In the struggle
between the stone and water,
in time,
the water wins.
~
Japanese Proverb
quotes
reality check…
pay attention…
there’s a whole world outside waiting to meet you.
and there is a whole world inside also waiting to meet you.
let go of the stories you repeatedly tell yourself and meet this life.
~j
war or peace?…
Every day, at the moment when things get edgy,
we can just ask ourselves,
“Am I going to practice peace, or am I going to war?”
~
Pema Chödrön
Roshi Pat Enkyo O’Hara quote…
choosing wisdom…
In all likelihood, the environmental crises we will encounter in the coming decades and probably centuries will bring great upheavals and immense suffering. It is all so hard to wrap one’s mind around because the problem is unprecedented in magnitude. At the same time, we have the whole history of human wisdom to draw upon in making our choices and taking action. The defining question of our age will be how we meet the calamities we will face, and how we will act to mitigate them and find our virtue in confronting them. The stakes couldn’t be higher, yet as human beings, we are not only expert in creating misery, we are also expert in working to resolve it. Both legacies, and the ability to choose which to follow, belong to us.
– James Shaheen, “Choosing Wisdom in the Face of Peril”
when you love, you love…
“Someone has said, ‘To be a saint is to have loved many things’ —many things —
the tree, the dog, the sky, the flowers, even the color of someone’s clothing.
You see, when you love, you love, and love extends to everything all the time and everywhere.”
~ Richard Rohr
Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalom quote…
“There are people who advocate and practice compassionate listening, there are those who embrace voluntary simplicity, who remove the calluses from their hearts and keep them open to feel the pains of others. Seek them out, I urge you, and join them in their compassion.”
~ Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalom
this shared Life…
“Destiny itself is like a wonderful wide tapestry in which every thread is guided by an unspeakably tender hand, placed beside another thread, and held and carried by a hundred others.”
~ Rainer Maria Rilke
~ Rainer Maria Rilke
what have i done that i should wake with
breath filling my lungs?
what have i done that i should feel the
warm sun kiss my back,
the cool breeze tease across
my face?
what have i done that i my feet should
walk upon this earth and
feel its strong embrace,
holding each step?
what have i done to hear the
songs of birds or
see the dedicated work of
bees and ants?
to find comfort in
music?
to dream in
art?
what have i done to know friendship and
love
LOVE
in the deepest places of my heart, that
it has no choice but
to sing its song to every cell in
this body
THIS BODY
that too has been
given,
this body
THIS BODY
made of so many other little bodies in
this shared Life?
YES
this shared Life.
nothing.
it is all Gift.
~j
November 28, 2013
Thanksgiving & Hanukkah
great souls…
always remember, dear friends…
“Nothing baffles the schemes of evil people so much as the calm composure of great souls.”
~ Gabriel Mirabeau
~ Gabriel Mirabeau
“Real love and truth are stronger in the end than any evil or misfortune in the world.”
~ Charles Dickens
~ Charles Dickens
…i would revise the first quote from “evil people” to “people who do evil”…knowing that people, though at times broken and perhaps so horribly wounded and lost as to cause harm, are not inherently evil.
The Metta Garden 