Maybe faith, maybe hope

 

(c) Johan Neven

In the winter I am writing about, there was much darkness. Darkness of nature, darkness of event, darkness of the spirit. The sprawling darkness of not knowing.

 We speak of the light of reason. I would speak here of the darkness of the world, and the light of___. But I don’t know what to call it. Maybe hope. Maybe faith, but not a shaped faith—only, say, a gesture, or a continuum of gestures. But probably it is closer to hope, that is more active, and far messier than faith must be. Faith, as I imagine it, is tensile, and cool, and has no need of words. Hope, I know, is a fighter and a screamer.

 --Mary Oliver 

Uncertainty is the space of hope

@https://www.flickr.com/photos/dariuszka/

Uncertainty is the space of hope. In times like these, when the world feels consumed by fire—literally and figuratively—it’s easy to become calcified by grief or paralyzed by rage. But hope is not a denial of these feelings. It’s the act of staying open to possibility, of refusing to surrender to despair.

Rebecca Solnit, Hope in the Dark

Something happens to me when I witness someone’s courage

 

(c) Mary Pimmel

“Something happens to me when I witness someone’s courage. They may not know I’m watching and I might not let them know. But something happens to me that will last me for a lifetime. To fill me when I’m empty, and rock me when I’m low.”

. –Holly Near

All will be well

 

(c) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Statue_of_Dame_Julian.JPG

 “All will be well, and all will be well, and all manner of things will be well.”

--Julian of Norwich

Even a wounded world is feeding us

 

(c) Mohamed Abed (AFP_

Even a wounded world is feeding us. Even a wounded world holds us, giving us moments of wonder and joy. I choose joy over despair. Not because I have my head in the sand, but because joy is what the earth gives me daily and I must return the gift.

Robin Wall Kimmerer,

If I had no choice about the age in which I was to live

 

(c) Kelly Latimore @

kellylatimoreicons

“If I had no choice about the age in which I was to live, I nevertheless have a choice about the attitude I take and about the way and the extent of my participation in it’s living ongoing events. To choose the world is… an acceptance of a task and a vocation in the world, and history and in time. In my time, which is the present.”

~Thomas Merton, “ Contemplation in a World of Action”

 

 

“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”  

--J.R.R. Tolkien

Where you stumble and fall

 

“Where you stumble and fall, there you will find gold.”
― Joseph Campbell

 

If you are falling

 

“If you are falling....dive.”
― Joseph Campbell

 

Follow your bliss

 

“Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls.”
― Joseph Campbell 

The cave you fear

 

 “The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.”
― Joseph Campbell

That's the way it is.

 

Holy Name Province Franciscans

That’s the way it is.
Good days. And bad days. Up days. Down days. Sad days. Happy days. But never a boring day on this job. You do what God has called you to do. You show up. You put one foot in front of another. You get on the rig and you go out and you do the job – which is a mystery. And a surprise. You have no idea when you get on that rig. No matter how big the call. No matter how small. You have no idea what God is calling you to. But he needs you. He needs me. He needs all of us.
- Fr. Mychal Judge, OFM (last homily, 9/10/2001

Here's to the crazy ones.

creative commons

Here's to the crazy ones.

The misfits.

The rebels.

The troublemakers.

 

The round pegs in the square holes.

The ones who see things differently.

They're not fond of rules.

And they have no respect for the status quo.

 

You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.

About the only thing you can't do is ignore them.

Because they change things.

 

They push the human race forward.

And while some may see them as the crazy ones,

we see genius.

Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world,

are the ones who do.

 

--Rob Siltanen

On love

On Love

When love beckons to you, follow him,

Though his ways are hard and steep.

And when his wings enfold you yield to him,

Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.

And when he speaks to you believe in him,

Though his voice may shatter your dreams

as the north wind lays waste the garden.

For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.

Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,

So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.

Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself.

He threshes you to make you naked.

He sifts you to free you from your husks.

He grinds you to whiteness.

He kneads you until you are pliant;

And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God's sacred feast.

All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life's heart.

But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure,

Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing-floor,

Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.

Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.

Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;

For love is sufficient unto love.

When you love you should not say, "God is in my heart," but rather, "I am in the heart of God."

And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.

Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.

But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:

To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.

To know the pain of too much tenderness.

To be wounded by your own understanding of love;

And to bleed willingly and joyfully.

To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;

To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy;

To return home at eventide with gratitude;

And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.

--Kahlil Gibran

Devastation

The way of love is not 
a subtle argument. 



The door there
is devastation. 



Birds make great sky-circles 
of their freedom. 


How do they learn it? 



They fall, and falling,
they're given wings.

--Rumi 

Think of all the beauty

Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.

--Anne Frank

On love

When love beckons to you, follow him,

Though his ways are hard and steep.

And when his wings enfold you yield to him,

Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.

And when he speaks to you believe in him,

Though his voice may shatter your dreams

as the north wind lays waste the garden.

For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.

Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,

So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.

Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself.

He threshes you to make you naked.

He sifts you to free you from your husks.

He grinds you to whiteness.

He kneads you until you are pliant;

And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God's sacred feast.

All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life's heart.

But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure,

Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing-floor,

Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.

Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.

Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;

For love is sufficient unto love.

When you love you should not say, "God is in my heart," but rather, "I am in the heart of God."

And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.

Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.

But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:

To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.

To know the pain of too much tenderness.

To be wounded by your own understanding of love;

And to bleed willingly and joyfully.

To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;

To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy;

To return home at eventide with gratitude;

And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.


--Khalil Gibran

To love beauty

To love beauty is to see light.

--Victor Hugo

The soul

The soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone.

--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

People are like stained - glass windows

People are like stained - glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.

--Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Of life's two chief prizes

Of life's two chief prizes, beauty and truth, I found the first in a loving heart and the second in a laborer's hand.

--Khalil Gibran