October 2024 (Vol. XXXVII, No. 9)
Love is my light and
my salvation,
whom shall I fear?...

One thing have I asked of Love,
that I shall ever seek:
That I might dwell in the
Heart of Love
All the days of my life,

To behold the Beauty of my Beloved...

Call upon the Beloved,
be strong and trust
in the heart's courage.
Trust in the power of Love;
the Beloved's unconditional and
everlasting love for you.
~ Nan Merrill, from her interpretation of "Psalm 27" in PSALMS FOR PRAYING
Nan Merrill Psalms For Praying joy
October 2024 (Vol. XXXVII, No. 9)
Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid.
~ Frederick Buechner in BEYOND WORDS: DAILY READINGS IN THE ABC's OF FAITH
Frederick Buechner BEYOND WORDS: DAILY READINGS IN THE ABC's OF FAITH joy
October 2024 (Vol. XXXVII, No. 9)

In the universe there are things that are known, and things that are unknown, and in between, there are doors.

~ William Blake in THE MARRIAGE OF HEAVEN AND HELL
William Blake THE MARRIAGE OF HEAVEN AND HELL joy
October 2024 (Vol. XXXVII, No. 9)

Is sorrow the true wild?

And if it is—and if we join them—
your wild to mine—what's that?

For joining, too, is a kind of annihilation.
What if we joined our sorrows, I'm saying.
I'm saying: What if that is joy?

~ Ross Gay in THE BOOK OF DELIGHTS
Ross Gay The Book Of Delights joy
October 2024 (Vol. XXXVII, No. 9)
This is where I live,
at the edge of this ploughed field
where sunlight catches meadow grasses
and turns them silver-yellow....

I prefer it here, at the line
where the forest intersects
the field, where deer and groundhog
move back and forth to feed
and hide. On these juts and outcroppings
I can look both ways, moving
As that crow does, all gracelessness
and sway....

This life is not easy,
but wings mix up with leaves there,
like the moment when surf turns into
undertow or breaker, and I can
poise myself and hold
for a long time, profoundly
neither one place nor another.
~ Maggie Anderson, from "Marginal" in WINDFALL: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS
Maggie Anderson WINDFALL: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS joy
October 2024 (Vol. XXXVII, No. 9)
I am quite confident that even as the oceans boil, and the hurricanes beat violently against our once safe shores, and the air sweats with the heat of impending doom...that there is a path to take that has nothing to do with victory or defeat: a place we do not yet know the coordinates to; a question we do not yet know how to ask. The point of the departed arrow is not merely to pierce the bullseye and carry the trophy: the point of the arrow is to sing the wind and remake the world in the brevity of flight. ... May this new decade be remembered as the decade of the strange path, of the third way, ...the kairotic moment... that opened up new places of power.
~ Bayo Akomolafe
Bayo Akomolafe joy
October 2024 (Vol. XXXVII, No. 9)
In times like these, many things become too late...It will be too late to save this coastline or that ecosystem, this city or that species, this democracy or that economy. But it is not too late to love, and it never will be. Love will count, no matter what. Even on the last day of the world.
~ Brian McLaren in LIFE AFTER DOOM: WISDOM AND COURAGE FOR A WORLD FALLING APART
Brian McLaren LIFE AFTER DOOM: WISDOM AND COURAGE FOR A WORLD FALLING APART joy
October 2024 (Vol. XXXVII, No. 9)
We have entered a time of descent that takes us down into a different geography. In this shadowed terrain, we encounter a landscape familiar to soul—loss, grief, death, vulnerability, and fear...This is not a time of rising and growth. It is not a time of confidence and ease. No. We are hunkered down. Down being the operative word. From the perspective of soul, down is holy ground...

How can we meet these unpredictable times with any sense of presence and faith?
To do so, we must become fluent in the manners and ways of soul. We are required to develop another set of skills and ways of seeing as we descend ever further into the collective unknown. We are being asked to hone the faculties of soul that will enable us to navigate through the Long Dark....
~ Francis Weller in IN THE ABSENCE OF THE ORDINARY
Francis Weller IN THE ABSENCE OF THE ORDINARY joy
October 2024 (Vol. XXXVII, No. 9)
So, friends, every day do something that won't compute...Give your approval to all you cannot understand...Ask the questions that have no answers. Put your faith in two inches of humus that will build under the trees every thousand years. ...Expect the end of the world. Laugh. Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful though you have considered all the facts...Practice resurrection.
~ Wendell Berry, from "Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front" in THE COUNTRY OF MARRIAGE
Wendell Berry THE COUNTRY OF MARRIAGE joy
October 2024 (Vol. XXXVII, No. 9)

Walker, your footsteps
are the road, and nothing more.
Walker, there is no road,
the road is made by walking.
Walking you make the road,
and turning to look behind
you see the path you never
again will step upon.
Walker, there is no road,
only foam trails on the sea.

