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Posts tagged ‘Faith’

Feb 27

Ordinary, Fresh Wonder

“We’re invited to pay attention to the enchanted world around us in a new way, to be open to the possibility of an encounter with God at every moment.”― Mike Cosper, Recapturing the Wonder

“Sometimes we get so hung up on doing something great, we forget the best thing is often the smallest.”― Shannan Martin, The Ministry of Ordinary Places

Open the windows
Hair in the wind
Clear the clutter
Create space
Slow, yield, pause
For joy, wonder, enchantment, awe
In small, ordinary, daily moments
Rhythms, signposts, practices
Spring woven in winter
Open the windows
Ordinary, fresh wonder

“To experience the richness of life in God’s kingdom, we must reorder our lives. We need to see through the shallow promises of our culture, and we need rhythms, signposts, and practices that reorient us to another world.”― Mike Cosper, Recapturing the Wonder

Feb 25

Goodness Remains, Rises

“It’s really a wonder that I haven’t dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.”― Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl

“You have to shift from the gloom and doom and focus instead on what you love,” she told me before bed. “That’s all you can do in the face of these things. Love the people around you. Love the life you have. I can’t think of a more powerful response to life’s sorrows than loving.” ― Suleika Jaouad, Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted

Goodness remains
Moving out and through in different ways
Over rocks, through cracks, burrowing, bubbling, bursting
Drops and waves
Choose love over fear
Kindness, generosity, compassion
Love where you are and stick with it
Goodness remains, rises, overcomes
No fear, just the resistance, resilience and power of love

“Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that” – Martin Luther King Jr.

Feb 11

Water Shaping Stone

“Do not be dismayed by the brokenness of the world. All things break. And all things can be mended. Not with time, as they say, but with intention. So go. Love intentionally, extravagantly, unconditionally. The broken world waits in darkness for the light that is you.”― L.R. Knost

“Do not be hardened by the pain
and cruelty of this world.
Be strong enough to be gentle,
to be soft and supple like running water,
gracefully bending around sudden turns,
lithely waving in strong winds,
freely flowing over sharp rocks,
all the while quietly sculpting
this hard world into ever deeper beauty,
gently eroding rigid rock into silken sand,
tenderly transforming human cruelty
into humankindness.
Remember, true strength is not found in the stone,
but in the water that shapes the stone.”
― L.R. Knost

Over, around, through the rocks.
Make a way.
Flow and current.
Fluid and soft.
Strong and resilient.
Hopeful and gentle.
Kind and open.
Do not be dismayed.
Water shaping the stone.
Intentionally, extravagantly, unconditionally.
Go love today.

“The work of the mature person is to carry grief in one hand and gratitude in the other and to be stretched large by them. How much sorrow can I hold? That’s how much gratitude I can give. If I carry only grief, I’ll bend toward cynicism and despair. If I have only gratitude, I’ll become saccharine and won’t develop much compassion for other people’s suffering. Grief keeps the heart fluid and soft, which helps make compassion possible.”― Francis Weller

Feb 10

1 Comment

Sunshine and Hope

“The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quite alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature. As longs as this exists, and it certainly always will, I know that then there will always be comfort for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances may be. And I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all troubles.”― Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”― Anne Frank, Anne Frank’s Tales from the Secret Annex

Rest, sunshine and beauty
To restore, bind and heal
To overcome the chaos
To not accept things as they are
To chart the path back to humanity
The journey forward in love, compassion, kindness
Offer hope, peace, joy
Improve the world
One act at a time, right where you are
Defy and define the darkness
Cast light.

“Look at how a single candle can both defy and define the darkness.”― Anne Frank

Feb 9

Bread for the Eyes and Soul

“The sky is the daily bread for the eyes.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive.”— Dalai Lama

Look up and around.
Within and deep.
The question and the answer.
Love.
Necessity, not luxury.
Return to love.
Again and again.

“The canvas of the sky is painted with hues of limitless love.” – Sukhan-Var

Jan 31

Dizzying Serendipity

“Life is gritty and hard and then suddenly it is brilliant and amazing.”― Mel Robbins

“We can spend our lives fretting about our deaths, or we can use our brief time to sink deeper into the experience of being human, for all it entails. The good, the tricky, the impermanent. We can acknowledge our death will one day come and use that knowledge to create a life so whole, so honest, so juicy, that it is worth leaving. I have seen over and over human beings’ personal reckonings in the final moments of life. It begs the question: What must I do to be at peace with myself so that I may live presently and die gracefully?

Without our deaths, none of it would matter. There would be no context for what we do. When we live in relationship to our mortality, it adds direction to our actions, truth to our words, rapture to our experience, authenticity to our being, and maybe pounds to our hips. We can make choices that resonate with the core of our being, free from societal expectations and the judgment of others.

