April 2021 (Vol. XXXIV, No. 4)
Changing is not just changing the things outside of us. First of all we need the right view that transcends all notions including of being and non-being, creator and creature, mind and spirit. That kind of insight is crucial for transformation and healing.
~ Thich Nhat Hanh
Thich Nhat Hanh recover
April 2021 (Vol. XXXIV, No. 4)
The unbounded spaciousness
of Silence,
filled with the clear light
of Awareness,
dissolves the roots of pain
and sorrow.
~ Kalidas (Lawrence Edwards) from "Take Refuge in Silence"
Kalidas recover
April 2021 (Vol. XXXIV, No. 4)
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain... they are inseparable. Together they come, and when one sits along with you at your board, remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.
~ Kahlil Gibran from THE PROPHET
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April 2021 (Vol. XXXIV, No. 4)
The recovery of faith in our creativity and in the artist within each of us and the artists among all of us is no small thing. It has to do with the rekindling of the spark of hope and vision, of adventure and blessing, that a tired civilization needs...
~ Matthew Fox from ORIGINAL BLESSING
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April 2021 (Vol. XXXIV, No. 4)
Mankind, there has come to you a guidance from your Lord and a healing for... your hearts, and for those who believe, a guidance and a mercy.
~ The Koran (Yunus, 10:57)
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April 2021 (Vol. XXXIV, No. 4)
If you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain "move from here to there" and it will move.
~ Matthew 17:20
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April 2021 (Vol. XXXIV, No. 4)

...Deep. deep down in the earth
There is the pure water

The way is down
The old sources have become clogged
New wells are sought...

That might be there
Deep down
For us

I have met her
That one
Who holds a true divining rod
That one who is seeking pure water

~ Emily Brown from "The Burning Bush" in Liberating Liturgies, Women's Ordination Conference, 1989
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April 2021 (Vol. XXXIV, No. 4)
Silence belongs to all of us— it is who we are, it is what we are. If we are to experience and embody authentic peace and love, if we are going to bring true healing to our wildly violent and endangered world, we are going to have to learn to live within this essence which joins us together as brothers and sisters.
~ Robert Rabbin from "The Healing Power of Silence" in Natural Awakenings, February 2013
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April 2021 (Vol. XXXIV, No. 4)

The law of love governs the world. Life persists in the face of death. The universe continues in spite of destruction going on. Truth triumphs over untruth. Love conquers hate.

~ Mahatma Gandhi from PEACE: THE WORDS AND INSPIRATION OF MAHATMA GANDHI
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April 2021 (Vol. XXXIV, No. 4)
Be silent,
Only the hand of God can remove
The burdens of your heart.
~ Rumi
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April 2021 (Vol. XXXIV, No. 4)

for a brief moment early spring rain ceases,
the sun breaks through
grey sky...

threads of gold
thin enough to pierce the forest,
glitter on dewdrops...
bows to brilliance,

where everything arrogant
takes off its shoes
to stand on holy ground.

~ Joyce Rupp from "For a Brief Moment" in MY SOUL FEELS LEAN: POEMS OF LOSS AND RESTORATION
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April 2021 (Vol. XXXIV, No. 4)
Let us now open our hearts to recall those who have died from the coronavirus. Strengthen those families and friends who remain behind, to comfort one another and to wipe the tears from our eyes. May each one find peace and let the memory of our loved ones itself be a blessing.
~ Cardinal Wilton Gregory in a prayer offered on CNN as the United States reflected on the 500,000 lives lost, February 22, 2021
Cardinal Wilton Gregory recover
April 2021 (Vol. XXXIV, No. 4)

It is spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.

~ Rainer Maria Rilke in "Sonnets to Orpheus. Part One, XXI"
Rainer Maria Rilke recover
March 2021 (Vol. XXXIV, No. 3)

... God said, 'There will be dreams from the night that will need the light of the morning.’ And so God put wisdom in the early hours.

... God said: 'Let there be a certain kind of light that can only be seen in the morning.’ And God created gold, and dew, and horizons, and hills in the distance, and faces that look different in the light of the morning, and things that look different in the light of the morning...
And God said that it was Good.

~ Padraig O’Tuama from "A Liturgy of the Morning" in DAILY PRAYERS WITH THE CORRYMEELA COMMUNITY
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March 2021 (Vol. XXXIV, No. 3)

may the tide
that is entering even now
the lip of our understanding
carry you out
beyond the face of fear
may you kiss
the wind then turn from it
certain that it will
love your back may you
open your eyes to water
water waving forever
and may you in your innocence
sail through this to that

~ Lucille Clifton from "Blessing the Boats (at St. Mary's)" in QUILTING
Lucille Clifton Quilting awakening Buy on Amazon
March 2021 (Vol. XXXIV, No. 3)

I’m going to be sorry when I retire, because I enjoy — if it’s one thing that I definitely enjoy, it’s my 8:00 class. My 8:00 class, they come to me, 8:00 a.m., they come to me from their dreams, and I come to them from mine... I like the freshness that they bring. And the other word would be, I like the love that we have for each other as we come into that class.

