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Posts from the ‘Hope’ Category

Dec 2

Whispered Hope

“I know life is not rainbows and butterflies, but I’d rather die delusional than being a mature cynic.”― Abhaidev, That Thing About You

“Heaven and earth, the Celtic saying goes, are only three feet apart, but in thin places that distance is even shorter. They are places that make us feel something larger than ourselves, as though we are held in a place between worlds, beyond experience.”― Kerri ní Dochartaigh, Thin Places

Thin spaces
Beauty, color, light
Quiet and reflection
Pause and gratefulness
In the midst of this ordinary day
Holding room for butterflies, whispered hope.

“To stand together under a sky – that no matter how grey and uncertain – still holds room for butterflies, moths, dragonflies and things we once were too fearful to name; things like whispered hope.”― Kerri ní Dochartaigh, Thin Places

 

Nov 9

Invincible Summer

“Where there is no hope, it is incumbent on us to invent it.”― Albert Camus

“Find meaning. Distinguish melancholy from sadness. Go out for a walk. It doesn’t have to be a romantic walk in the park, spring at its most spectacular moment, flowers and smells and outstanding poetical imagery smoothly transferring you into another world. It doesn’t have to be a walk during which you’ll have multiple life epiphanies and discover meanings no other brain ever managed to encounter. Do not be afraid of spending quality time by yourself. Find meaning or don’t find meaning but ‘steal’ some time and give it freely and exclusively to your own self. Opt for privacy and solitude. That doesn’t make you antisocial or cause you to reject the rest of the world. But you need to breathe. And you need to be.”― Albert Camus, Notebooks 1951-1959

Invincible summer, in all seasons.
Curiosity, interest, exploration.
Attention, noticing, discovery.
Love, laughter, ease.
This day, not someday “when”
This day.
Cast light.

“In the midst of hate, I found there was, within me, an invincible love.
In the midst of tears, I found there was, within me, an invincible smile.
In the midst of chaos, I found there was, within me, an invincible calm.
I realized, through it all, that…
In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.
And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back.” – Albert Camus

Sep 17

Time will Come Good Again

“There are always flowers for those who want to see them.” – Henri Matisse

“This is the time to be slow,
Lie low to the wall
Until the bitter weather passes.

Try, as best you can, not to let
The wire brush of doubt
Scrape from your heart
All sense of yourself
And your hesitant light.

If you remain generous,
Time will come good;
And you will find your feet
Again on fresh pastures of promise,
Where the air will be kind
And blushed with beginning.”
― John O’Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

Away from the noise and chaos
Respite and quiet
Slow and low
Soft and light
Pause and reflect
Hope and joy
Generous and kind
Steadfast and resilient
Anchor and root
Fresh pastures of promise
Blushed with beginning

“It’s a hard time to be human. We know too much
and too little.”― Ellen Bass, Like a Beggar

Sep 14

Building Cathedrals

“May I be at peace, May my heart remain open, May I awaken to the light of my own true nature, May I be healed, May I be a source of healing for all beings.”― Joan Borysenko, Pocketful of Miracles

“There is an old story about three masons who are laying bricks. A man walks up to them and asks them each the same question: “What are you doing?” The first mason spits on the ground and looks up. “I’m laying bricks. What in hell does it look like I’m doing?” The second mason groans and mops his brow. “I’m earning a living.” The third mason looks up with light in his eyes and says, “I’m building a cathedral.” Who do you think feels most refreshed at the end of the day?”― Joan Borysenko, Pocketful of Miracles

From laying bricks to building cathedrals
Of kindness
Possibility
Joy
Purpose
Empathy
Connection
Delight
Peace
In gratitude, grace, generosity of spirit
Keep building cathedrals each day
A brick at a time.

