I Love This Quote
Has it all been said before? Each of us is unique and have our own way of expression ...
Wednesday 8 September
From 'Evidence' by Mary Oliver
'Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable ...
And consider, always, every day, the determination
of the grass to grow despite the unending obstacles.
I ask you again: if you have not been enchanted by
this adventure - your life - what would do for you?'
Thursday 25 August
From the song 'So Close to my Heart' by Dar Williams
I never had a friend as close as you, so close to my heart.
I dropped everything when you came through, so close to my heart.
I put my pens and my paintbox aside, so close to my heart.
And the river that ran down the rockface dried, so close to my heart.
It was an honour that you ran so free, so close to my heart.
I thought I'd lost something for ever, silly me ...
Sunday 8 August 2010
From 'Leaves of Grass' by Walt Whitman
A child said, What is grass? fetching it to me with full hands; How could I answer the child ...? I do not know what it is any more than he.
I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful green stuff woven.
Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord,
A scented gift and remembrancer designedly dropped,
Bearing the owner's name someway in the corners, that we may see and remark, and say Whose?
Wednesday 16 June 2010
'Why I Write' by Meredith Heller
'I write to hear my voice, because there are places of honesty and beauty that I go in my writing that I can't always go in my life, and I must. When I write, I let the parts of me that hold my breath, breathe. I write to let light into my being and let darkness out, to own myself, capturing the rhythms of my cycles: journeys into the abyss, travels through glory. I write to allow myself to feel ... I write myself alive ... I write to keep myself company ...'
Thursday 27 May 2010
From 'Divine Beauty' by John O'Donohue
'All through your life, the most precious experiences seemed to vanish. Transience turns everything to air. You look behind and see no sign even of a yesterday that was so intense. Yet in truth, nothing ever disappears, nothing is lost. Everything that happens to us in the world passes into us. It all becomes part of the inner temple of the soul and it can never be lost. This is the art of the soul: to harvest your deeper life from all the seasons of your experience ...'
Or keep scrolling!
Monday 24 May 2010
From the song 'Choose' by Lucinda Drayton
'I have come to know that I don't know anything at all
and in the spaces inbetween there is peace and quiet.
So don't ever be afraid of the choices you have made.
Every heartache makes you stronger ...'
Tuesday 11 May 2010
This isn't really a quote, maybe just a reminder ...
Universe: Uni - verse = One song
Divine orchestration/harmony of the world. We're all part of one song - the planets follow their paths, the buds open, the leaves fall, animals mate - all is in Divine Order.
Monday 10 May 2010
The Buddhist practice of metta = loving kindness. Metta means 'to be gentle', likened to gentle rain that falls upon the earth indiscriminately. Another meaning for metta = friend in good and bad times.
One of my favourite mantras any time:
May I be filled with loving kindness
May I be well
May I be peaceful and at ease
May I be happy.
Adapted from Jack Kornfield
Wednesday 5 May 2010
This quote came up today on my every-changing daily quotes from Abraham (channelled by Esther Hicks) and it's making me laugh, because you've got to sometimes don't you? For any of you who have had run-ins with 'jobs worth' people/councils etc ...
--- Abraham
And another quote to balance this out!
'Om Shanti ...
I am the light
I am the peace of the world,
I am the light
I am the peace of the world,
I am the light
I am the peace of the world ...'
From the song 'Om Shanti' by Bliss
Sunday 25 April 2010
From 'Divine Beauty' by John O'Donohue
'The earth is our origin and our destination. The ancient rhythms of the earth have insinuated themselves into the rhythms of the human heart. The earth is not outside us; it is within: the clay from where the tree of the body grows. When we emerge from our offices, rooms and houses, we enter our natural element. We are children of the earth: people to whom the outdoors is home. Nothing can separate us from the vigour and vibrancy of this inheritance. In contrast to our frenetic, saturated lives, the earth offers a calming stillness. Movement and growth in nature takes its time. The patience of nature enjoys the ease of trust and hope. There is something in our clay nature that needs to continually experience this ancient, outer ease of the world. It helps us remember who we are and why we are here.'
Tuesday 20 April 2010
From 'A Return to Love' by Marianne Williamson
'Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we're liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.'
