“The possibilities are numerous once we decide to act and not react.” – George Bernard Shaw
“Hope was always out ahead of fact, possibility obscured the outlines of reality.”― Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose
May hope, faith, peace be yours each day.
Pulling you forward, if but only a few steps.
Lifting to see broader and deeper than circumstances and temporal.
To discover the whole amongst the parts.
To sit with the small, finding beauty and ease in the ordinary.
May this day be extraordinary and may you have the gift of sight to see it.
Thread of hope, faith moving mountains.
Sacred space.
“Faith can reclaim deserts as well as move mountains.”― Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose
“Life is so urgent it necessitates living slow.”― Ann Voskamp
“When I fully enter time’s swift current, enter into the current moment with the weight of all my attention, I slow the torrent with the weight of me all here.”― Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are
May you encounter the weight of moments.
Steeped in the depth of new landscape from the same vantage point.
Silent depths revealing new light.
Swept away by the swift current of rhythm and flow.
Living slow, held in gratitude and awe.
All here.
In the now.
“Only the blindness of habit convinces us that we continue to live in the same place, that we see the same landscape. In truth, no place ever remains the same because light has no mind for repetition; it adores difference. Through its illuminations, it strives to suggest the silent depths that hide in the dark. Light”― John O’Donohue, Divine Beauty: The Invisible Embrace
“Who knows why God allows heartbreak, but the answer must be important enough because God allows His heart to break too.”― Ann Voskamp, The Broken Way: A Daring Path into the Abundant Life
“May we all receive blessing upon blessing. And may we realize our power to bless, heal, and renew one another.”― John O’Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Invocations and Blessings
On this 21st anniversary of 9/11, may we seek and strive for peace in our own heart so we can achieve peace in the world.
Abundance over scarcity.
Enough over more.
Empathy over self-centeredness.
Love over hate.
Blessing, healing, renewing.
“What you encounter, recognize or discover depends to a large degree on the quality of your approach. Many of the ancient cultures practiced careful rituals of approach. An encounter of depth and spirit was preceded by careful preparation.
When we approach with reverence, great things decide to approach us. Our real life comes to the surface and its light awakens the concealed beauty in things. When we walk on the earth with reverence, beauty will decide to trust us. The rushed heart and arrogant mind lack the gentleness and patience to enter that embrace.”― John O’Donohue, Beauty: The Invisible Embrace
“The moon puts on an elegant show, different every time in shape, colour and nuance.” – Arthur Smith
“The moon is at her full, and riding high, Floods the calm fields with light. The airs that hover in the summer sky Are all asleep tonight.” – William Cullen Bryant
The moon waits in the wings as the sun takes center stage.
The sun fades to allow the moon its due.
Cycles and seasons.
Timing and turns.
Beauty in light and darkness.
Enter the flow.
Find your place in the great story.
“Beauty is the only thing that time cannot harm. Philosophies fall away like sand, creeds follow one another, but what is beautiful is a joy for all seasons, a possession for all eternity.” – Oscar Wilde
“God is a God of the present. God is always in the moment, be that moment hard or easy, joyful and painful.” – Henri Nouwen
“Did I offer peace today? Did I bring a smile to someone’s face? Did I say words of healing? Did I let go of my anger and resentment? Did I forgive? Did I love? These are the real questions. I must trust that the little bit of love that I sow now will bear many fruits, here in this world and the life to come.” – Henri Nouwen
Set your intentions in the morning so that your reflections at day’s end are closer to what you desired than aiming for nothing.
A framework, a compass, a lighthouse.
Inquire, observe, seek.
Ever present in the now.
Sow, till, reap.
Bear fruit.
“The discipline of gratitude is the explicit effort to acknowledge that all I am and have is given to me as a gift of love, a gift to be celebrated with joy.” – Henri Nouwen
“Doing nothing often leads to the very best of something.” – Winnie the Pooh
“Peace is not something you can force on anything or anyone… much less upon one’s own mind. It is like trying to quiet the ocean by pressing upon the waves. Sanity lies in somehow opening to the chaos, allowing anxiety, moving deeply into the tumult, diving into the waves, where underneath, within, peace simply is.” – Gerald May
Put it all down for the day.
Wander with no sense of time.
No place to be, no deadlines.
