Each soul is born for love and joy

Each soul is born for love and joy.
Our Inner Radiance when,
fully uncovered, shines alike
in laughter and in sorrow.
 
Fears, doubts, and despair cloak joy
like darkness blanketing the sun each night.
 
Face your fears and freedom will follow,
dismantle doubts, and loving assurance
and hope become friends;
 
Dark despair diminishes as you turn
toward the Light. Help is ever at hand.
Your guardian angel awaits your call!
 
Dispelling the darkness, you increase hopein the world.
Rejoice! Humanity is inexorably awakeningto the energy of Love.

December 2008 (Vol. XXI, No. 11)

"Is there enough Silence for the Word to be heard?"

Holiday Blessings, dear friends! And so much gratitude for each of you!

Gratitude is an expression of heaven on Earth ... a treasure that enhances our lives so we feel rich, as in "all is well with me, all is well with the world." For, in truth, we usually receive far more than we are able to give: we have Life and all of nature's gifts, and an open door to Love without end. We have the hidden world of Silence and the Holy Counselor to walk with and within us all the way.

May deep gratitude for all that has now passed inspire us with trust for all that is to come. O, may we ever be rooted in gratitude!

Slowly, the practice of gratitude will begin to transform your consciousness so you start to detect Divine Presence and Divine Mercy all around you, which in time tremendously lessens your fear and suffering. For, it will make you aware of the maternal protection of God and of how the entire universe and all of life is constantly giving you signs of God's glory, beauty, and love. Practicing gratitude not only heals you of vanity and pride; it also heals your fear, grief, and insecurity of separation.

~ from THE DIRECT PATH by Andrew Harvey
Andrew Harvey The Direct Path gratitude

Gratitude is an amazing grace crowned in heaven with peace.

~ Anonymous
Anonymous gratitude

In Silence as
Bright as Round White Light
of full moon,
Thank you.

In Blessed Stillness
of new moon season
Thank you.

Life and Breath
All rest
in One.

~ Claudia Parrone
Claudia Parrone gratitude

As the monk advances in practice, feelings of hardship decrease and he is suffused with energy and sustained by joy. The marathon monk has become one with the mountain, flying along a path that is free of obstruction. The joy of practice has been discovered and all things are made new each day. Awakened to the Supreme, one marathon monk described his gratitude thus:

"Gratitude for the teachings of the enlightened ones,
gratitude for the wonders of nature,
gratitude for the charity of human beings,
gratitude for the opportunity to practice ... "

~ from THE MARATHON MONKS OF MOUNT HIEI by John Stevens
John Stevens The Marathon Monks Of Mount Hiei gratitude

The right here is an inner, not an outer, state of being rooted in Love ... Not only am I alert to the present moment, I am hopefully, wishfully, longingly expecting something in it. Gratitude deepens both the attentiveness and the expectancy. Through gratitude I am not only glad for where I am and for all the possibilities inherent in where I am, I am also able to accept the everything or the nothing that is given. Gratitude enables me to find my very own place, humbly and joyfully, in the right here.

~ from FRIEND OF THE HEART by Claire Blatchford
Claire Blatchford Friend Of The Heart gratitude

In the very last conversation we ever had, five days before his death, the subject came around to gratitude ...

"If you're quiet enough, as still as that mountain, you can hear in your heart a silent ‘thank you.' The whole universe, if you listen in your heart -- every blade of grass, each bird, each stone -- it is all ‘thank you.' We are born into ‘thank you' ... every step of the way is ‘thank you.' "

Rafe may not have heard the stars move. But I believe he was hearing "the Love that moves the stars and the sun."

~ from LOVE IS STRONGER THAN DEATH by Cynthia Bourgeault
Cynthia Bourgeault Love Is Stronger Than Death gratitude Buy on Amazon

The essence of all beautiful
art, all great art,
is gratitude.

~ Frederich Nietzsche
Frederich Nietzsche gratitude

The ancients sometimes said
that the worst sin is
ingratitude, which is a
forgetting of the greatness,
beauty, truth, and goodness
of the Source that is
constantly creating us--
in other terms, a forsaking
of Being and of the Good.