Monday 12 April 2010
'Prayer to Begin Each Day' by Caroline Myss
I am committed to feeling a bond with each person I meet,
Thursday 1 April 2010
I love the following reminder for my work at Place of Serenity -
From Abraham, Esther & Jerry Hicks:
'If your dominant intent is to feel joy while you are doing the work, your triad of intentions—freedom, growth and joy—will come quickly and easily into alignment. See your "career" as one of creating a joyful life experience. You are not a creator of things or a regurgitator of what someone else has created or a gatherer of stuff. You are a creator, and the subject of your creation is your joyful life experience. That is your mission. That is your quest. That is why you are here. '
Saturday 27 March 2010
From Rainer Maria Rilke:
I want to beg you as much as I can to be patient
Towards all that's unsolved in your heart,
And to learn to love the questions themselves,
Like locked rooms,
Or like books that are written in a foreign tongue.
Do not seek the answers that cannot be given to you,
Because you would not be able to live them,
And the point is to live everything.
Live the questions now,
Perhaps you will then, gradually,
Without noticing it,
Live along some distant day
Into the answer.
Saturday 20 March 2010
From 'Courage The Joy of Living Dangerously' by Osho
You cannot be truthful if you are not courageous
You cannot be loving if you are not courageous
You cannot be trusting if you are not courageous
You cannot inquire into reality if you are not courageous
Hence courage comes first
and everything else follows
Friday 26 February 2010
From 'Anam Cara - Spiritual Wisdom from the Celtic World' by John O'Donohue
A Blessing of Solitude
May you recognize in your life the presence, power and light of your soul,
May you realize that you are never alone
that your soul in its brightness and belonging connects you intimately with the rhythm of the universe.
May you have respect for your own individuality and difference.
May you realize that the shape of your soul is unique,
that you have a special destiny here
that behind the facade of your life there is something beautiful, good and eternal happening.
May you learn to see your self with the same delight, pride and expectation with which God
sees you in every moment.
Saturday 20 February 2010
From 'Sunbathing in the Rain' by Gwyneth Lewis
'People in the middle of depression are beings who have to live, for a while, without a story, which is why it feels as though you've lost your soul. But this period is a dark room where you're developing the next chapter of your life before living it. The work will be all the more vivid if you're patient and let it take its own course.'
Monday 1 February 2010
From 'Manifest Your Desires' by Esther and Jerry Hicks
'It is not necessary that you fully understand the complexities of this eternally expanding environment in order to reap the benefits of that which it has become, but it is necessary that you find a way to go with the flow of the Wellbeing that is stretched out before you. So, in that effort, we offer these words: There is only a Stream of Wellbeing that flows. You can allow it or resist it, but it flows just the same.'
or carry on scrolling!
Monday 25 January 2010
From 'Broken Open' by Elizabeth Lesser
'Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk and social activist, once said that as he grew older he came to understand that it was not ideas that change the world but simple gestures of love given to the people around you, and often to those you feel most at odds with. He said that in order to save the world you must serve the people in your life. "You gradually struggle less and less for an idea,", Merton wrote, "and more and more for specific people. In the end, it is the reality of personal relationship that saves everything."
Wednesday 20 January 2010
From Joseph Campbell
'People say that what we're all seeking is a meaning for life.
I don't think that's what we're really seeking.
I think that what we're seeking
is an experience of being alive ...
so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.'
Wednesday 13 January 2010
Celtic Benediction (Author unknown)
Deep peace of the
Running wave to you,
Deep peace of the
Flowing air to you,
Deep peace of the
Quiet earth to you,
Deep peace of the
Shining stars to you,
Deep peace of the
Son of peace to you.
Tuesday 29 December 2009
Have recently become an avid fan of the poems of Mary Oliver:
The Swan
Did you too see it, drifting, all night, on the black river?
Did you see it in the morning, rising into the silvery air -
An armful of white blossoms,
A perfect commotion of silk and linen as it leaned
into the bondage of its wings; a snowbank, a bank of lilies,
Biting the air with its black beak?
Did you hear it, fluting and whistling
A shrill dark music - like the rain pelting the trees - like a waterfall
Knifing down the black ledges?
And did you see it, finally, just under the clouds -
A white cross Streaming across the sky, its feet
Like black leaves, its wings Like the stretching light of the river?
And did you feel it, in your heart, how it pertained to everything?
And have you too finally figured out what beauty is for?
And have you changed your life?