~ Nikki Giovanni from "We Go Forward with a Sanity and Love" On Being podcast. Read more in THE COLLECTED POETRY OF NIKKI GIOVANNI
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March 2021 (Vol. XXXIV, No. 3)

The breezes at dawn have secrets to tell you
Don't go back to sleep!
You must ask for what you really want.
Don't go back to sleep!
People are going back and forth
across the doorsill where the two worlds touch,
The door is round and open
Don't go back to sleep!

~ Rumi from "A Great Wagon" in THE ESSENTIAL RUMI, translated by Coleman Barks
Rumi The Essential Rumi awakening Buy on Amazon
March 2021 (Vol. XXXIV, No. 3)

Uphold the Light that your inner light
may illumine fear-filled hearts...
Light comes with each new dawn.
yield to the Light within;
become a chalice of light
for the world!

~ Nan Merrill from LUMEN CHRISTI...HOLY WISDOM
Nan Merrill Lumen Christi...holy Wisdom awakening Buy on Amazon
March 2021 (Vol. XXXIV, No. 3)

Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature — the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.

~ Rachel Carson from SILENT SPRING
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March 2021 (Vol. XXXIV, No. 3)

Help us to be ever faithful gardeners of spirit, who know that without darkness nothing comes to birth, and without light nothing flowers.

~ May Sarton. Read more in SELECTED POEMS OF MAY SARTON
May Sarton awakening Buy on Amazon
March 2021 (Vol. XXXIV, No. 3)

Awakeness is found in our pleasure and our pain, our confusion and our wisdom, available in each moment of our weird, unfathomable, ordinary, everyday lives.

~ Pema Chodron from WHEN THINGS FALL APART
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March 2021 (Vol. XXXIV, No. 3)

freedom always came nibbling my thought,
just as— often, in light, on the open hills—
you can pass an antelope and not know
and look back, and then— even before you see—
there is something wrong about the grass.
And then you see.

That's the way everything in the world is waiting.

~ William E. Stafford from "A Message from the Wanderer" in THE WAY IT IS
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March 2021 (Vol. XXXIV, No. 3)

Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning
Born of the one light, Eden saw play
Praise with elation, praise every morning
God's recreation of the new day

Morning has broken like the first morning
Blackbird has spoken like the first bird
Praise for the singing, praise for the morning
Praise for them springing fresh from the world

~ Eleanor Farjeon from MORNING HAS BROKEN
Eleanor Farjeon awakening Buy on Amazon
March 2021 (Vol. XXXIV, No. 3)

Hello, sun in my face.
Hello, you who make the morning
and spread it over the fields
and into the faces of the tulips
and the nodding morning glories,
and into the windows of, even, the
miserable and crotchety–

best preacher that ever was,
dear star, that just happens
to be where you are in the universe
to keep us from ever-darkness,
to ease us with warm touching,
to hold us in the great hands of light–
good morning, good morning, good morning.
Watch, now, how I start the day
in happiness, in kindness.

~ Mary Oliver from "Why I Wake Early" in WHY I WAKE EARLY
Mary Oliver Why I Wake Early awakening Buy on Amazon
March 2021 (Vol. XXXIV, No. 3)

Put your ear down close to your soul and listen hard.

~ Anne Sexton
Anne Sexton awakening Buy on Amazon
February 2021 (Vol. XXXIV, No. 2)

if each day falls
inside each night
there exists a well
where clarity is imprisoned.
we need to sit on the rim
of the well of darkness
and fish for fallen light
with patience.

~ Pablo Neruda from Seeking Clarity
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February 2021 (Vol. XXXIV, No. 2)

As swimmers dare
to lie face to the sky
and water bears them,
as hawks rest upon air
and air sustains them,
so would I learn to attain
free fall, and float
into Creator Spirit’s deep embrace,
knowing no effort earns
that all-surrounding grace.

~ Denise Levertov from The Avowal
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February 2021 (Vol. XXXIV, No. 2)

How surely gravity's law,
strong as an ocean current,
takes hold of the smallest thing
and pulls it toward the heart of the world.

Each thing—
each stone, blossom, child —
is held in place.
Only we, in our arrogance,
push out beyond what we each belong to
for some empty freedom.

If we surrendered
to earth's intelligence
we could rise up rooted, like trees.