~ Antonio Machado in BORDER OF A DREAM
Antonio Machado BORDER OF A DREAM joy
October 2024 (Vol. XXXVII, No. 9)

An expression of faith
In life Herself
Is to sow seeds into dark soil
Not knowing what awaits.
Returning to the patience
Reverence
Grace
Humility
Practiced by our ancestors...
Reminding me to wake up amidst the confusion
To do what must be done to feed the children.
To tuck vibrant seeds into fertile soil
And patiently tend the garden,...
The garden that our ancestors left for us is beautiful.
May we water it well with our tears and our laughter, our stories, and our songs.

Today I choose to plant seeds of hope into the winds of an unknown future...
It's a New dawn.
The time to be those ancestors our grandchildren are waiting for is upon us.
What seeds are you sowing?

~ Rowen White, from "Sowing Seeds"
Rowen White joy
October 2024 (Vol. XXXVII, No. 9)
How rare and beautiful it is that we exist. What if we stun existence one more time?... The earth remembers everything, our bodies are the color of the earth and we are nobodies. Been born from so many apocalypses, what's one more? Love is still the only revenge. It grows each time the earth is set on fire. But for what it's worth, I'd do this again. Gamble on humanity one hundred times over. Commit to life unto life, as the trees fall and take us with them. I'd follow love into extinction.
~ Ayisha Siddiqa, from "On Another Panel About Climate, They Ask Me to Sell the Future and All I've Got Is a Love Poem"
Ayisha Siddiqa joy
September 2024 (Vol. XXXVII, No. 8)
Another name for God is surprise.
~ Brother David Steindl-Rast in GRATEFULNESS, THE HEART OF PRAYER
Brother David Steindl-Rast Gratefulness: The Heart Of Prayer love
September 2024 (Vol. XXXVII, No. 8)
Love is frequently equated with good feelings toward others, with benevolence or nonviolence or service. But these things in themselves are not love. Love springs from awareness. It is only inasmuch as you see someone as he or she really is here and now and not as they are in your memory or your desire or in your imagination or projection that you can truly love them.
~ Anthony De Mello in THE WAY TO LOVE
Anthony de Mello The Way To Love love
September 2024 (Vol. XXXVII, No. 8)
This is how we are: we fall in love with each other's strengths, but love deepens towards permanence when we fall in love with each other's weaknesses.
~ Salman Rushdie in THE GOLDEN HOUSE
Salman Rushdie THE GOLDEN HOUSE love
September 2024 (Vol. XXXVII, No. 8)
Love doesn't just sit there, like a stone. It has to be made, like bread, remade all the time, made new.
~ Ursula K. LeGuin in THE LATHE OF HEAVEN
Ursula K. LeGuin THE LATHE OF HEAVEN love
September 2024 (Vol. XXXVII, No. 8)
To love someone long term is to attend a thousand funerals of the people they used to be. It is not our job to hold anyone accountable to the people they used to be. It is our job to travel with them between each version and to honor what emerges along the way.
~ Heidi Priebe in THIS IS ME LETTING YOU GO
Heidi Priebe THIS IS ME LETTING YOU GO love
September 2024 (Vol. XXXVII, No. 8)
Love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone. We find it with another.
~ Thomas Merton in LOVE AND LIVING
Thomas Merton Love And Living love
September 2024 (Vol. XXXVII, No. 8)
Honestly accept the journey into physical diminishment as the new learning curve in your life and embrace it with curiosity and beginner's mind. Keep facing forward with a gently yielded heart; that is always the direction from which the new integration emerges.
~ Cynthia Bourgeault from the "Ten Practical Guidelines for Conscious Aging" essay at WisdomWaypoints.org
Cynthia Bourgeault love
September 2024 (Vol. XXXVII, No. 8)
May my heart be opened.
May all that is broken within me be healed.
May I awaken to this moment, just as it is.
May all hearts be opened to one another.

May your heart be opened.
May all that is broken within you be healed.
May you awaken to this moment, just as it is.
May all hearts be opened to one another.