© Mary Oliver. From The Paris Review, Fall, 1992
or carry on scrolling!
Monday 28 December 2009
From Mary Oliver, 'The Kookaburras'
'In every heart there is a coward and a procrastinator.
In every heart there is a god of flowers, just waiting
to come out of its cloud and lift its wings ...'
Saturday 12 December 2009
From Annie Dillard, 'The Writing Life'
'How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.'
Photo: Lisa Traxler
Thursday 3 December 2009
'Symptoms of Inner Peace' by Jeff Rockwell, quoted in Bernie Siegel's book, 'Peace, Love and Healing'
1. Tendency to think and act spontaneously rather than from fears based on past experiences.
2. An unmistakeable ability to enjoy each moment.
3. Loss of interest in judging self.
4. Loss of interest in judging other people.
5. Loss of interest in conflict.
6. Loss of interest in interpreting actions of others.
7. Loss of ability to worry.
8. Frequent, overwhelming episodes of appreciation.
9. Contented feelings of connectedness with others.
10. Frequent attacks of smiling through the eyes of the heart.
11. Increasing susceptibility to love.
12. Increasing tendency to let things happen rather than to make them happen.
Rockwell warns 'If you have all or even most of the above symptoms, please be advised that your own condition of PEACE may be so far advanced as to not be treatable.'
Tuesday 10 November 2009
From Wayne Dyer 'Being in Balance'
'I am a Divine creation, I choose to stay connected to this Divinity in all of my thoughts and in all of my actions.'
Friday 6 November 2009
From Tarthang Tulku -
'Tad Yatha Om Muni Muni Maha
Muni Shakyamuni Ye Soha
Beyond the beliefs of any one religion, there is the truth of the human spirit.
Beyond the power of nations, there is the power of the human heart.
Beyond the ordinary mind, the power of wisdom, love and healing energy are at work in the universe.
When we can find peace within our hearts, we contact these universal powers.
This is our only hope.'
or carry on scrolling!
Monday 5 October 2009
From 'Living Magically' by Gill Edwards
'We will not ensure peace by hating war, but rather by loving peace, understanding our 'enemies', and believing in a peaceful world. Hence our need to balance social action with inner healing ... whenever we reach out to touch the world, our driving forces should be love, hope, joy, trust and empowerment - so that we help people to help themselves to discover their own power, their own capacity to love and respect themselves, their own hope for the future.'
Tuesday 22 September 2009
From 'The Spiral Staircase' by Karen Armstrong
'Compassion has been practised by all the great faiths because it has been found to be the safest and surest means of attaining enlightenment. It dethrones the ego from the centre of our lives and puts others there, breaking down the carapace of selfishness that holds us back from an experience of the sacred ... As a very early Buddhist poem puts it: 'May our loving thoughts fill the whole world; above, below, across - without limit; a boundless goodwill towards the whole world, unrestricted, free of hatred and enmity' (Sutra Nipata, 118)
Tuesday 15 September 2009
Here is a positive quote on how the movement of Mind, Body and Spirit is headed, from John Parkin, 'The F**k It'
'The most significant shift will be in the mainstream perception of 'energy'. This is where the growing influence of eastern philosophy and medicine will coincide with continued western scientific and medical discoveries that make the existence and significance of 'energy' irrefutable. The effect of this shift in perception will be huge:
- With energy medicine and medicines sitting alongside conventional medicine, with GPs referring to energy and recommending meditation and yoga.
- With the beginning of a mainstream paradigm shift from 'I am a separate individual, barely related to my environment' to 'my knowledge of energy informs my perception that I am linked to everyone and everything in ways I couldn't previously imagine'
- With the explosion of the concept of 'holism' in every area of life; into education, economics and politics as well as healthcare.'
Saturday 29 August 2009
From 'Yahweh' (How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb) by U2
I always find U2's lyrics uplifting - went to see them live at Cardiff recently and they are an awesome band!
'Take this soul, stranded in some skin and bones.
Take this soul, and make it sing ...
Take these hands, teach them what to carry.
Take these hands, don't make a fist.
Take this mouth, so quick to criticize.
Take this mouth, give it a kiss.
Yahweh! Yahweh!'
