The shadows of this world will say— There's no hope why try anyway? But every kindness large or slight— shifts the balance toward the Light... When justice seems in short supply, lean in toward the Light.
~ Carrie Newcomer from the song "Lean in Toward the Light"
Prayer is that divine seed whose roots draw food from earthly existence. Like the lotus flower that does not bloom in arable ground but in marshes, prayer thrusts its roots into human misery as if into mud. But the lotus flower does not show any trace of the muddy water from which it drew life; turned toward the sky, it blooms.
~ from AWAKENING TO PRAYER by Augustine Ichiro Okumura