May our hearts be opened.
May all that is broken within us be healed.
May we awaken to this moment, just as it is.
May all hearts be opened to one another.
~ Anonymous
love
September 2024 (Vol. XXXVII, No. 8)
You come to love not by finding the perfect person, but by seeing an imperfect person perfectly.
~ Sam Keen in TO LOVE AND BE LOVED
Sam Keen To Love And Be Loved love
September 2024 (Vol. XXXVII, No. 8)
When we reveal ourselves to our partner and find that this brings healing rather than harm, we make an important discovery – that intimate relationship can provide a sanctuary from the world of facades, a sacred space where we can be ourselves, as we are... This kind of unmasking – speaking our truth, sharing our inner struggles, and revealing our raw edges – is sacred activity, which allows two souls to meet and touch more deeply.
~ John Welwood in LOVE AND AWAKENING
John Welwood LOVE AND AWAKENING love
September 2024 (Vol. XXXVII, No. 8)
Before fixing what you're looking at, check what you're looking through.
~ Mark Nepo in THE BOOK OF AWAKENING
Mark Nepo The Book Of Awakening love
September 2024 (Vol. XXXVII, No. 8)
Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It's a relationship between equals. Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others. Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity.
~ Pema Chodron in THE PLACES THAT SCARE YOU
Pema Chodron THE PLACES THAT SCARE YOU love
September 2024 (Vol. XXXVII, No. 8)
Bless and sit down. Forgive and forget. Practice kindness all day to everybody and you will realize you're already in heaven now. That's the story. That's the message. Nobody understands it, nobody listens, they're all running around like chickens with heads cut off. I will try to teach it but it will be in vain, it's why I'll end up in a shack praying and being cool and singing by my woodstove making pancakes.
~ Jack Kerouac from his "The Golden Eternity" letter
Jack Kerouac love
September 2024 (Vol. XXXVII, No. 8)
We travelers, walking to the sun, can't see
Ahead, but looking back the very light
That blinded us shows us the way we came,
Along which blessings now appear, risen
As if from sightlessness to sight, and we,
By blessing brightly lit, keep going toward
That blessed light that yet to us is dark.
~ Wendell Berry, "Sabbaths 1999 VI" in GIVEN
Wendell Berry GIVEN love
September 2024 (Vol. XXXVII, No. 8)
True giving is a thoroughly joyous thing to do. We experience happiness when we form the intention to give, in the actual act of giving, and in the recollection of the fact that we have given. Generosity is a celebration. When we give something to someone we feel connected to them, and our commitment to the path of peace and awareness deepens.
~ Sharon Salzberg in A HEART AS WIDE AS THE WORLD
Sharon Salzberg A HEART AS WIDE AS THE WORLD love
September 2024 (Vol. XXXVII, No. 8)
It costs so much to be fully human... One has to abandon altogether the search for security, and reach out to the risk of living with both arms... One has to accept pain as a condition of existence... One has to court doubt and darkness as the cost of knowing. One needs a will stubborn in conflict, but apt always to total acceptance of every consequence of living and dying.
~ Morris West in THE SHOES OF THE FISHERMAN
Morris West THE SHOES OF THE FISHERMAN love
September 2024 (Vol. XXXVII, No. 8)
Go to the place called barren. Stand in the place called empty. And you will find God there.
~ Joan Sauro in WHOLE EARTH MEDITATION
Joan Sauro WHOLE EARTH MEDITATION love
September 2024 (Vol. XXXVII, No. 8)
We are naturally reverent beings, but much of our natural reverence has been torn away from us because we have been born into a world that hurries. There is no time to be reverent with the earth or with each other. We are all hurrying into progress. And for all our hurrying we lose sight of our true nature a little more each day.
~ Macrina Wiederkehr from the "Radical Grace" newsletter by The Center for Action and Contemplation
Macrina Wiederkehr love
July/August 2024 (Vol. XXXVII, No. 7)
... and how could anyone believe
that anything in this world
is only what it appears to be—
~ Mary Oliver from "What Is It?" in HOUSE OF LIGHT
Mary Oliver House Of Light allow
July/August 2024 (Vol. XXXVII, No. 7)
Silence is not the absence of something but the presence of everything . . . It is the presence of time, undisturbed. It can be felt within the chest. Silence nurtures our nature, our human nature, and lets us know who we are. Left with a more receptive mind and a more attuned ear, we become better listeners not only to nature but to each other. Silence can be carried like embers from a fire. Silence can be found, and silence can find you. Silence can be lost and also recovered. But silence cannot be imagined, although most people think so. To experience the soul-swelling wonder of silence, you must hear it.
~ Gordon Hempton in ONE SQUARE INCH OF SILENCE
Gordon Hempton ONE SQUARE INCH OF SILENCE allow
July/August 2024 (Vol. XXXVII, No. 7)
I personally believe the noise pollution, both physically noise pollution, as well as our inner noise pollution, is probably one of the single biggest threats to our humanity. And to be able to quiet ourselves enough in whatever practice, and then in the fields of discovery of where we work or where we live, find quietude, so that the signal and antenna can even meet is, to me, the front line of the work. Because if we can't quiet ourselves, getting the instructions, knowing how to meet each other is actually impossible.
~ Azita Walton from "On Nature's Wisdom for Humanity" podcast interview with Krista Tippett
Azita Walton allow
July/August 2024 (Vol. XXXVII, No. 7)
For some time now it has seemed to me that two questions we should ask of any strong landscape are these: firstly, what do I know when I'm in this place that I can know nowhere else? And then, vainly, what does this place know of me that I cannot know of myself?
~ Robert Macfarlane in THE OLD WAYS
Robert Macfarlane THE OLD WAYS allow
July/August 2024 (Vol. XXXVII, No. 7)
As we are made by what moves us,
willows pull the water up into their
farthest reach which curves again
down divining where their life begins.
So, under travels up, and down and up again,
and the wind makes music of what water was.
~ Marie Howe from "The Willows" in NEW AND SELECTED POEMS
Marie Howe New And Selected Poems allow
July/August 2024 (Vol. XXXVII, No. 7)
Lord, not you,
it is I who am absent...