Instead we entangle ourselves
in knots of our own making
and struggle, lonely and confused.

So like children, we begin again
to learn from the things,
because they are in God's heart;
they have never left him.

This is what the things can teach us:
to fall,
patiently to trust our heaviness.
Even a bird has to do that
before he can fly.

~ Rainer Maria Rilke from "Gravity’s Law" in RILKE'S BOOK OF HOURS, translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy
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February 2021 (Vol. XXXIV, No. 2)

God of light and God of darkness,
God of conscience and God of courage
lead us through this time
of spiritual confusion and public uncertainty.

Give us the conscience it takes
to comprehend what we’re facing,
to see what we’re looking at
and to say what we see
so that others, hearing us,
may also brave the pressure that comes
with being out of public step.

Give us the courage we need
to confront those things
that compromise our consciences
or threaten our integrity.

~ Joan Chittister from Prayer for Conscience and Courage
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February 2021 (Vol. XXXIV, No. 2)

Battered; ill; aghast –
Lost in my own ruin –
Sometimes I am weak enough
To enter You.

~ Rumi
Rumi gravity Buy on Amazon
February 2021 (Vol. XXXIV, No. 2)

So stay. Sit. Linger. Tarry. Wait. Behold. Wonder.
There will be time enough for running. For rushing.
For worrying.
For pushing.
For now, stay. Wait.

~ Jan Richardson
Jan Richardson gravity Buy on Amazon
February 2021 (Vol. XXXIV, No. 2)

The art of being lost is not a matter of merely getting lost, but rather being lost and enthusiastically surrendering to the unlimited potential of it and using it to your advantage. The shift from being lost to being found is a gradual one.

The way to encourage that shift is to first accept that you don't know how to get to the place you want to be and then opening fully to the place you are until the old goals fall away and you discover more soulful goals emerging. Then you are no longer lost, but you have benefited immensely from having been so.

~ Bill Plotkin from "The Art of Being Lost" in Soulcraft Musings #30 August 11, 2017
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February 2021 (Vol. XXXIV, No. 2)

What we choose to fight is so tiny!
What fights with us is so great.
If only we would let ourselves be dominated
as things do by some immense storm,
we would become strong too, and not need names.

When we win it’s with small things,
and the triumph itself makes us small.
What is extraordinary and eternal
does not want to be bent by us...

This is how one grows: by being defeated, decisively,
by constantly greater beings.

~ Rainer Maria Rilke from "The Man Watching", translated by Robert Bly
Rainer Maria Rilke gravity Buy on Amazon
February 2021 (Vol. XXXIV, No. 2)

It’s 3:23 in the morning
and I can’t sleep
because my great great grandchildren
ask me in my dreams
what did you do while the Planet was plundered?
what did you do when the Earth was unravelling?

What did you do
once
you
knew?

... I want just this consciousness reached
by people in range of secret frequencies.

~ Drew Dellinger from "Hieroglyphic Stairway" in LOVE LETTER TO THE MILKY WAY
Drew Dellinger Love Letter To The Milky Way gravity Buy on Amazon
February 2021 (Vol. XXXIV, No. 2)

It is I who must begin.
Once I begin, once I try —
here and now,
right where I am,
not excusing myself
by saying things
would be easier elsewhere...
— to live in harmony
with the "voice of Being," as I
understand it within myself
— as soon as I begin that,
I suddenly discover,
to my surprise, that
I am neither the only one,
nor the first,
nor the most important one
to have set out
upon that road.
Whether all is really lost
or not depends entirely on
whether or not I am lost.

~ Václav Havel
Vaclav Havel gravity Buy on Amazon
February 2021 (Vol. XXXIV, No. 2)

How difficult seeing the truth is.
How lonely thinking the truth is.
How brave speaking the truth is.
And, how warm is the hand
Which is held out to people crying in the sad wind
Behind the lie.
How kind is the heart
Which accompanies people who cling to
The homeland in their hearts.

~ from Tsunangari (Connection) in The Kentaro Sato Choral Series
gravity
February 2021 (Vol. XXXIV, No. 2)

There is a brokenness
out of which comes the unbroken,
a shatteredness
out of which blooms the unshatterable.
There is a sorrow
beyond all grief which leads to joy
and a fragility
out of whose depths emerges strength.

~ Rashani from "The Unbroken"
Rashani gravity Buy on Amazon
January 2021 (Vol. XXXIV, No. 1)

Fire is an intimate force. Whereas light is very heartening, it remains quite superficial. It touches only the surface of things. ...Fire, on the other hand, has the power to penetrate to the very essence of substance. Fire can go to the heart of the matter.

