Out of no way

Shadow 1 (2013,2.3), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

God always makes a way out of no way.

Veronica Goines

Perspective

Afternoon shadow 1 (2013,2.1), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     How we see things determines what we do,
     and what we do determines the result we get.

        Stephen R. Covey, The 3rd Alternative

Questions I ask

RIC_2582-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

My story is in the questions I ask.

Maria Ochoa

Memory

Korean Lamp, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

The best things in life are

the people you love,

the places you've seen,

and the memories you've made

along the way.

Anonymous

Service

Jar 2 (2013,2.3), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


I slept and dreamt that life was joy.
I awoke and saw that life was service.
I acted and behold, service was joy.

Rabindranath Tagore

Hope

A matter of time, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

When hope is not pinned

wriggling onto a shiny image or expectation,

it sometimes floats forth and opens.

Anne Lamott, Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers

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

Hope

Candles 3 (2013,1.29), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Dum spiro spero.

While I breathe, I hope.

Cicero

Presence

Sunset 1 (2013,1.31), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Lovers don't finally meet somewhere.

They're in each other all along.

Rumi

Being you

Candles 1 (2013, 1. 29), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

The privilege of a life time

is being who you are.

Joseph Campbell

Living

Neighbourhood 2, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

The divine lives within you.
Live from your own centre.

Joseph Campbell

Meaning

Lamp & reflection, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Being alive is the meaning. 

Joseph Campbell

Compassion

RC1_4927, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

The purpose of the journey 

is compassion.

Joseph Campbell

I love you

RC1_4882, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

I love you

Not only for what you are

But for what I am

When I am with you.

Roy Croft, The Recognition

Yes

Chandelier 3 (2013, 1.5), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

After the final no there comes a yes

and on that yes the future world depends.

Wallace Stevens

Our only friend

Neighbourhood 1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

The world speaks everything to us.

It is our only friend.

William Stafford

Surviving

Planet of the Bamboos, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

We're never gonna survive

unless we get a little bit crazy.

Seal

On the edge

Half the Sky 2, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

If you're not on the edge,

you are taking up too much room.

Bumper sticker

Awakening

Operator, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

How did I get so lucky

to have my heart awakened

to others and their suffering?

Pema Chödrön

Future

Half the sky, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

The future is no more uncertain than the present. 

Walt Whitman

Changes

RC1_3581, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     This is how the world always changes.
     Everyday people not waiting for someone else to 
     fix things or come to their rescue, 
     but simply stepping forward, working together, 
     figuring out how to make things better. 

        Margaret J. Wheatley

In each other

_DSC7173, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


Lovers don't finally meet somewhere.
They're in each other all along.

Rumi

Possibilities

RIC_6167-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Only those who will risk going too far,

can possibly find out how far one can go. 

T. S. Eliot

Radical Imagination

Street Light on Kingston Road 7, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


Radical imagination begins with a move beyond complaint and resistance, beyond reactive tinkering or hunkering down or cynical accommodation. The first big move is to an alternative picture of 
how things could be instead. 

Anthony Weston, A Pocket Guide for Practical Visionaries

Visibility

Rays (2013, 1.1), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     I do think visibility is important. 
     I do think that the tide of history only moves forward
     when everybody is feeling visible. 

        Anderson Cooper

Light

Candle 2 at J&J, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

We cannot hold a torch to light another's path

without brightening our own. 

Ben Sweetland

Light

Lamp in Snow, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     You never change things by fighting the existing reality.
     To change something, build a new model that makes
     the existing model obsolete.

        R. Buckminster Fuller

Writer

Writing tools, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


To be a writer is to acknowledge the secret wounds that we carry inside us, the wounds so secret that we ourselves are barely aware of them, and to patiently explore them, know them, illuminate them, to won those pains and wounds, and to make them a conscious part of our spirits and our writing.

Orhan Pamuk, My Father's Suitcase

Vocation

Winter Vacation, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Your job is to find what the world is trying to be.