I stop
to think about you, and my mind
at once
like a minnow darts away,
darts
into the shadows, into gleams that fret
unceasing over
the river's purling and passing.

Not for one second
will my self hold still, but wanders
anywhere,
everywhere it can turn. Not you,
it is I who am absent.

You are the stream, the fish, the light,
the pulsing shadow,
you the unchanging presence, in whom all
moves and changes.

How can I focus my flickering, perceive
at the fountain's heart
the sapphire I know is there?
~ Denise Levertov from "Flickering Mind" in THE STREAM AND THE SAPPHIRE
Denise Levertov THE STREAM AND THE SAPPHIRE allow
July/August 2024 (Vol. XXXVII, No. 7)
In the stillness of quiet, if we listen, we can hear the whisper of the heart giving strength to weakness, courage to fear, hope to despair.
~ Howard Thurman
Howard Thurman allow
July/August 2024 (Vol. XXXVII, No. 7)
...May what I do flow from me like a river,
no forcing and no holding back,
the way it is with children.

Then in these swelling and ebbing currents,
these deepening tides moving out, returning,
I will sing you as no one ever has,

streaming through widening channels
into the open sea.
~ Rainer Maria Rilke from "Ich glaube an Alles noch nie Gesagte" in RILKE'S BOOK OF HOURS: LOVE POEMS TO GOD
Rainer Maria Rilke Rilke's Book Of Hours: Love Poems To God allow
July/August 2024 (Vol. XXXVII, No. 7)
Silence, I discover, is something you can actually hear.
~ Haruki Murakami in KAFKA ON THE SHORE
Haruki Murakami KAFKA ON THE SHORE allow
July/August 2024 (Vol. XXXVII, No. 7)

Lord, in the presence of your love, I ask that you unite my work with your great work, and bring it to fulfillment. Just as a drop of water, poured into a river, becomes one with the flowing waters, so may all I do become part of all that you do. So that those with whom I live and work may also be drawn to your love.

~ Gertrude of Helfta in WOMANPRAYERS
Gertrude of Helfta Womanprayers allow
July/August 2024 (Vol. XXXVII, No. 7)

Come, behold the works of the Beloved,
how love does reign even in
humanity's desolation.
For the Beloved yearns for wars to cease,
shining light into fearful hearts...
"Be still and know that I am Love.
Awaken! Befriend justice and mercy;
Do you not know you bear my Love?
Who among you will respond?"
O Blessed One, You know all hearts,
You are ever with us;
may Love ever guide our lives!