~ Jean-Yves LeLoup
Jean-Yves Leloup gratitude

Were there no God, we would
be in this glorious world
with grateful hearts
and no one to thank!

~ Christina Georgina Rossetti
Christina Georgina Rossetti gratitude

Grandfather cultivated gratitude at every step. On Fridays, after noon prayers, he retired to his room for a half hour ritual. Eyes closed, hands on heart, grandfather melted into a trance. Softly, at times in silence, he intoned continuous words of heart-felt thanks to God interspersed with recitations from the Holy Book. At times his body swayed with his outpourings; other times he was still. Tears poured profusely down his cheeks, soaking his shirt. Curious family members who secretly peeked in invariably burst into tears.

~ from THE FRAGRANCE OF FAITH by Jamal Rahman
Jamal Rahman The Fragrance Of Faith gratitude

Thou that has given so much to me,
Give me one thing more--
a grateful heart.

~ George Herbert
George Herbert gratitude

When you no longer have expectations, the unexpected kindness of others and small acts of consideration become like "sweet manna from heaven." The feeling that rises spontaneously within one's heart at such times is true gratitude. When one is accustomed to kindness, one can lose the feeling of gratitude. One must constantly return oneself to the spiritual starting point of no expectations.

~ from TARIKI: Embracing Despair, Discovering Peace by Hiroyuki Itsuki
Hiroyuki Itsuki Tariki: Embracing Despair, Discovering Peace gratitude

Gratitude is the memory of the heart.

~ French proverb
French proverb gratitude

Gratitude gentles us
and grants us grace.

As I express my gratitude,
I become more deeply aware of it.
And the greater my awareness,
the greater my need to express it.
What happens here is a spiraling ascent,
a process of growth in
ever expanding circles
around a steady center.

~ David Steindl-Rast
David Steindl-Rast gratitude

November 2008 (Vol. XXI, No. 10)

"Is there enough Silence for the Word to be heard?"

Greetings of the season, dear friends! Silence can be a great revelation, a gentle revolution, and can evoke resolution. Ever awaiting us in the Silence are insight, intuition, and inspiration. Be still, remain awake, and listen! While shallow ponds and brooks are noisy and busy, still waters run deep; they are calm and silent. True Silence is the blessed, eternal language of soul-Love. Silence: a sacred garden of meditation. In the Silence be still and Know; be still and See.

God is Silence. There is a silence of the tongue, a silence of the whole body. There is a silence of the soul and the spirit. The silence of the spirit is when all its movements are stirred solely by Being; in this state it is truly silent, aware that the silence which is upon it is itself silent.

~ Abraham of Nathpar, 6th Century
Abraham of Nathpar silence

Silence before the Beloved has deep significance in the quietness of the soul as the individual sinks into the central fire of communion. In the circle of community the most personal elemental chords of life receive their deepest stimulation. In the silent act of breathing and in the unspoken dialogue of the soul with Love, solitary as these are, deep communion can be given.

~ Eberhard Arnold
Eberhard Arnold silence

Know who you are.
Do not debase the name.
Carry it in your heart,
a root flame of love.
Walk through the world in silence.
The moment will come.
The sign will be a soft
stirring of wings,
a gold shimmer of air.

~ Dorothy Walters
Dorothy Walters silence

The sun tries to come out. It is a true November morning--cold and grey, with hints of blue and white light in the sky, a haze over the hills and trees, the ground covered with wet leaves, the trees dead and barren except for the pines. ... I sit content, held in peace as if God is embracing me. The silence is magnificent and healing. I become a part of it--silent, calm, at peace. My soul is quieted.

~ from THE SOUND OF LISTENING by John Dear
John Dear The Sound Of Listening silence

Real silence is both supremely simple and yet not easy. It draws us into a dimension always open to those who will allow themselves to be centered. ... We enter into silence to let the holiness of mystery take possession of us.

