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Posts tagged ‘Faith’

Feb 1

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Fresh Coat, New Day

“He who kisses joy as it flies by will live in eternity’s sunrise.”― William Blake

APACHE Blessing

“May the sun bring you new energy by day,
May the moon softly restore you by night,
May the rain wash away your worries,
May the breeze blow new strength into your being,
May you walk gently through the world and know its beauty all the days of your life.

Scratch the surface of her joy,
And you will find a well of sorrow.
Dive into the well,
And discover her spring of hope.
Follow that spring to the river of her strength,
Compassion, and faith . . .
And you will have touched her soul.” – Terri St Cloud

Fresh coat of snow this morning
Brightening and refreshing the landscape
New day, new month, new start
Brilliant white, bold colors
Wakeup call
Invitation to seeing the same in different ways
Beneath the surface
Into a wellspring
Make space for joy today.

“And we are put on this earth a little space that we might learn to bear the beams of love.”― William Blake

Jan 25

The Cliff

“Be like the cliff against which the waves continually break; but it stands firm and tames the fury of the water around it.”― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“Long before morning I knew that what I was seeking to discover was a thing I’d always known. That all courage was a form of constancy. That it is always himself that the coward abandoned first. After this all other betrayals come easily.”― Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses

Steadfast
Constancy
Fidelity
Care
Calm
Courage
Right action
Rooted in love
Walked out in peace.

“How will the world change if we do not question it?”― Kate DiCamillo, The Magician’s Elephant

Jan 21

Spinning Wildflowers

“God is not a technician. God is an Artist. This is the God who made you. The same God who lives inside of you. He comes into us, then comes out of us, in a million little ways. That’s why there’s freedom, even in the blah. Hope, even in the dark. Love, even in the fear. Trust, even as we face our critics. And believe in the midst of all that? It feels like strength and depth and wildflower spinning; it feels risky and brave and underdog winning. It feels like redemption. It feels like art.”― Emily P. Freeman, A Million Little Ways: Uncover the Art You Were Made to Live

“If you ask a question, you
can’t stop there.
You must keep going.
You can’t stop there: World will
wave; will be
facetious, angry. You can’t stop there.
You have to keep on going.”
― Gwendolyn Brooks

Hope
Light
Joy
Laughter
Grit
Faith
Trust
Enthusiasm
Resilience
Stay strong
One step at a time
Keep going
Spinning wildflowers.

“I am somewhat of a meliorist. That is to say, I act as an optimist because I find I cannot act at all, as a pessimist. One often feels helpless in the face of the confusion of these times, such a mass of apparently uncontrollable events and experiences to live through, attempt to understand, and if at all possible, give order to; but one must not withdraw from the task if he has some small things to offer – he does so at the risk of diminishing his humanity.”― Bernard Malamud, The Fixer

Jan 19

Faith, Hope, Love

“This is the urgency: Live!
And have your blooming in the noise of the whirlwind.”― Gwendolyn Brooks, The World of Gwendolyn Brooks

“I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

Faith, hope, love
The greatest is love
Unconditional or it’s not real
The resilient, gritty, tough, stick and stay, fight the good fight kind
Jumping hurdles, leaping fences, knocking down walls
Cast light, with a side of hope, and an extra helping of joy and peace.

“Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.” – Maya Angelou

Jan 14

Path of Love

“In the long run, the sharpest weapon of all is a kind and gentle spirit.”― Anne Frank, The Diary of Anne Frank

“Where there’s hope, there’s life. It fills us with fresh courage and makes us strong again.”― Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl

Long run
Endurance
Daily decisions
To be kind
To care
To not succumb to indifference, to fear
To ask
To listen
To compassion
To go deeper
To understanding
To hope
To take right action
To walk the path of love
Fresh courage, soft heart, gentle spirit, generous heart
Cast light

“No one has ever become poor by giving.”― Anne Frank

Dec 25

Hope, Peace, Joy, Love Birthday

“God does not come to the curated, but to the crowded, the tired, the not-ready. God comes to us.” – Kate Bowler

“This is the culmination of everything Advent has taught us to hold.

Hope—that even in the world’s unfinishedness, God is not done yet.
Peace—not the absence of chaos but God’s presence in it.
Joy—not glittery optimism, but the stubborn delight that arrives anyway.
Love—not sentimental, but embodied in the form of a baby, dependent and vulnerable.

Christmas is God’s declaration that God will not remain distant. Love does not hover above the fray. Love is born into it: among animals and straw, political oppression and family scandal, the ordinary ache of human life. It is the good news that changes everything.” – Kate Bowler

Hope
Peace
Joy
Love

The real kind, not curated, fluffy, Instagram-able
In the heart, bones, mind, spirit
Right in the middle of unfinished, imperfection, messy, chaos, ordinary, beautiful days

Accept the invitation
In and for us.

