I Love This Quote (2011)

Inspiration

28 November

From 'The Language of Letting Go' by Melodie Beattie

'Perspective - we do not always know how a particular relationship will work out ... why we've been led down a particular path, what is being worked out in us, what we are learning ... why a door closed. Perspective will come in retrospect. ... For today, being is enough. I will put simple trust in the truth that all is well, events are unfolding as they should, and all will work out for good in my life - better than I can imagine.'

25 November

'Judgement locks you in a jail of your own making.' Jeff Allen, Psychology of Vision

3 November 2011

From Caroline Myss 'Anatomy of the Spirit'

'The necessity of change makes healing a terrifying experience for many people ... Healing requires action ...'

22 October

From 'The Deeper Wound' by Deepak Chopra

'My soul is my self. It knows me and hears me.

My soul knows me as complete and whole.

My soul knows me as gentle.

My soul knows me as peaceful.

I will see everyone else as I see myself.

I will nurture every need but one - the need to judge others.'

10 October

From 'Writing Down the Bones' by Natalie Goldberg

... Katagiri Roshi said to me, 'You should live alone. You should learn about that. It is the terminal abode.'

'Roshi, will I get used to loneliness?'

'No, you don't get used to it. I take a cold shower every morning and every morning it shocks me, but I continue to stand up in the shower. Loneliness always has a bite, but learn to stand up in it and not be tossed away.'

4 October 2011

To Bless the Space Between Us, by John O'Donohue

'... May we have the courage to take the step

Into the unknown that beckons us;

Trust that a richer life awaits us there,

That we will lose nothing

But what has already died ...'

28 September

By Oriah Mountain Dreamer

'Life is messy. Accept this ... Pay attention to what has real value for you at the level of your body-heart-self - the people, places, activities and practises that help you feel truly alive, and support your ability to be present and kind. If there's something calling to you, turn toward it and start walking ... Life is short and messy. Don't postpone living until life gets neater or easier or less frantic or more enlightened ... Choose life in all the small ways you can, every day.'

16 September

'There is no such thing as a complete lack of order, only a design so vast it appears unrepetitive up close.' By Louise Erdrich, 'The Bingo Palace'. This line is the inspiration for a beautiful blog by Lindsey Mead: www.adesignsovast.com

9 September 2011

I looked up Shelley's 'To a Skylark' (see quote below under 4 August) and here are a couple of verses from it. I must try and see a skylark - it was also the bird to inspire Vaughan Williams to write the beautiful and poignant piece of music 'Lark Ascending'.

Hail to thee, blithe spirit!
Bird thou never wert-
That from heaven or near it
Pourest thy full heart
In profuse strains of unpremeditated art.
......

Teach me half the gladness
That thy brain must know;
Such harmonious madness
From my lips would flow,
The world should listen then, as I am listening now.

Follow this link for some of 'Lark Ascending' Ralph Vaughan Willliams

http://www.youtube.com/olliefilms#p/a/u/2/yQzhWZMEDw8

31 August

From 'The Call' by Oriah Mountain Dreamer

'... being - that still, spacious whole presence that you are, that everything is - is about accepting fully and being with what is here and now ...'

4 August

From 'Writing Down the Bones' by Natalie Goldberg

'And what great writers actually pass on is not so much their words, but they hand on their breath at their moments of inspiration. If you read a great poem aloud - for example, 'To a Skylark' by Percy Bysshe Shelley - and read it the way he set it up and punctuated it, what you are doing is breathing his inspired breath at the moment he wrote that poem. That breath was so powerful it still can be awakened in us over 150 years later...'

2 August

By Stanley Kunitz

... the awareness that we are living and dying at once. To embrace such knowledge and yet to remain compassionate and whole - that is the consummation of the endeavour of art.

13 July 2011

By Wendell Berry

'And the world cannot be discovered by a journey of miles, no matter how long, but only by a spiritual journey, a journey of one inch, very arduous and humbling and joyful, by which we arrive at the ground at our own feet, and learn to be at home.'