~ S. Wendy Beckett
S. Wendy Beckett silence

The discipline of silence doesn't mean just taking a short vacation from the spoken word. It also means giving complete relaxation to the muscles, the tissues, the tongue itself. A modern writer once said: "Knowledge has never been known to enter the head via an open mouth." It is when you become completely silent that you are able to absorb knowledge. God speaks in silence. The discipline of silence is essential on the path.

~ from THE DISCIPLINE OF SILENCE, thanks to Edward C. Brady
Edward C. Brady The Discipline Of Silence silence

Meister Eckhart tells us that in silence we make room in our soul for God and that God delights to be in our soul when we have made room. Should we not then be building mansions of silence in our souls to welcome Love's Holy Presence.

~ Hyatt Carter
Hyatt Carter silence

We can make our minds
so like still water
that beings gather about us
that they may see,
it may be, their own images,
and live for a moment with a clearer,
perhaps even with a fiercer life
because of our quiet,
our silence.

~ William Butler Yeats, thanks to Robert Purcell
William Butler Yeats silence

Why do I forget You, abandon You?
You who are wholeness,
You who are home, always now, always present,
giving what every cell in me yearns for--
to collapse into Your warm breath of Life;
defenses drop, naked I be,
cherished solely for my nakedness,
my void, my forgetfulness.

Silence pregnant with all sounds,
I come back, prodigal that I am--
bruised, tired, wired,
To be undone again by Your embrace.

~ "Mother Silence" by Vivian Larson
Vivian Larson Mother Silence silence

Silence is our spontaneous response
to the experience of numinous presence,
to Love-in-our-midst.

~ Rudolph Otto
Rudolph Otto silence

Perhaps nothing would be said at first, but eventually a sound, a poem, an artwork or an impression would spark an exchange, and there would be a clear flow of meditative, constructive thought. Periodic silences would follow, to which we both listened almost as if the quiet were a third party speaking to us. And in response to that stillness we would breathe deeply, come to a sort of relaxed attention, and in a humble, reverent manner lower our eyes, as though acknowledging the mystical presence of something greater.

~ from THE WAY OF THE DREAMCATCHER by S. T. Georgiou
S. T. Georgiou The Way Of The Dreamcatcher silence

When I drop down into myself in the quiet hours of the night, it feels as though I have tapped into a deep river that runs strongly beneath the busyness of my daily life. When I allow myself to fully experience this deep river without, I connect not only with myself and what matters most to me but also with a powerful stream of silence, mystery, clarity, aliveness. I seem to tap into a universal source available to us all of deeply nourishing spiritual qualities that can provide a healing balm for our out-of-balance lives.

~ from FINDING THE DEEP RIVER WITHIN by Abby Seixas
Abby Seixas Find The Deep River Within silence Buy on Amazon

Silence alone reveals the deepest depths of Life.

~ Maurice Zundel
Maurice Zundel silence

To see there must be silence.

~ Frederick Franck
Frederick Franck silence

The silence of the storm dominated everything. There are no words to describe a quiet so potent. I knew the snow was echoing a stillness that exists, hidden, in everything. I saw that this stillness generates all life. And sitting there in the snow, I wept at the profound sound and power of that silence.

I began to see the falling flakes as yellow bursts of energy, as light and as I looked at the light I saw that its total composition was Love. That night I suspended many cherished beliefs. The snow was alive.

~ from A NEW SET OF EYES by Paula D'Arcy
Paula D'Arcy A New Set Of Eyes silence Buy on Amazon

October 2008 (Vol. XXI, No. 9)

"Is there enough Silence for the Word to be heard?"

Every Blessing, dear friends. As summer dies into autumn, we can feel new energy, new life. For life is eternal ... how could it be otherwise? There is a universal continuity, an infinite and ever-flowing consciousness that we forget at our birth and return to at our physical death, where we pass into the Realm of Love. This Love is present to and with us throughout our lives. As young children, we naturally live in both the earthly and heavenly realms until the material world with its wondrous possibilities and myriad distractions becomes the norm.

Blessed are those who learn to see beyond the Veil, who communicate with the angels and lovingly co-create with the community of those who have entered true Life! As we die to all that is not life-giving here and now, we more easily make the transition when Love calls to us.