“Let me be open to all possibilities, living the full circle of my life in gratitude no matter when that circle is complete.”― Joan Borysenko, Pocketful of Miracles

Jul 25

Hope, Dare, Bother

“Hope is often misunderstood. People tend to think that it is simply passive wishful thinking: I hope something will happen but I’m not going to do anything about it. This is indeed the opposite of real hope, which requires action and engagement.”― Jane Goodall, The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times

“Dare to Be

When a new day begins, dare to smile gratefully.
When there is darkness, dare to be the first to shine a light.
When there is injustice, dare to be the first to condemn it.
When something seems difficult, dare to do it anyway.
When life seems to beat you down, dare to fight back.
When there seems to be no hope, dare to find some.
When you’re feeling tired, dare to keep going.
When times are tough, dare to be tougher.
When love hurts you, dare to love again.
When someone is hurting, dare to help them heal.
When another is lost, dare to help them find the way.
When a friend falls, dare to be the first to extend a hand.
When you cross paths with another, dare to make them smile.
When you feel great, dare to help someone else feel great too.
When the day has ended, dare to feel as you’ve done your best.
Dare to be the best you can –
At all times, Dare to be!”
― Steve Maraboli, Life, the Truth, and Being Free

Interior resilience to respond rather than react
Ebb and flow of what comes in and what goes out
Daily choosing
Kindness, empathy, joy, laughter, play, gratitude, curiosity, encouragement, faith, trust, grace, peace, love
Planting seeds on the path you walk this day
Bear fruit
Hope, dare, bother.

“We have the choice to use the gift of our life to make the world a better place–or not to bother”― Jane Goodall

Jul 24

Butterfly Dance

“Perhaps the secret of living well is not in having all the answers but in pursuing unanswerable questions in good company.”— Rachel Naomi Remen

“THE OLD WISDOM

When the night wind makes the pine trees creak
And the pale clouds glide across the dark sky,
Go out my child, go out and seek
Your soul: The Eternal I.

For all the grasses rustling at your feet
And every flaming star that glitters high
Above you, close up and meet
In you: The Eternal I.

Yes, my child, go out into the world; walk slow
And silent, comprehending all, and by and by
Your soul, the Universe, will know
Itself: the Eternal I.”
― Jane Goodall, Reason for Hope: A Spiritual Journey

Present
Awake
Attune
Conversation
Communion
Walk slow
Notice
Comprehend
Hope, joy, peace
Dancing with butterflies.

“The biggest gift you can give is to be absolutely present, and when you’re worrying about whether you’re hopeful or hopeless or pessimistic or optimistic, who cares? The main thing is that you’re showing up, that you’re here and that you’re finding ever more capacity to love this world because it will not be healed without that. That was what is going to unleash our intelligence and our ingenuity and our solidarity for the healing of our world.”― Joanna Macy

Jun 27

Wonder Beyond Words

“To be alive in this beautiful, self-organizing universe — to participate in the dance of life with senses to perceive it, lungs that breathe it, organs that draw nourishment from it — is a wonder beyond words.”― Joanna Macy

“Active Hope is not wishful thinking.
Active Hope is not waiting to be rescued . . . .
by some savior.
Active Hope is waking up to the beauty of life
on whose behalf we can act.
We belong to this world.
The web of life is calling us forth at this time.
We’ve come a long way and are here to play our part.
With Active Hope we realize that there are adventures in store,
strengths to discover, and comrades to link arms with.
Active Hope is a readiness to discover the strengths
in ourselves and in others;
a readiness to discover the reasons for hope
and the occasions for love.
A readiness to discover the size and strength of our hearts,
our quickness of mind, our steadiness of purpose,
our own authority, our love for life,
the liveliness of our curiosity,
the unsuspected deep well of patience and diligence,
the keenness of our senses, and our capacity to lead.
None of these can be discovered in an armchair or without risk.”― Joanna Macy

Active, tough, resilient hope.
A muscle to flex and build daily.
Attention, curiosity, readiness.
Full presence and participation.
Deep gratitude.
Overflowing kindness and compassion.
To love well.
Imperfect, flawed beautiful mess and miracle woven with awe, wonder and joy.
Life is today.
A moment at a time.
Keep showing up.