While our lives and choices may seem insignificant in the grand scheme of things, they are not. With the dizzying serendipity that must occur for us to be born, the fact that we live is a miracle.”― Alua Arthur, Briefly Perfectly Human

A family funeral brings to the forefront what is important, or should be
Brevity of days
Blessings and duty of relationships
Friends and family who show up to be present, to remember
Sweet memories, funny stories
Today is ours to make or to fritter away
Life keeps “life”-ing
Twists and turns
Not getting our way
What we care about
What we need to let go
People disappointing us
Us disappointing people
What we create, who we are, how we spend our time
Our thoughts, words, actions, inactions
Daily choices to be present, attune, grateful or not
To seek joy, peace, kindness, delight, laughter, play
Life, which is this day, matters
Love well, with dizzying serendipity

“At every step in our path, some possibilities die behind us while others bloom before us, and in every transition, even the joyful ones, there is grief.”― Alua Arthur, Briefly Perfectly Human

Jan 23

Illuminate Hope

“There are two kinds of light – the glow that illuminates, and the glare that obscures.” – James Thurber

“The great poets have sympathized with the people. They have uttered in all ages the human cry. Unbought by gold, unawed by power, they have lifted high the torch that illuminates the world.” – Robert Green Ingersoll

What can one person do?
I can be …

Kind
Welcoming
Generous
Unassuming
Non-judgmental
Joyful
Forgiving
Compassionate
Tough
Resilient
Empathetic
Listening
Inviting
Hope
Peace
Grace
Light
Love
Choose well
Fight the good fight
Illuminate, glow, do not be dimmed
We belong to each other

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

Jan 17

To Be Where We Are

“No one longs for what he or she already has, and yet the accumulated insight of those wise about the spiritual life suggests that the reason so many of us cannot see the red X that marks the spot is because we are standing on it. The treasure we seek requires no lengthy expedition, no expensive equipment, no superior aptitude or special company. All we lack is the willingness to imagine that we already have everything we need. The only thing missing is our consent to be where we are.”― Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith

“To make bread or love, to dig in the earth, to feed an animal or cook for a stranger—these activities require no extensive commentary, no lucid theology. All they require is someone willing to bend, reach, chop, stir. Most of these tasks are so full of pleasure that there is no need to complicate things by calling them holy. And yet these are the same activities that change lives, sometimes all at once and sometimes more slowly, the way dripping water changes stone. In a world where faith is often construed as a way of thinking, bodily practices remind the willing that faith is a way of life.”― Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith

To be where we are
Standing in the red X and knowing it
Sacred ground
Time standing still and moving swiftly
Pay attention
Tune in
Savor and steep
Gratitude, awe, wonder, delight don’t require perfect circumstances or smooth sailing
Consent to be fully where you are right now
God is sitting next to you in the dailyness
Awaiting your hello, gaze, embrace, trust
Lean in.

“Whoever you are, you are human. Wherever you are, you live in the world, which is just waiting for you to notice the holiness in it.”― Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith

Nov 8

Waterfalls of the Sun

“The deeper our faith, the more doubt we must endure; the deeper our hope, the more prone we are to despair; the deeper our love, the more pain its loss will bring: these are a few of the paradoxes we must hold as human beings. If we refuse to hold them in the hopes of living without doubt, despair, and pain, we also find ourselves living without faith, hope, and love.”― Parker J. Palmer

“You don’t want to hear the story of my life, and anyway
I don’t want to tell it, I want to listen

to the enormous waterfalls of the sun.

And anyway it’s the same old story

a few people just trying,
one way or another,

to survive.

Mostly, I want to be kind.” – Mary Oliver, Dogfish

Curiosity, inquiry, understanding.
Ask and listen.
Listen more than speak.
Sit quietly and reflect.
Dive beneath the surface.
Dig down to the roots.
Beyond the obvious and easy.
To understanding, interest, empathy, compassion.
To be kind.
Waterfall of light.

“Clinging to what you already know is the path to an unlived life.”― Parker Palmer

Nov 5

Shovel Ready

“When we ask God to move a mountain, God may give us a shovel.”― Shane Claiborne

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”― Frank Herbert, Dune

Love over fear.
Hope over despair.
Kindness, joy, light.
Build, create, contribute, invite, welcome, connect, understand, inquire, transform.
To choose daily, consistently, no matter the “facts.”
Keep digging, climbing, going.

“I made a decision a long time ago that I was going to choose joy. I even painted a big rectangle on my wall and printed it in big letters so I wouldn’t forget to make that choice every day. The major word in that rectangle isn’t joy, it’s CHOOSE. It’s looking around me when life is difficult and trading every complaint I have for something beautiful in my life that far outweighs it. I know, it’s that Pollyanna personified thing again, but living joyful beats being cynical any day of the week.”― Jessica N. Turner, The Fringe Hours: Making Time for You

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