go do it! Because what the world

     needs is people who have come alive.

        Howard Thurman

Deep Listening

RIC_8014-2, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

We spend most of our time and energy in a kind of horizontal thinking. We move along the surface of things… [but] there are times when we stop. We sit still. We lose ourselves in a pile of leaves or its memory. We listen and breezes from a whole other world begin to whisper.

James Carroll

Life

RIC_7891-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

     If there is one thing in life we can be sure of,

     it is that there will always be a next. Until there isn’t.

        Roger Housden, Ten Poems to Say Goodbye

Life

RIC_8420-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

     Life is short, there is no time to leave important words unsaid.

     Recuerden: La vida es corta, no hay tiempo para dejar palabras

     importantes sin decir. 

        Paulo Coelho

Courage

RIC_8073-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Courage, without which there is no freedom,

is a virtue rare, precious and hard.

Timothy Garton Ash on Aung San Suu Kyi

Rest

RIC_7966-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

                                           If you are searching you must stop until you find.

                                           When you find however, you will become troubled.

                                           Your confusion will give way to wonder.

                                           In wonder you will reign over all things.

                                           Your sovereignty will be your rest.

                                                                     Gospel of Thomas 2:1-4, Adopted by Dairmuid O'Murchu, 

                                                                     Seasons at the Centre: Five Oaks 60th Anniversary

Compassion

RIC_7778-2, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


Unless compassion means the act of suffering with the other
in their otherness, it becomes meaningless.

Gregory Wolfe, Intruding Upon the Timeless: Meditations on Art, Faith, and Mystery

The difference we make

DSC_5561, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     The difference we make in other people's lives is not always visible,
     not always articulated to us, but it is real.

       Harold S. Kushner, Overcoming Life's Disappointments: Learning from Moses How to Cope with Frustration

Education

DSC_5665, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Every education is a kind of inward journey. 

Václav Havel

Family

RCC_1112, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

A family is its stories.

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

Laughter

RCC_9943
Originally uploaded by rchoephoto

To laugh when you are hurting is a simple but undeniable way to make what might seem impossible and cruel circumstances livable.

Joseph Boyden, From Mushkegowuk to New Orleans: A Mixed Blood Highway

Our Cries

RCC_1057
Originally uploaded by rchoephoto

From inside those walls
no one outside heard our cries:
when we left,
no one heard our cries from within.

Indian Residential School Memorial in Walpole Island, Ontario, Canada