“The biggest gift you can give is to be absolutely present, and when you’re worrying about whether you’re hopeful or hopeless or pessimistic or optimistic, who cares? The main thing is that you’re showing up, that you’re here and that you’re finding ever more capacity to love this world because it will not be healed without that. That was what is going to unleash our intelligence and our ingenuity and our solidarity for the healing of our world.”― Joanna Macy

May 30

Thought and Sight

“Prayer is a refusal to settle for what is.”― Walter Brueggemann, Interrupting Silence: God’s Command to Speak Out

“No changing of place at a hundred miles an hour will make us one whit stronger, or happier, or wiser. There was always more in the world than man could see, walked they ever so slowly; they will see it no better for going fast. The really precious things are thought and sight, not pace. It does a bullet no good to go fast; and a man, if he be truly a man, no harm to go slow; for his glory is not at all in going, but in being.”― John Ruskin, Modern Painters: Volume 3. Of Many Things

Thought and sight.
Slow and awake.
Witness and partake.
May the sky at sunrise and sunset capture your attention every time.
A flower in bloom jolt you into delight.
Hope that anchors and sails.
Walking out love every day.
Mostly in small, seemingly insignificant ways.
Seeds on fertile ground.
A smile, an encouraging word or two, asking, listening, laughter, gratitude.
All forms of prayer.

“Hope, on one hand, is an absurdity too embarrassing to speak about, for it flies in the face of all those claims we have been told are facts. Hope is the refusal to accept the reading of reality which is the majority opinion; and one does that only at great political and existential risk. On the other hand, hope is subversive, for it limits the grandiose pretension of the present, daring to announce that the present to which we have all made commitments is now called into question.”― Walter Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination

Apr 19

Holy Saturdays

“Perhaps it is no wonder that the women were first at the Cradle and last at the Cross. They had never known a man like this Man – there never has been such another. A prophet and teacher who never nagged at them, never flattered or coaxed or patronised; who never made arch jokes about them, never treated them either as “The women, God help us!” or “The ladies, God bless them!”; who rebuked without querulousness and praised without condescension; who took their questions and arguments seriously; who never mapped out their sphere for them, never urged them to be feminine or jeered at them for being female; who had no axe to grind and no uneasy male dignity to defend; who took them as he found them and was completely unself-conscious. There is no act, no sermon, no parable in the whole Gospel that borrows its pungency from female perversity; nobody could possibly guess from the words and deeds of Jesus that there was anything “funny” about woman’s nature.”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, Are Women Human? Penetrating, Sensible and Witty Essays on the Role of Women in Society

“When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph, who also was himself a disciple of Jesus. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus; then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. So Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock. He then rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb and went away. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb.”—Matthew 27:57-61

The days after when before became after with no turning back
Tipping points, pivotal moments, thresholds crossed
Moments in our lives when grief kicked down the door down and plopped down
Moved in and became the loud neighbor
In our holy saturdays, the middle space between our own crosses and resurrections
Hope remains, faint, but remains
Wait, not yet, but soon
Soon, soon, soon

“Blessed are you, who feel undone,
too tired even for tears,
longing to be spoken back into being.

Blessed are you, who ache to remember
the bonds of love that formed you,
that hold you still, even now.
May they be as iron
that strengthen your soul.

Blessed are you,
who glimpse, however faintly,
that this present darkness
is not all there is.

And blessed are we who dare to say:
I am known.
I am loved.
I can love again.
Even—especially—here,
in this very moment.” – Kate Bowler & Jessica Richie

Apr 2

Hope Beams

“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.” – Desmond Tutu

“You may not always have a comfortable life and you will not always be able to solve all of the world’s problems at once but don’t ever underestimate the importance you can have because history has shown us that courage can be contagious and hope can take on a life of its own.” – Michelle Obama

Beautiful, tangible, tough, gritty hope.
Fight the good fight.
Stay the course.
Stick the landing.
Keep going.
Light breaks through.
Spring never skips its turn.

“The very least you can do in your life is figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. Not admire it from a distance but live right in it, under its roof.” – Barbara Kingsolver

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