8 July

From 'Vectors: Aphorisms & Ten-Second Essays' by James Richardson

'Would it have been better or worse if I could have whispered to myself back then, I know the way? Follow me. But it will take 30 years.'

6 July

From 'Journal of a Solitude' by May Sarton

'Does anything in nature despair except man? ... Keep busy with survival. Imitate the trees. Learn to lose in order to recover, and remember that nothing stays the same for long, not even pain, psychic pain. Sit it out. Let it all pass. Let it go.'

29 June 2011

From Doreen Virtue:

'Today be aware of your amazing power of manifestation.'

20 June

From 'A Path with Heart' by Jack Kornfield

Sorrow or a wound can heal, allowing us to grow into our fullest, most compassionate identity, our greatness of heart. When we truly come to terms with sorrow, a great and unshakeable joy is born in our heart.

19 June

A beautiful song by The Cardigans called 'Communication' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SymRtOfpAIw

and another by The Webb Sisters called 'Baroque Thoughts' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOTpLf1xuaI

6 June

From Psychology of Vision, Chuck Spezzano

'Be prepared to be wrong about everything.'

6 May 2011

From 'Cold Hands, Warm Heart' by Tess Burrows

'Sometimes when everything seems crazy bad and it feels like the world is caving in there's one lovely thing that shines through and changes the day around. Making that thing seem almost magical.'

4 May

From 'The Silver Horse' by Elizabeth Goudge

...' You make your own world. You take to yourself certain things that belong to you, certain places and creatures. Certain people. Some person, even some scene you see only once may be of your world and will be with you till you die ...'

26 April

From Doreen Virtue's 'Daily Guidance from your Angels'

I see the Divine order within everything and everyone today, rising above the illusion of problems or chaos. As I look for the truth and beauty within myself and others, that is what I experience.

20 April

From the song 'Better Things' by Dar Williams

Here's wishing you the bluest sky and hoping something better comes tomorrow.

Hoping all the verses rhyme and the very best of choruses

To follow all the doubt and sadness.

I know that better things are on their way.

Here's hoping all the days ahead won't be as bitter as the ones behind you.

Be an optimist instead and somehow happiness will find you.

Forget what happened yesterday

I know that better things are on their way ...

Accept your life and what it brings

I hope tomorrow you'll find better things.

I know tomorrow you'll find better things...

5 April 2011

Written by my 17 year old son (Josh Graham):

Life is like being lost in the woods, you never know where your going. It can often be dark but then there are also breaks in the trees where the sun penetrates the canopy. It is at these places life seems most pleasant. Staying in a place like this for a while is understandable, but the sun can always be covered by a cloud making the clearing as useless as the rest. You might think of the forest as an entity, one that you enter in birth and leave in death, everyone is in the same wood; people enter and leave at different times. Paths cross and merge, but every path is different. Ever changing. Many people would consider 'lost' as being a negative but it gives a sense of adventure, or maybe freedom ... The place I want to be is somewhere I don't know. I just want to be lost picking flowers in the wood.

26 March

North American Indian Chinook prayer:

May all I say and all I think

be in harmony with Thee,

God within me, God beyond me,

Maker of the Trees.

Amen.

21 March

From Abraham:

Make lists of positive aspects. Make lists of things you love - and never complain about anything. And as you use those things that shine bright and make you feel good, and you give your attention and be who-you-are, you will tune to who-you-are, and the whole world will begin to transform before your eyes. It is not your job to transform the world for others - but it is your job to transform it for you.

19 March

From 'Daily Guidance from your Angels' by Doreen Virtue

'You may wonder how to satisfy your desire for more fulfillment and meaning in your life. Sometimes these spiritual and emotional longings are confused with physical cravings for food or other substances. They have similar roots, as they're all a signal that your heart is in need of love. Today, feed your core the emotional nutrient that it craves. Gently talk to your heart, reassuring it and asking it to open up to the love that continuously encompasses you. Ask it to trust that you will protect it, with the help of the angels. Nourish yourself with extra doses of caring and compassion, and understand why your heart may have closed up out of a well-meaning desire to protect itself. Feed yourself with fun, friendships, sunsets and the fragrance of flowers today.'