For me, as a physician, there is no surer evidence that something glorious and wonderful lies beyond our mortal existence. Death is not an end. It is a new beginning. It entails a magnificent reunion with God and all the wonderful souls that we've ever loved or will love. This is our destination when we pass over. Dying is not the end but rather a shift to a fresh form of life, a new and glorious manifestation of ourselves. In this regard, death would seem to be just another dramatic transition in a continuing cycle, similar tin quality to birth. We jettison our mortal shell as we pass from one life form and consciousness to another, more wondrous than the latter.

~ from THE SCALPEL AND THE SOUL by Allan Hamilton
Allan Hamilton The Scalpel And The Soul death

When it is over,
I want to say:
all my life I was a bride
married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking
the world in my arms.

 

~ Mary Oliver
Mary Oliver death

Go into your grief, for there,
your soul will grow.

~ Carl Jung
Carl Jung death

Death is transformation and it occurs constantly. Every moment that has passed is death. Each moment gives us the opportunity to live in the present. The past does not exist. The future has yet to come. I am dying all the time. I am adapting to every change in life. I die every day because I am not attached to what happened a moment ago, I let it go, and this makes me free. When we surrender to death, we live only in the moment.

~ from BEYOND FEAR by Miguel Ruiz
Miguel Ruiz Beyond Fear death Buy on Amazon

I began to face death and its implications very young. I could never have imagined then how many kinds of death there were to follow, one heaped upon another. The death that was the tragic loss of my country, Tibet, after the Chinese occupation. The death that is exile. The death of losing everything my family and I possessed ... for we had been among the wealthiest and most famous in Tibet.

~ from THE TIBETAN BOOK OF LIVING AND DYING by Sogyal Rinpoche
Sogyal Rinpoche The Tibetan Book Of Living And Dying death

I think that when I die, I can breathe back the breath that made me live. I can give back to the world all that I didn't do. All that I might have been and couldn't be. All the choices I didn't make. All the things I lost and spent and wasted. I can give them back to the world. To the lives that haven't been lived yet. That will be my gift back to the world that gave me the life I did live, the love I loved, the breath I breathed

~ from THE OTHER WIND by Ursula K. Le Guin
Ursula K. Le Guin The Other Wind death

To die gracefully is to live fully.

~ Clyde Reid
Clyde Reid death

All that matters is what you love
and what you love is who you are
and who you are is where you will be
when death takes you across the river.

~ John Squadra
John Squadra death

My religions is to live and die
without regret.

~ Milarepa
Milarepa death

With their last breath
those we love do not say good-bye --
for love is timeless.
Instead, they leave us a solemn promise
that when they are finally at rest
they will continue to be present to us
whenever they are called upon.
Let us fear not, nor grieve beyond letting go
the departure of those we have greatly loved,
for in the Tree of Life their roots and our own
are forever intertwined.

~ from a FOREST OF PEACE prayer card
Forest Of Peace Prayer Card death

Her eyes filled with tears, but she said quietly, "I could die in peace, I think, if the world was beautiful. To know it's being ruined is hard."

Then, in the loss of all the world, when I might have said the words I had so long wanted to say, I could not say them. I saw that I was not going to be able to say them. I saw that I was not going to talk without crying, and so I cried.

She looked at me and held out her hand. She gave me the smile that I had never seen and will not see again in this world, and it covered me all over with light.

~ from JAYBER CROW by Wendell Berry
Wendell Berry Jayber Crow death Buy on Amazon

Grandmother spoke. "For eighty winters I have lived among you and now the World of Spirit is calling me to the other side. As winter brings to a close each cycle of seasons, so death brings to a close the cycle of our lives. I have loved all of you as my children and you must remember, after winter comes spring; also, after death comes birth and a new beginning.

~ from EYES OF WISDOM, Book I, by Heyoka Merrifield
Heyoka Merrifield Eyes Of Wisdom, Book I death Buy on Amazon

If physical death is the price that I must pay to free
my white brothers and sisters from a permanent death
of the spirit, then nothing can be more redemptive.

