Attitude

Traffic (2014, 2.5), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

The greatest discovery of my generation is 
that a human being can alter his life 
by altering his attitude. 

William James

Who we are

Christmas Day 2003 (2), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     Who we are and who we become depends, 
     in part, on whom we love.

        Thomas Lewis, Fari Amini & Richard Lannon, 
        A General Theory of Love

Simile & Metaphor

Northrop Frye 2 (2013, 3.5), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     The poet, however, uses these two crude,
     primitive, archaic forms of thought (simile and
     metaphor) in the most uninhibited way,
     because his job is not to describe nature,
     but to show you a world completely absorbed
     and possessed by the human mind.

        Northrop Frye, The Educated Imagination

Transitions

Waiting, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


So long as you haven't experienced this:
to die and so to grow, 
you are only a troubled guest 
on the dark earth.

Goethe

Truth

Leaf on ice 1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

One word of truth outweighs the world.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

My life

Footprint 9, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Wisdom tells me I am nothing. 

Love tells me I am everything. 

And between the two 

my life flows. 

Nisargadatta Maharaj

Strength

Life 1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Our strength will continue 

if we allow ourselves the courage 

to feel scared, weak, and vulnerable. 

Melody Beattie

Adventure

RIC_9915-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Adventure is stepping through brand-new doors with your mouth shut and your eyes wide open.

Barbara Kingsolver, High Tide in Tucson

.

Nature

RIC_1733 a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

You have to walk into Nature with your emotional self,
not with your intellectual self.
You need to open wide you heart so that you can become moist
and drink deeply from the emotional echoes that you receive
from the frown of a gnarled tree or the twist of a branch.

Malidoma Somé, The Healing Wisdom of Africa

Power

RIC_1735a a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

We cannot avoid using power,

cannot escape the compulsion to afflict the world.

So let us,

cautious in diction and mighty in contradiction,

love powerfully.

Martin Buber

Interconnectedness

RIC_1732 a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

We must recognize that the suffering of one person or one nation is the suffering of humanity.
That the happiness of one person or nation is the happiness of humanity.

His holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama

Awakening

 

RIC_1725 a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

The coming to consciousness is not a discovery of some new thing;

it is a long and painful return that which has always been. 

Helen Luke

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