15 March

'Is there a place where our vanished days secretly gather? ... Memory.'

From Anam Cara by John O'Donohue

14 March

From Caroline Myss

'Let's just start with the luxurious word, illumination. What does it mean to become illuminated? Instead of the conventional idea that you are on a journey of becoming conscious, reflect on the much richer language that you are on a path of inner illumination, in which truth slowly, gradually is revealed within you - not to traumatize you or knock the bottom out from under you. Rather, to become illuminated is to be given Divine experiences of profound and loving understanding of yourself, of others, and of life...'

12 March

From: 'Tarot for the Healing Heart' by Christine Jette

This sounds the most amazing thing to do - I will one day do this at the top of Kingley Vale:

'On a starry night, go up to a high place with someone who loves and understands you. Look up at the distant stars and pour out your heart to them. Try to experience to the full any emotions that wash over you. Know that, like the stars, you are alive with a life of your own. You are an integral part of this timeless beauty. It is within you at every moment.'

1 March 2011

From 'The Dance of Intimacy' by Harriet Lerner

'Respect the fact that all you do and are now, has evolved for a good reason and serves an important purpose.'

24 February

One of my favourite children's stories is Hans Christian Anderson's 'The Snow Queen'. As a child, I named one of my dolls 'Angel Gerda' after the character in this story -

' Little Kay was quite blue with cold ... and his heart was like a lump of ice ... He sat quite still, stiff and cold ... then burst into tears, and cried till the pieces of glass were washed out of his eyes. 'Dear Gerda, where have you been all this time? and where have I been?'

17 February

From Doreen Virtue

Patience, then is really another word for letting go of fear and worry ... give any fears or worries to God and the angels, relaxing in the sure faith that everything is going according to Divine plan.

15 February

From 'The Language of Letting Go' by Melody Beattie

'When we're searching for happiness outside ourselves and looking to others to provide our peace and stability, remember this: Even if we could control things and people, even if we got what we wanted, we would still be ourselves. Our emotional state would still be in turmoil.'

12 February

From: 'The Wise Heart' by Jack Kornfield

'Letting go does not mean losing the knowledge we have gained from the past. The knowledge of the past stays with us. To let go is simply to release any images and emotions, grudges and fears, clingings and disappointments that bind our spirit. Like emptying a cup, letting go leaves us free to receive, refreshed, sensitive, and awake.'

6 February 2011

30 years on and Weller's words are still ringing ...

'At the moment there's nothing, so there's nothing to lose.

Lift up your lonely heart and walk right on through.'

'Ghosts' by The Jam

30 January

From 'Spiritual Intelligence' by Michal Levin

'Each step forward means the death of the old, and perhaps a significant encounter with the dark to allow new light to be born ... your ability to grow is directly proportional to your ability to let go of the past, and embrace the future ... when you reach a low point, or when life threatens to overtake you with incomprehensible new circumstances, you must submit. The process is like death ... from that death you will emerge with new strength, able to realise more of your potential.'

18 January

Ghandi acknowledged, 'I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and non-violence are as old as the hills.'

1st January 2011

From 'Eternal Echoes - Exploring our Hunger to Belong' by John O'Donohue

'One of the most beautiful gifts in the world is the gift of encouragement. When someone encourages you, they help you over a threshold you might otherwise never have crossed on your own. There are times of great uncertainty in every life. Left alone at such a time, you feel dishevelment and confusion like a gravity. When a friend comes with words of encouragement, lightness visits you and you begin to find the stairs and the door out of the dark. The sense of encouragement you feel from them is not simply their words or gestures; it is rather their whole presence enfolding you and helping you find the concealed door. The encouraging presence manages to understand you and put itself in your shoes. There is no judgement but words of relief and release.'