~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. death

Do not fear your death. For when that moment arrives, I will draw my breath and your soul will come to Me like a needle to a magnet.

~ Mechtild of Magdeburg
Mechtild of Magdeburg death

Death is but a return
to your original Source.

~ Vasant Lad
Vasant Lad death

The death of those whom we love and who love us opens up the possibility of a new, more radical communion, a new intimacy, a new belonging to each other. If love is stronger than death, then death has the potential to deepen and strengthen the bonds of love.

It is only when we have died that our spirits can completely reveal themselves. The spirit of love, once freed from our mortal bodies. will blow where it will, even when few will hear its coming and going.

~ from BECOMING THE BELOVED by Henry Nouwen
Henri Nouwen Becoming The Beloved death Buy on Amazon

September 2008 (Vol. XXI, No. 8)

"Is there enough Silence for the Word to be heard?"

Heartfelt good wishes, dear friends!
Creation ... Creator ... Creativity. We are all born into Creation to become co-creators with the Great Architect of all Life. Moment by moment, creativity flows through us, inviting us to create and re-create our own lives into Love being expressed. Silence is like a river that keeps our "creative juices" flowing. At each new dawn throughout eternity, the world is made new. And so it is with us; how we choose to live, think, and act becomes the blueprint of our own creation. Wherever we are, whatever our age and circumstance ... creation continues.

From the tension of the dark empty depths an idea began to emerge. It was that space between not knowing and knowing, that tension between losing and finding, that blank page between silence and song, that emptiness that creates the need to create, to try, to imagine, to solve.

~ from GRAYSON by Lynne Cox
Lynne Cox Grayson creativity

Creative people tend to see life's problems as opportunities to exercise their creativity, to explore something new, to build character, to grow spiritually, and to develop self-knowledge. Love, creativity, and gentleness are closely linked. People who are creative and open to life are more able to learn to love others and themselves. Once we learn the art of turning problems into opportunities, there is no more distinction between self-love and the love of others.

~ from THE ZEN TEACHINGS OF JESUS by Kenneth S. Leong
Kenneth S. Leong The Zen Teachings Of Jesus creativity

Creativity is the urge to wholeness, the urge to individuation or to the becoming of what one truly is. And in that becoming we bring the cosmos into form.

~ Jean Houston
Jean Houston creativity

There are creative seeds buried in people, no matter how oppressed they have been, and you can find these seeds in their stories. With the recent extreme rains here, seeds of plants that have been dormant for centuries are sprouting. They have somehow kept themselves alive for all that time. This same potential is always alive inside people.

A mature creative life, which has discovered its source, finds it is linked to everything. Creation actually requires too little from us, and there is not much in our culture that teaches us to pay attention to the things that require less. These things give birth to the unpredictable surprises that inspire a larger and deeper soul connection with creative life. With the soul well tended, even when all is lost, our creation lives larger than its physical limits. The best that any of us can do with the heaven and hell that surrounds us is to become willing participants in the unfolding of our soul's life. Any creative act emerging from this tending becomes one with the elements of the Mystery.

~ from THE INSPIRED HEART by Jerry Wennstrom
Jerry Wennstrom The Inspired Heart creativity Buy on Amazon

Creativity belongs to the artist in each of us. To create means to relate. The root meaning of the word art is "to fit together" and we all do this every day. Not all of us are painters but we are all artists. Each time we fit things together we are creating, whether it is to make a loaf of bread or a life.

 

~ Corita Kent
Corita Kent creativity

Let us sing to the Creator of the cosmos,
to the divine power of love!
When we look at the wondrous display
of the heavens,
at the Earth with its infinite
variety of life,
Who are we that You love us, that You
rejoice in our being;
that You trust us to care for creation
in all its splendor,
inviting us to become co-creators
with You?
Let us celebrate the mystery of life!
Let us commit our lives to
the Divine Plan!