“Blessed are we on this Christmas morning,
astonished again at Love made flesh.
Blessed are we who dare to believe:
God is here—
in the dark, in the ordinary,
in us, and for us.”

Dec 21

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Winter Solstice-ing

“May the light illuminate your hearts and shine in your life every day of the year. May everlasting peace be yours and upon our Earth.”― Eileen Anglin

“Don’t think the garden loses its ecstasy in winter. It’s quiet, but the roots are down there riotous.” – Rumi

Shortest day.
Doorway, bridge, beginning.
Darkness tipping to light.
Releasing, melting, shedding.
In the process of things.
Slivers and slices.
Glimmers and graces.
Nothing falling into something.
Slowly. Suddenly. Surprisingly.
Open to embrace what enters when we are looking the other way.
May noticing be first and foremost.
Anchored in light.
Untethered in hope.
Walking with love.
Peace. Light. Joy.

“After the longest night, tomorrow we sing up the dawn. There is a rejoicing that, even in the darkest time, the sun is not vanquished. As of tomorrow, the days begin to get longer as the light of day grows. While the gentle winter sun slowly opens its eyes, let us all bring more light and compassion into the world. ”― Dacha Avelin

Sep 29

“No Mud. No Lotus”-Buddha

“Practice several minutes of centering prayer. Remember that meditation is a not-doing. It is just letting go of small mind and merging with the stream of Divine Mind.”― Joan Borysenko, Pocketful of Miracles

“To learn to see- to accustom the eye to calmness, to patience, and to allow things to come up to it; to defer judgment, and to acquire the habit of approaching and grasping an individual case from all sides. This is the first preparatory schooling of intellectuality. One must not respond immediately to a stimulus; one must acquire a command of the obstructing and isolating instincts.”― Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols

Stimulus and response
Creating space between, a gap, a pause
To contribute something meaningful rather than adding to the noise
Peace, grace, awe in this space
Cast light, kindness, joy
Narrow path, worth the trip.

“As the lotus rises on its stalk unsoiled by the mud and water, so the wise one speaks of peace and is unstained by the opinions of the world.” – Buddha

Jul 29

Butterfly Work

“We are freed to free others.
We are affirmed to affirm others.
We are loved to love others.”
― Ann Weems, Kneeling in Bethlehem

“With every step of our lives we enter into the middle of some story which we are certain to misunderstand.”― G.K. Chesterton

To move from getting over things to transforming them
Caterpillar to butterfly
Beauty for ashes
Being transformed in the process
Opening and allowing
Unlearning and learning anew
Putting down the weight and walls of assumption, judgment, being right, certainty
For curiosity, discovery, unfolding, emergence, surprise, softness
Asking the next question and the next one after that
The dance of doing, being, accepting, allowing, yielding, merging, becoming
Day by day
Glory to glory
Trip and fall, get back up again and again
Laughter too, lots of it, with a side of delight
Grace overflowing
Giving and receiving
Ebb and flow
To understand rather than be understood
Dimensions rather than a flat world
Brilliant colors and hues
Peace that passes understanding
Overcoming the world while remaining in it
Salt and light
Hands and feet
Loving people exactly where they are rather than where they were or where we want them to be, especially oneself
A light, a container, a homecoming, an embrace, a warm blanket on a cool evening, a breeze on a hot summer day
Too much to ask?
Ask anyway, without ceasing.

“If I can put one touch of rosy sunset into the life of any man or woman, I shall feel that I have worked with God.”― G.K. Chesterton

Jun 8

Spirit of Generous Love

“Only love can be divided endlessly and still not diminish.”― Anne Morrow Lindbergh

WHEN WE BREATHE TOGETHER
A Blessing for Pentecost Day

“This is the blessing
we cannot speak
by ourselves.

This is the blessing
we cannot summon
by our own devices,
cannot shape
to our own purposes,
cannot bend
to our own will.

This is the blessing
that comes
when we leave behind
our aloneness,
when we gather
together,
when we turn
toward one another.

This is the blessing
that blazes among us
when we speak
the words
strange to our ears,

when we finally listen
into the chaos,

when we breathe together
at last.”

—Jan Richardson, Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons

Community.
Connection.
Communion.
Core to widening circles.
Woven and knit.
Empathy, compassion, kindness.
We belong to each other.
Love generously, without measure.
The only kind.
Breathing together.

“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.” – Mother Teresa

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