William Stafford

Hope

Dec. 28, '12, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


Hope has a cost. Hope is not comfortable or easy. Hope requires personal risk. Hope does not come with the right attitude.
Hope is not about peace of mind. Hope is an action. Hope is doing something. ...
Hope demands for others what we demand for ourselves. Hope does not separate us from them. Hope sees in our enemy our own face.

Chris Hedges, Real Hope Is About Doing Something, truthdig

Life

Blue Christmas at KRU 1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     Life has a practice of living you,
     if you don't live it.

        Philip Larkin

Breathe

Driving in Snowy Night (11.26, '12) 1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Breathe in experience,

breathe out poetry.

Muriel Rukeyser

Light

Light rays, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Make of youself a light.

Buddha

Capacity to receive

Rays (2013, 1.1) #2, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


Everything comes to us that belongs to us
if we create the capacity to receive it.

Rabindranath Tagore

Living

Orchid 2 (2013.1.1), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Living is the original art.

Mark Nepo,

As Far As the Heart Can See: Stories to Illuminate the Soul

Disturbing the war

RIC_4069-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


They'll say we're disturbing the peace,
but there is no peace. 
What really bothers them is that 
we are disturbing the war.

Howard Zinn

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

Hunger for Bread & Justice

DSC_4846, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


O God, to those who have hunger give bread,
And to us who have bread give the hunger for justice.

Prayer from Latin America

God in me

RCC_0795, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     I believe that God is in me
     as the sun is in the colour and fragrance of flower –
     the Light in my darkness, the Voice in my silence.

        Helen Keller

Blessings

Bloor & Avenue #1 (2012,11.7), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Like a star should your love be constant.

Like a stone should your love be firm.

Be close, yet not too close.

Possess one another, yet be understanding.

Have patience each with the other.

For storms will come but they will go quickly.

Be free in giving of affection and warmth.

Have no fear and let not the ways of words

Of the unenlightened give you unease.

For the spirit is with you.

Now and always.

Source unknown,

Courage to Love: Liturgies for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual And Transgender Community, edited by Geoffrey Duncan

Lock & Key

RCC_2263, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


The Friend is the key and I am the lock.

Jalil al-Din Rumi

Never too late

Angel 14, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

It is never too late to be what you might have been.

George Eliot

True Civilization

Masjid 1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


We will never have true civilization until we have learned to recognize the rights of others.

Will Rogers, A Cherokee, 
Quoted in The Inconvenient Indian by Thomas King

God's Paintbrush

RIC_3297, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

     Sometimes on a bright day 
     when I close my eyes real tight,
     I see all kinds of colours —
     green and purple and red and blue.
     I think these are just like God's colours.

     I know God's colours are in me, too.
     And I can paint with God's paintbrush. 

        Sandy Eisenberg Sasso, God's Paintbrush

Christmas Lessons

RC1_0082, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

My name is Francis Tolliver, in Liverpool I dwell

Each Christmas come since World War I I've learned its lessons well

That the ones who call the shots won't be among the dead and lame

And on each end of the rifle we're the same.

John McCutcheon, Christmas in the Trenches

Birthing

_DSC5275, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


What good is it to me,
if the son of God was born to Mary 1,400 years ago
but is not born in my person and in my culture and in my time?

Meister Eckhart

Haitian Angels

Haitian Angels, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

The Church – the body of Christ.

Christ who dined with tax gatherers and prostitutes.

Christ who affirmed women and respected them.

Christ who praised the Samaritan and the Roman.

Christ who stretched out his hand to the lame.

Two Thousand years later, when will we learn?

Jean Mayland,

Courage to Love: Liturgies for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual And Transgender Community, edited by Geoffrey Duncan

To see heaven

Christmas Lights 12, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

To see

heaven one

wants a star. 

Cid Corman

Enthusiasm & Humility

Candle 1 at J&J, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


No act of generosity was ever accomplished
without two things: enthusiasm and humility.

Michael Powell, A Thousand Paths to Generosity

To Love

RIC_9598-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

To Love another person is

to see the face of God.

Victor Hugo, Les Misérables