Life

Victoria University 2 (2014, 1.15), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     We spend our life until we're thirty
     deciding what parts of ourself to stuff into 
     the invisible bag we drag behind us and 
     we spend the rest of our lives 
     trying to get them again.

        Robert Bly

Beauty

Kinton Ramen 7 (2014, 1.15), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror.

Khalil Gibran

Understanding

Victoria University 1 (2014, 1.15), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     It ain't those parts of the Bible that I can't understand
     that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand. 

        Mark Twain

Culture

Kinton Ramen 3 (2014, 1.15), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Culture does not make people,
people make culture.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Accountability

Foggy Day 4 (2014, 1.11), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

With great power,
comes great responsibility.

Voltaire

Most interesting

Foggy Day 5 (2014, 1.11), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

The things that doesn't fit
is the things that is most interesting.

Richard Feynman

Future

Foggy Day 3 (2014, 1.11), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     I cannot be me without you
     and we cannot be us without them,
     and together we have a future.

        Philip Carter

Beauty.

Foggy Day 2 (2014, 2.11), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Ex divination pulchritudine
esse omnium derivatur. 

From the beauty of the Divine
comes all that is. 

Thomas Aquinas

Wounds

Foggy Day 1 (2014, 1.11), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Our wounds are often the openings
into the best and most beautiful part of us.

David Richo

News

RIC_1723, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

How can it be that it is not a news item

when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, 

but it is news when the stock market loses two points?

Pope Francis, Joy of the Gospel

We are

DSC_0351, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

We are already that we are seeking. 

Kyan Douglas

Saving the World

RIC_0299-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


Zen poet Thich Nhat Hanh was asked
“what do we most need to do to save our world?” 
His answer was this: “What we most need to do is 
to hear within us the sounds of the Earth crying.”

What Counts in Life

Gone (2013, 1.3), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


        What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived.
     It is what difference we have made to the lives of others 
     that will determine the significance of the life we lead. 

        Nelson Mandela

We

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

I am who we are.

Anonymous

Conviction of the Heart

Gift Box (2014, 1.4), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Growth of consciousness

does not depend on the might of the intellect

but on the conviction of the heart. 

Wayne Gerard Trotman

Beautiful

Candle 1 (2013, 1.1), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Always the beautiful answer

who asks a more beautiful question.

E. E. Cummings

Becoming the Path

RCC_3631, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

You cannot travel the path

until you have become the path.

Buddha

Privacy

Kensington Market 2013, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

The public needs to know the kinds of things a government does in its name, 
or the "consent of the governed" is meaningless... 
The consent of the governed is not consent if it is not informed. 

Edward Snowden

Future

_DSC6555, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     Our future is becoming,
     and it shapes us even more than our past.

        Margaret Somerville, 
        The Ethical Imagination

Love

DSC_4228, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Love looks not with the eyes,
but with the mind.

William Shakespeare

Each Day

RCC_5615, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Each day forces us

to totter on planks we hope

will become bridges.

Kevin Hart

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

Faith

RCC_5991, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


As our faith deepens,
the "container" in wihci fear arises gets bigger. 

Sharon Salzberg, Faith: Trusting Your Own Deepest Experience

Seeing

RC1_4536, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     How you see is what you see. And to see rightly 
     is to be able to be fully present — 
     without fear, without bias, and without judgment.

        Richard Rohr

The Path

RIC_3589-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

You cannot travel the path 

until you have become the path. 

Buddha

Birthing

RIC_1048-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

He not busy being born is busy dying. 

Bob Dylan

Sacred

RIC_1206-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Earth's crammed with heaven,

And every common bush afire with God,

But only he who sees takes off his shoes;

The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Decisions

Nutcrackers (2013, 12.21), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Decisions are made by those show up.

Aaron Sorkin

Remembrance

Toronto 3 (2013, 11.16), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

In remembrance is the secret of redemption. 

Jewish Saying

God

_DSC6888, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

God is a verb. 

R. Buckminster Fuller

Truth

RCC_5622, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


Falsehood has an infinity of combinations,
but truth has only one mode of being. 

Jean Jacque Rousseau

Faith

RCC_9640, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


       You have to have trust in your own self. ... 
     The importance of having faith is to see it 
     concretized in your own self. 

        Esperanza Ortega in Birthing God: Women's Experiences of the Divine by Lana Dalberg

Fear

RIC_3470-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

When fear dominates, 

our sense of possibility collapses. 

Sharon Salzberg, 

Faith: Trusting Your Own Deepest Experience

Truth

Mississauga 1 (2013, 9.18), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Love of the truth puts you on the spot.

Naropa Institute Motto

Sadness

RCC_9615, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Sadness is a wall between two gardens. 

Kahlil Gibran

Healing

Toronto 3 (2013, 11.20), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

     The healing comes from letting there be room
     for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief,
     for misery, for joy. 

        Pema Chödrön,
        When Things Fall Apart: 
        Heart Advice for Difficult Times

Listen Completely

RC1_3438, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

When people talk,

listen completely.

Ernest Hemingway

Growing Old

Christian Island Ferry, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     One great thing about growing old is
     that nothing is going to lead to anything. 
     Everything is of the moment. 

        Joseph Campbell, 
        A Joseph Campbell Companion:
        Reflections on the Art of Living

Faith

RIC_9666, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


Faith never knows where it is being led,
but it knows and loves the One who is leading.

Oswald Chambers

Instructions

Toronto 8 (2013. 10.27), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


      Instructions for living a life:
     Pay attention.
     Be astonished.
     Tell about it.

        Mary Oliver

Secrets

RIC_9614, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Nothing makes us so lonely as our secrets.

Paul Tournier

Wisdom

RC1_9580, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     It is said that no one truly knows a nation 
     until one has been inside its jails.
     A nation should not be judged 
     by how it treats its highest citizens,
     but its lowest ones.

        Nelson Mandela

To be

RIC_5859-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Esse est percipi.

To be is to be perceived.

George Berkley

Self

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

You are what your deep driving desire is.

Brihaduranyaha Upanishad

Except Love

RIC_0926-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


Nothing is mysterious,
no human relation.
Except love.

Susan Sontag

Living

Toronto 1 (2013, 11.30), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Humans live through their myths and only endure their realities. 

Robert Anton Wilson

Creativity

Toronto 4 (2013, 11.8), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Creativity is subtraction. 

Austin Kleon, 

Newspaper Blackout

Play

RIC_3446, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

A wise man once said that all human activity is a form of play. 

And the highest form of play is the search for Truth, Beauty and Love. 

What more is needed? 

Should there be a ‘meaning’ as well, that will be a bonus?  

If we waste time looking for life’s meaning,

we may have no time to live — or to play.

Arthur C. Clarke

Questioning & Faith

RHUC 1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


When we claim our right to question everything, 
including our beliefs, we can unhook from our 
dependence on what is familiar and let in
the heartfelt, open, fresh quality of faith. 

Sharon Salzberg, Faith: Trusting Your Own Deepest Experience

Presence

Tower of Power (2013, 6.4), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     ... whatever
     returns from oblivion returns
     to find a voice.

        Louise Glück,
        The Wild Iris