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

On Peace

RIC_3269-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


          The problem is not with the faith
          but with the faithful.

                Kofi Annan

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

Imagination

RC1_9073, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     Imagination, not invention,
     is the supreme master of art as of life.

       Joseph Conrad, A Personal Record

Perspective

RIC_6961-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Concentrate on what you have left, not just on what you have lost.

Harold S. Kushner, Overcoming Life's Disappointments

Hurt

RIC_6954-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Home of hope is hurt.

Walter Brueggeman

Liberation

RIC_3093, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


The way to help the blind is to understand, correct, remove the incapacities and inequalities in our entire civilization. 

Helen Keller

The essence of struggle

RIC_6463-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.



     The essence of struggle is the decision to become new rather than
     simply to become older.

       Joan Chittister, Scarred by Struggle, Transformed by Hope

     
    

Grace

RIC_8010-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


The birds know,
as we sometimes do,
that the light does not dawn
because of our singing.
We sing
because the dawn appears
as grace.

Mary Jo Leddy, Radical Gratitude

Wisdom

RIC_9979-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening
     when you'd have preferred to talk.

         Doug Larson

Solitude

RIC_7804-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


Loneliness is like sitting in an empty room and being aware of the space around you. It is a condition of separateness. Solitude is becoming one with the space around you. It is a condition of union. Loneliness is small, solitude is large. Loneliness closes in around you; solitude expands toward the infinite. Loneliness has its roots in words, in an internal conversation that nobody answers; solitude has its roots in the great silence of eternity.

Kent Nerburn

Poems

RC1_4468, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


               Poems come out of wonder,
                      not out of knowing.

                                         Lucile Clifton

Radical Gratitude

RIC_9088-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


When we stop taking life for granted
and recognize it as a gift that is enough,
we are transformed at a deeply spiritual level of our lives. 

Mary Jo Leddy, Radical Gratitude

Being you

RIC_7581-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     I do not have to be different or better than I am to find a measure 
     of happiness and to be able to make a difference in the world.

       Mary Jo Leddy, Radical Gratitude

Gratitude

RCC_0925, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


Poverty taught me that all was not well under the sun
but the sun taught me that poverty was not everything.

Albert Camus

Hold On

RIC_6150-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     Hold on to what is good,
     even if it's a handful of earth.
     Hold on to what you believe,
     even if it's a tree that stands by itself.
     Hold on to what you must do,
     even if it's a long way from here.
     Hold on to your life,
     even if it's easier to let go.
     Hold on to my hand,
     even if I've gone away from you.

       Pueblo saying

True Success

RC1_4443, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


True success consists not in becoming the person you dreamed of
being when you were young, but in becoming the person you were meant to be, the person you are capable of being when you are at
your best. 

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

From Life

RCC_9877, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Faith comes from life, commitment, not from proof.

W. Gunther Plaut, One Voice

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

Awareness

RIC_0317-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     When we have a heightened awareness of life’s fleeting
     impermanence, life itself becomes ever more precious and vivid. 

       Roger Housden, Ten Poems to Say Goodbye

Becoming Grateful

DSC_6919, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

My own insight is that we cannot rebuild our lives simply by constructing bigger, better, and stronger buildings.

We must begin by thinking in a more foundational way, a more radical way. We must begin by becoming grateful. 

Mary Jo Leddy, Radical Gratitude

As they are

RCC_6023-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     What would people look like
     if we could see them as they are,
     soaked in honey, stung and swollen,
     reckless, pinned against time?

       Ellen Bass, If You Knew

Openness

RCC_6049-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


At the heart of love is openness. An unfettered openness of heart
and spirit, it seems to me, is what intimacy — with another and
with all life — really means. That openness is what I now believe
true detachment to be.

Roger Housden, Ten Poems to Say Goodbye

Open Heart

RIC_8212-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

     When we open our hearts to pain and suffering,
     we begin to heal,

     not becuase suffering is redemptive
     but because opening our heart is.

       Sharon Salzberg, Lovingkindness

To Dream

RIC_6806-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

To dream is to imagine a world and a life better

than the one we know now.

Harold S. Kushner, Overcoming Life's Disappointments: Learning from Moses

How to Cope with Frustration 

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

Show Me

RC1_7737, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


To you the churches and faith traditions
I give this challenge:

If the word of God is real when He said,
“You shall love thy neighbour…”
then show me.

Don’t tell me
because I have no more time
to listen.

Art Solomon, Anishinaabek elder,

quoted in KAIROS, In Peace and Friendship: A New Relationship with Aboriginal Peoples

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

Choose well

RIC_6926-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Choose well: your choice is brief and yet endless. 

Ella Winter

Wisdom

RIC_6838-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Wisdom is knowledge which has become a part of one's being.

Orison Swett Marden

Story

RIC_5378-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but we can't get the whole picture unless we have the whole story. And the magic in words is that the story can make the picture.

Christina Baldwin, Storycatcher: Making Sense of Our Lives through the Power and Practice of Story

Wisdom

RIC_6825-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you
     would rather have talked.

       Mark Twain

Peace

RIC_6939-3, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


Until he extends his circle of compassion to include all living things, man will not himself find peace.

Albert Schweitzer

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.

A Circle

RIC_9478-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

A circle must have a center        

But a single dot does not make a Circle.       

Mercy Amba Oduyoye           

You are here to stay

RIC_9057-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     How does an essence of the world
     Leave the world?
     How does wetness leave water?
     Don't even try.
     You are here to stay.

       Rumi

Memory

RIC_0345-3, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Memory is just another form of fiction.

Antanas Sileika

Creative Thinking

RIC_1680-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

     The connection between perspective and creative

     thinking has to do with habituation and over-

     familiarization. Where creative thinking is concerned,

     that is the irony of the skill: the more adept you are at

     something, the less likely you are to look at it in a

     different way."

       Michael Michalko

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

Listening

RIC_5940-3, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     If there is anything worth calling theology, it is
     listening to people’s stories, listening to them and
     cherishing them.

        Mary Pellauer

Live Love

RIC_8311-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Preach the Gospel always;

when necessary, use words.

St. Francis of Assisi

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

Ending & Beginning

RIC_7793-2, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Be inspired by the flame

Where everything shines as it disappears.

Rainer Maria Rilke, 

"Sonnets to Orpheus XII," In Praise of Mortality, trans. by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macey