Compassion

RIC_2422-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

How is it possible that suffering that is neither my own nor of my concern should immediately affect me as though it were my own, and with such force that it moves me to action? … my own true inner being actually exists in every living creature … [and] is the ground of that compassion upon which all true, that is to say, unselfish, virtue rests and whose expression is in every good deed.

Arthur Schopenhauer, “On the Foundations of Morality,” Sämtliche Werke

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Living into Thinking

RIC_2688-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

We do not think ourselves into new ways of living,

we live ourselves into new ways of thinking.

Richard Rohr

Translation

RIC_1138, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Remember that writing is translation and 

the opus to be translated is yourself. 

E. B. White

Coming Back

DSC_9201, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

     Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that

     you can see the place you came from with new eyes and

     extra colors. And the people there see you differently,

     too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as

     never leaving.

         Terry Pratchett, A Hat Full of Sky

Life

RIC_3769-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

A big part of life is realizing what you’re good at.

Alyssa Milano

Particularity

RCC_6160-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

     When the world becomes homogenized, something is lost.

     Even if it's only a name, we lose a little part of the soul

     of that place.

       Glenn Dixon, 

       Pilgrim in the Palace of Words: A Journey Through the 6,000 Languages of Earth

Pulse of Life

RIC_7836-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

I wanted to write a protest song
then realized how, all along
I’d been beating time with my pulse.  ...

David Barker, Living As An Act Of Protest

http://nouspique.com/2012/04/poem-living-as-an-act-of-protest/

Healing

RIC_3372-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Until you heal the wounds of your past, 

it will continue to bleed.

Iyanla Vanzant

What matters in life

RIC_3645-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

What matters in life is not what happens to you but what you remember and how you remember it.

Gabriel García Márquez

Landscape

RIC_5801-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

     Tell me the landscape in which you live,
     and I will tell you who you are.
       
       José Ortega y Gassett

Flowering

RIC_3757-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Dryness promotes the formation of flower buds . . . flowering is, after all, not an aesthetic contribution, but a survival mechanism.

Ann Haymond Zwinger, The Mysterious Lands

Being Peace

RIC_6060-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

     There is a criterion by which you can judge whether the

     thoughts you are thinking and the things you are doing

     are right for you. The criterion is: Have they brought you

     inner peace? If they have not, there is something wrong

     with them so keep seeking! If what you do has brought

     you inner peace, stay with what you believe is right.

       Peace Pilgrim

Message of Survival

RCC_5995-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

In spring from the black branches of the

    flowering plum tree

the woodthrush issues its routine

message of survival.

Louise Glück, Flowering Plum

Sabbaths

RIC_1125-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

     

     And yet no leaf or grain is filled

     By work of ours, the field is tilled

     And left to grace.  That we may leap,

     Great work is done while we're asleep.

         Wendell Berry, Sabbaths

Rising

RIC_7860-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Whenever something is true, good, or beautiful

whether it be art, prayer, or thought, it rises.

And in rising, it converges with everything else

that is true, good, or beautiful.

Gregory Wolfe,

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

Love

RCC_6044-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Lost is all the time that is not engaged in love.

from an Italian poem

Poets

RIC_3271-2, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Poets write in the line of prophecy,

and their work teaches us how to live.

Jay Parini, Why Poetry Matters

You

RIC_3409-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

When you are inspired by some great purpose ... 

dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, 

and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far 

than you ever dreamed yourself to be. 

Patanjali

Responsibility

RIC_4939-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

Our greatest responsibility is to be good ancestors.

Jonas Salk

History & Memory

RIC_5437-1, a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.

     History and memory share events; that is, they share

     time and space. Every moment is two moments.

       Anne Michaels, Fugitive Pieces