~ from MEDITATIONS AND MANDALAS by Nan C Merrill
Nan Merrill Meditations And Mandalas creativity Buy on Amazon

To live creatively is
to live from the soul,
to shape our circumstances out of our
deepest desires instead of
conforming our dreams to
the circumstances in which we live.
Once we experience the joy,
the power of creating our own lives,
we find that creating in other arenas
comes naturally,
an outflow of abundant energy
that comes with being true
to our essence.

~ from MARRY YOUR MUSE by Jan Phillips
Jan Phillips Marry Your Muse creativity

Creative work, like love, is not an exclusive gift bestowed on only a chosen few...A sea of love, an inexhaustible wellspring of creativity, bubbles behind the consciousness of each one of us. All creative work, that which is life-giving, that is done in its own name and for its own sake is divine in nature. Through it, people elevate themselves and fill their own hearts and the hearts of those around them
with Love.

~ from THE ROSE OF THE WORLD by Daniel Addheev
Daniel Addheev The Rose Of The World creativity Buy on Amazon

When we get out of the way, the wild and creative force which flows through us all will rush into the inlet, the space we have vacated within our everyday selves.

~ Julia K. Jensen
Julia K. Jensen creativity

The very thoughts that allow us to hurt another limit our ability to express the will of creation through ourselves. At the same time, each time we love another, we have just loved ourselves. Each time we create time for another, strive to understand another, we have just done each of these things for ourselves. When we disapprove of the actions, choices or beliefs of others, we witness through them those portions of ourselves that ask for a greater healing.

~ from THE ISIAH EFFECT by Greg Braden
Greg Braden The Isiah Effect creativity

A hunch is creativity trying to tell you something.

~ Frank Capra
Frank Capra creativity

In order to create,
I must be still.

~ Jan Kendy-Fragas
Jan Kendy-Fragas creativity

We can make a difference when we draw on our courage and creativity to stand up for our beliefs. Our small actions carry a cumulative power that can shift the planet onto a more positive course. We only need to tap our innate creativity and connect with expression not only through a particular medium like paint or clay or words; the other medium we all have to express our creativity is our lives.

As human beings, we're innately creative, capable of great love, and creatures of community. When we draw on our natural gifts and act together, we have enormous power to ease suffering and invent new possibilities for a better world.

~ Kim Ridley in "Ode," Vol. 3, October 2005
Kim Ridley Ode (vol. 3, October 2005) creativity

Let us sing to the Creator of the cosmos

Let us sing to the Creator of the cosmos,
to the divine power of love!
When we look at the wondrous display
of the heavens,
at the Earth with its infinite
variety of life,
Who are we that You love us, that You
rejoice in our being;
that You trust us to care for creation
in all its splendor,
inviting us to become co-creators
with You?
Let us celebrate the mystery of life!
Let us commit our lives to
the Divine Plan!

July/August 2008 (Vol. XXI, No. 7)

"Is there enough Silence for the Word to be heard?"

Summertime Blessings of sunshine's radiance, blossoming's beauty, laughter of children at play ... Love's eternal and infinite variety at the heart of Life. In the stillness of no-time we are free of fear, free to simply be without burdensome thoughts of past or future. Here, "I am who I am" ... here, we are One in Being with All. In the deep Silence of timelessness, may we surrender to the Eternal Now, be present to each holy instant, and know Love-with-us always.

Coming out of the movie, I realized that I want what the crones have: time for all those long deep breaths, time to watch more closely, time to learn to enjoy what I've always been afraid of--the sad and the invisibility; the ease of understanding that life is not about doing. The crones understand this, and it gives them all kinds of time--time to get much less done, time for all the holy moments.

~ from TRAVELING MERCIES by Anne Lamott
Anne Lamott Traveling Mercies time Buy on Amazon

The eternal moment is outside of time, is not a part of our past or our future, and yet it is lived amidst all our everyday activities. It is in the eternal moment that love is born. Love does not belong to time, and its timeless quality is well known to all lovers. The lover has to learn to still the mind in order to catch the moment and stay true to love's unfolding. Wayfarers tread a path that leads from illusions of time to the eternal moment that belongs to the soul.