~ John O'Donohue in FOUR ELEMENTS: REFLECTIONS ON NATURE
Four Elements fire
January 2021 (Vol. XXXIV, No. 1)
We are the stars which sing,
We sing with your light;
We are the birds of fire,
We fly across the heavens,
Our light is a star which sings.
~ North American Algonquian Song, quoted in SNOWY EARTH COMES GLIDING by Evelyn Eaton
Snowy Earth Comes Gliding fire
January 2021 (Vol. XXXIV, No. 1)
There may be no way to completely avoid the fires erupting all around us, but the human psyche is ancient and immediate and therefore uniquely resilient...The inner alchemy of the soul intends to turn the heat of all that fumes and burns into the light of illumination.
~ Michael Meade in "A Time of Fire" essay
Michael Meade fire
January 2021 (Vol. XXXIV, No. 1)
Winter: quieting time to rest in the warmth of our heart's hearth... we enter another new year, another new beginning to awaken ever more fully to Divine Love at work in and through us. Each one of us is in need of true inspiration ... to have the indwelling fire reignited so that we can live with enthusiasm: a passion for Life, purpose, and joy. FIRE: the Flame of Love that inspires the aspirations of our hearts!
~ Nan Merrill
Nan Merrill fire
January 2021 (Vol. XXXIV, No. 1)
To the east comes the deep red light,
Triumph rising with the sun,
Full with the miracle of life,
Creative power within the light,
Daily renewal.
Sacred hoop, sacred life, let us greet you,
Heal our wounds, make us new.
~ Wendy Crockett in SWEETWATER WISDOM
Wendy Crockett Sweetwater Wisdom fire
January 2021 (Vol. XXXIV, No. 1)
Throughout my life, by means of my life,
the world has little by little caught fire in my sight,
until a flame all around me,
it has become almost luminous from within.
Such has been my experience in contact with the Earth.
The diaphany of the divine at the heart of the universe on fire.
~ Teilhard de Chardin from THE HEART OF THE MATTER
Teilhard de Chardin The Heart Of The Matter fire
January 2021 (Vol. XXXIV, No. 1)
The beauty of the trees,
the softness of the air,
the fragrance of the grass,
speaks to me...
The strength of fire,
the freshness of morning,
the taste of salmon,
the trail of the sun,
and the life that never goes away,
they speak to me.
And my heart soars.
~ Chief Dan George
Chief Dan George fire
January 2021 (Vol. XXXIV, No. 1)

I take my guidance from the forests, who teach us something about change. The forces of creation and destruction are so tightly linked that sometimes we can't tell where one begins and the other leaves off. A long-lived overstory can dominate the forest for generations... But... something always happens that is more powerful than that overstory... A whole new ecosystem rises to replace that which no longer works in a changed world...

~ Robin Wall Kimmerer, from her new introduction to the special edition of BRAIDING SWEETGRASS
Robin Wall Kimmerer Braiding Sweetgrass fire
January 2021 (Vol. XXXIV, No. 1)
Sometimes with
the bones of the black
sticks left when the fire
has gone out

someone has written
something new
in the ashes of your life.
~ David Whyte in "The Journey" from THE HOUSE OF BELONGING
David Whyte The House Of Belonging fire
January 2021 (Vol. XXXIV, No. 1)

Remember, remember the great life of the sun
breathing on the earth
it lies upon the earth
to bring out life upon the earth
life covering the earth.

Remember, remember the sacredness of things
running streams and dwellings
the young within the nest
a hearth for sacred fire
the holy flame of fire.

~ Pawnee/Osage/Omaha Song in EARTH PRAYERS
Earth Prayers fire
December 2020 (Vol. XXXIII, No. 11)
May our slowing down this Advent be our gentle protest against the violence of our rushing world. May our slowing down give quiet, steady witness to the values of attentiveness, carefulness, patience, receptivity, stillness. May our slowing down enable us to make real and meaningful connections with people, nature, work, art, and (most importantly) with God.
~ Melannie Svoboda, SND in her blog "Sunflower Seeds", November 28, 2016
Melannie Svoboda Sunflower Seeds advent
December 2020 (Vol. XXXIII, No. 11)

My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

~ John 14:22
advent
December 2020 (Vol. XXXIII, No. 11)
Remember it’s time for justice and peace to kiss and truth and kindness to embrace.
Remember it’s time for us to turn and face each other, ourselves, and God again.
Remember it’s time to hasten that day!...

Hope is catching and it is loose in the land, set loose by words and impassioned belief that
God is paying attention to what is going on in history, and that God has plans, as [God]
always has for those ... made to live in peace...
~ Megan McKenna in ADVENT, CHRISTMAS, AND EPIPHANY
Megan McKenna Christmas, And Epiphany, Advent advent