Simply rest, take in the day.
Feed your spirit with quiet, lightness, undoing.
Unseize the day so you can seize what is truly important and worthy.
“Your mind will answer most questions if you learn to relax and wait for the answer.” – William S. Burroughs
“Slowly slowly O mind…
Everything in own pace happens,
Gardner may water a hundred buckets…
Fruit arrives only in its season.”― Kabir
Take up residence where you are right now.
No someday when.
No used to be.
Simply now.
Eyes on the road ahead, not too far.
A step at a time.
Aware, awake and in tune.
Slow, feel the beating of your heart.
Dance, let your spirit soar.
In ordinary days, extraordinary resides awaiting your arrival.
“For we have not come here to take prisoners
Or to confine our wondrous spirits, But to experience ever and ever more deeply
Our divine courage, freedom, and
Light!”― Hafez, The Gift
“So at the end of this day, we give thanks For being betrothed to the unknown.” ― John O’Donohue
“You have traveled too fast over false ground;
Now your soul has come to take you back.
Take refuge in your senses, open up
To all the small miracles you rushed through.
Become inclined to watch the way of rain
When it falls slow and free.
Imitate the habit of twilight,
Taking time to open the well of color
That fostered the brightness of day.
Draw alongside the silence of stone
Until its calmness can claim you.” ― John O’Donohue
May the late bloom of flowers;
An evening rain;
A walk in the woods;
A long summer day;
May the beauty of all of this claim, ground and center in and through you.
“To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee, One clover, and a bee, And revery. The revery alone will do, If bees are few.” – Emily Dickinson
“The world is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.” – Bertrand Russell
In the waiting, the delays and detours, find joy at your feet;
As all things come together in due time, hold peace in your hands;
When the time is right, when all orchestrated, the runway is cleared for landing;
In the meantime, hone your wits to find magical things in hovering and holding patterns.
“The simple things are also the most extraordinary things, and only the wise can see them.”― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
“Mystics seem to have no shame about contradicting themselves left and right. They blithely proclaim that the cure for pain is in the pain itself and that the cry of longing is the sigh of merging. That’s because the path of the mystic reconciles contradictory propositions (such as harrowing sorrow and radical amazement) and blesses us with an extended capacity to sit with ambiguity, to treasure vulnerability, to celebrate paradox as the highest truth.”― Mirabai Starr, Wild Mercy: Living the Fierce and Tender Wisdom of the Women Mystics
“There is a secret place. A radiant sanctuary. As real as your own kitchen. More real than that. Constructed of the purest elements. Overflowing with the ten thousand beautiful things. Worlds within worlds. Forests, rivers. Velvet coverlets thrown over featherbeds, fountains bubbling beneath a canopy of stars. Bountiful forests, universal libraries. A wine cellar offering an intoxication so sweet you will never be sober again. A clarity so complete you will never again forget. This magnificent refuge is inside you. Enter. Shatter the darkness that shrouds the doorway… Believe the incredible truth that the Beloved has chosen for his dwelling place the core of your own being because that is the single most beautiful place in all of creation.”― Mirabai Starr, The Interior Castle
A dwelling place, a refuge.
Yearning, calling, pulling, pushing, a soft whisper.
Not to be found out there, in others, in circumstances, in someday when.
Within you, awaiting your arrival and homecoming.
Come sit awhile, rest.
“This magnificent refuge is inside you. Enter. Shatter the darkness that shrouds the doorway. Step around the poisonous vipers that slither at your feet, attempting to throw you off your course. Be bold. Be humble. Put away the incense and forget the incantations they taught you. Ask no permission from the authorities. Slip away. Close your eyes and follow your breath to the still place that leads to the invisible path that leads you home.”― Mirabai Starr, The Interior Castle
“Everything can be taken from a man or woman but one thing: the last of human freedoms to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” – Viktor E. Frankl
"Cast Light" is a call to release your inner light, your true self every day. Choose light and cast it to the world.
Featured Quotes
“I travel light. I think the most important thing is to be in a good mood and enjoy life, wherever you are.” – Diane von Furstenberg
“In every day, there are 1,440 minutes. That means we have 1,440 daily opportunities to make a positive impact.” – Les Brown
“You cannot have a positive life and a negative mind.” – Joyce Meyer