~ Nan Merrill from her interpretation of "Psalm 46" in PSALMS FOR PRAYING
Nan Merrill Psalms For Praying allow
July/August 2024 (Vol. XXXVII, No. 7)

Let rain be rain.
Let wind be wind.
Let the small stone
be the small stone.
May the bird
rest on its branch,
the beetle in its burrow.
May the pine tree
lay down its needles.
The rockrose, its petals.
It's early. Or it's late.
The answers
to our questions
lie hidden
in acorn, oyster, the seagull's
speckled egg.
We've come this far, already.
Why not let breath
be breath. Salt be salt.
How faithful the tide
that has carried us—
that carries us now—
out to sea
and back.

~ Danusha Laméris, "Let Rain Be Rain" from THE WONDER OF SMALL THINGS
Danusha Laméris THE WONDER OF SMALL THINGS allow
July/August 2024 (Vol. XXXVII, No. 7)
Have you also learned that secret from the river; that there is no such thing as time? That the river is everywhere at the same time, at the source and at the mouth, at the waterfall, at the ferry, at the current, in the ocean and in the mountains, everywhere and that the present only exists for it, not the shadow of the past nor the shadow of the future.
~ Hermann Hesse in SIDDHARTHA
Hermann Hesse Siddhartha allow
July/August 2024 (Vol. XXXVII, No. 7)

There is a mystery about rivers that draws us to them, for they rise from hidden places and travel by routes that are not always tomorrow where they might be today. Unlike a lake or sea, a river has a destination and there is something about the certainty with which it travels that makes it very soothing, particularly for those who've lost faith with where they're headed.

~ Olivia Laing in TO THE RIVER
Olivia Laing TO THE RIVER allow
June 2024 (Vol. XXXVII, No. 6)
I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
~ John 15:5, NIV Bible
slower
June 2024 (Vol. XXXVII, No. 6)
The truly sacred attitude toward life is in no sense an escape from the sense of nothingness that assails us when we are left alone with ourselves. On the contrary, it penetrates into that darkness and that nothingness, realizing that the mercy of God has transformed our nothingness into his temple and believing that in our darkness his light has hidden itself. Hence, the sacred attitude is one that does not recoil from our own inner emptiness but rather penetrates into it with awe and reverence, and the awareness of mystery. This is a most important discovery in the interior life.
~ Thomas Merton in THE INNER EXPERIENCE
Thomas Merton THE INNER EXPERIENCE slower
June 2024 (Vol. XXXVII, No. 6)
In order to wish to be present, I must see that I am asleep. "I" am not here. I am enclosed in a circle of petty interests and avidity in which my "I" is lost. And it will remain lost unless I can relate to something higher.

I need to understand that by myself, without a relation with something higher, I am nothing. I can do nothing. By myself alone, I can only remain lost in this circle of interests. I have no quality that allows me to escape. I can escape only if I feel my absolute nothingness and begin to feel the need for help. I must feel the need to relate myself to something higher.

Nothing real in me can be hurt.
~ Madame de Salzmann in THE REALITY OF BEING
Madame de Salzmann The Reality Of Being slower
June 2024 (Vol. XXXVII, No. 6)
Progress comes through the voluntary acceptance of constriction and diminishment. And that's the unpleasant bottom line. Because all of us think that evolution comes through expansion. And we automatically equate our larger personhood with expanded space, expanded agency, endless opportunity, a whole canvas to paint on.

But it's actually, spiritually speaking, in the opposite direction. It's in the leaning into the conditions that you at first experience as intolerable, that you gradually realize that they are exactly the conditions that bring forth something new, something that can't be born forth in any other way.
~ Cynthia Bourgeault, 2023 Wisdom School at Claymont
Cynthia Bourgeault slower
June 2024 (Vol. XXXVII, No. 6)
We have entered a time of descent that takes us down into a different geography. In this shadowed terrain, we encounter a landscape familiar to soul—loss, grief, death, vulnerability, and fear. We have, in the old language of Alchemy, crossed into the Nigredo...This is a season of decay, of shedding and endings, of falling apart and undoing. This is not a time of rising and growth. It is not a time of confidence and ease. No. We are hunkered down. Down being the operative word. From the perspective of soul, down is holy ground.
~ Francis Weller in IN THE ABSENCE OF THE ORDINARY
Francis Weller IN THE ABSENCE OF THE ORDINARY slower
June 2024 (Vol. XXXVII, No. 6)
The divine way is indeed the downward way.
~ Henri Nouwen in THE SELFLESS WAY OF CHRIST
Henri Nouwen THE SELFLESS WAY OF CHRIST slower