Sunday 27 July 2009
From 'Stop the Excuses' by Wayne Dyer
'A sacred space is within me that contains a knowing. I go there frequently, and I don't allow doubt into that Divine inner dwelling. It is mine alone, and I share it with my source of being. It is to this knowing that I retreat whenever I find myself slipping into excuse habits. In this knowing space within, I have no doubt about the guidance that's available to me, when I'm unified with my Source. I know that the doors will remain closed and the angelic teachers will not seek me if I'm only attached to this corporeal world of conflict, material things, and judgement. I keep this knowing space sacred for the moments when old habits and excuses attempt to influence my life.'
or carry on scrolling!
Monday 20 July 2009
From 'You Can Heal Your Life' by Louise Hay
'Nature never repeats itself. Since time began on this planet, there have never been two snowflakes alike or two raindrops the same. And every daisy is different from every other daisy. Our fingerprints are different, and we are different. We are meant to be different. When we can accept this, then there is no competition and no comparison. To try to be like another is to shrivel our soul. We have come to this planet to express who we are.'
Thursday 16 July 2009
From William Bloom
'Open-minded. Open-hearted.
A new approach to spirituality.
When asked your beliefs you could answer 'Holistic'.
All life is sacred, interdependent & growing to fulfil its potential,
Love, Support and Protect all beings.
Connect. Grow. Serve.'
Sunday 7 June 2009
From Walt Whitman
'Each of us inevitable; each of us limitless -
each of us with his or her right upon the earth;
each of us allowed the eternal purports of the earth;
each of us here as divinely as any is here.'
Monday 25 May 2009
From 'Gifts from a Course in Miracles' by Frances Vaughan & Roger Walsh
'There is a silence
into which the world cannot intrude.
There is an ancient peace
you carry in your heart
and have not lost.'
Sunday 17 May 2009
From a song Molly is singing at school lately:
'This little light of mine
I'm gonna let it shine ...
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine!'
Sunday 26 April 2009
From the song 'Breathe' by U2
'Every day I have to find the courage to walk out
Into the street with arms out
Got a love you can't defeat ....
There's nothing you have that I need.
I can breathe ...
The songs are in our eyes
Gonna wear them like a crown.
Walk out into a sunburnt street
Sing your heart out, sing my heart out.
I've found Grace inside a sound
I've found Grace - it's all I've found ...'
Sunday 19 April 2009
From 'Inspiration - Your Ultimate Calling' by Wayne W. Dyer
'We came into this world of boundaries from a formless energy field of Spirit. We arrived here with nothing/no things, we'll make our exit with nothing/no things, and our purpose (God-realization) requires nothing/no things.'
Sunday 12 April 2009
From 'The Wind is My Mother - The Life & Teachings of a Native American Shaman' by Bear Heart
'Worrying is like sitting in a rocking chair. It gives you something to do - you can rock, rock, rock - but it doesn't get you anywhere.'
Or carry on scrolling!
Sunday 22 March 2009
From 'A Little Light on the Spiritual Laws' by Diana Cooper
'We live in an ocean of divine consciousness flowing with the symbols of our heart's desire. That which you wish to draw into your life is already swimming in the ether of the unmanifest world like a beautiful fish waiting for you to reel it in ...'
Sunday 15 March 2009
From 'The Color Purple' by Alice Walker
'Whenever you trying to pray, and man plop himself on the other end of it, tell him to git lost. Conjure up flowers, wind, water, a big rock ...'
'I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it ...'
Sunday 8 March 2009
From 'The Art of Forgiveness, Lovingkindness & Peace' by Jack Kornfield
'Love and compassion are not the possession of any group or religious system. They are woven into our human spirit and our very cells. The only nourishment they require is our intimate and heartfelt attention.'
Sunday 1 March 2009
From 'Anatomy of the Spirit' by Caroline Myss
' The goal of becoming a conscious person is not to outwit death, nor even to become immune to disease. The goal is to be able to handle any and all changes in our lives - and in our bodies - without fear, looking only to absorb the message of truth contained in the change.'
Sunday 22 February 2009
From 'Women Who Run With the Wolves' by Clarissa Pinkola Estes
'... For myself, solitude is rather like a folded-up forest that I carry with me everywhere and unfurl around myself when I have need. I sit at the feet of the great old trees of my childhood. From that vantage point, I ask my questions, receive my answers, then coalesce my woodland back down to the size of a love note till next time.'