~ from SIGNS OF GOD by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee Signs Of God time

We are made of time.
We are its feet and its voice.
The feet of time walk in our shoes.
Sooner or later, we all know,
the winds of time will close the tracks.
Passage of nothing, steps of no one.
The voice of time tells of the voyage.

~ Eduardo Galeano
Eduardo Galeano time

Eternity is one time, its only dimension: always.

~ ACIM
Acim time

Let us become attuned to that Transcendental Being imparted to all things by divine action. It deserves our attention, and those who heed it with an open heart and with confidence and courage need not fear. For divine action has always been the source from which flows a torrent of grace which spreads over everything. Our lives flow unceasingly in that unknown deep where all that is necessary is to love and to accept the present moment as the best, with perfect trust in God's universal goodness.

~ from SACRAMENT OF THE PRESENT MOMENT by Jean Pierre de Caussade
Jean Pierre de Caussade Sacrament Of The Present Moment time

I resolve to live with all my might while I do live. I resolve never to lose one moment of time and to improve my use of time in the most profitable way I possibly can. I resolve never to do anything I wouldn't do if it were the last hour of my life.
 

~ Jonathan Edwards
Jonathan Edwards time

Time is not a line but a dimension, like the dimensions of space. If you can bend space you bend time also, and if you knew enough and could move faster than light, you could travel backward in time and exist in two places at once.

 

~ from CAT'S EYE! by Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood Cat's Eye! time Buy on Amazon

May we live in today
and never in the future
or the past,
or come too late
to those we love.

~ from MARY, CALLED MAGDALENE by Margaret George
Margaret George Mary, Called Magdalene time

The present in which all times
are included, is one:
a unity in itself.

~ Nicolas of Cusa
Nicolas of Cusa time

One of the greatest mysteries in life is the mystery of time. Everything that happens to us, happens to us in and through time. Time is the force that brings every new experience to the door of your heart. All that happens to you is controlled and determined by time. Time opens up and opens out the mystery of the soul.

~ from ANAM CARA by John O'Donohue
John O'Donohue Anam Cara time Buy on Amazon

How you slice up your time also reflects how you identify yourself.

~ from IN HER TIME by Iris Sangiuliano
Iris Sangiuliano In Her Time time

Memory is the repository of the past, which is where most of our living takes place. We have divided life into past, present, and future, and this division, like all of our divisions, removes us from the fullness of living, from the mysterious unknown and unknowable movement of life that is the source of all beauty. The past exists only in memory, and the future is merely a projection of past memories. Now, this moment, is all there is.

~ from THE SECRET OF THE YAMAS by John McAfee
John McAfee The Secret Of The Yamas time

There was a young lady named Bright
Whose speed was much faster than light.
She went out one day
in a relative way,
And returned the previous night.

~ Anonymous
Anonymous time

The more sand that has escaped from the
hourglass of life, the clearer we should
see through it.

~ Jean Paul
Jean Paul time

We were breaking an unspoken social rule. We were talking about God and religion at a time when the stakes were high, when turmoil and confusion were the order of the day. We were harried, busy mothers, but at our meetings we found ourselves released from Time, suspended from the reality of the outside world. ... Our relationship was turning into something sacred, something we began to call our Faith Club.

~ from THE FAITH CLUB: a Muslim, A Christian, A Jew by R. Idliby, S. Oliver, and P. Warner
S. Oliver, R. Idliby, P. Warner The Faith Club time

In the realm of timelessness we discover God. If we have ever become aware of the moment when we understood something, we must have realized the extratemporal nature of the event. Extemporaneous means outside of time. Indeed, the gift of making extemporaneous comments hinges on our receptivity to inspired wisdom, reaching our consciousness from the realm of the timeless.

~ from BEYOND THE DREAM by Thomas Hora
Thomas Hora Beyond The Dream Buy on Amazon

When time is a friend, you relish how it works. You know that your purpose is within you and that eventually time will unfold a dream, an integrating vision for your life purpose. ... My future is behind me. I can't see it, while I can see my past which runs out in front of me.


~ Sharon Franquemont
Sharon Franquemont time

Light tomorrow with today!

~ Anonymous
Anonymous time

He was still and gazed deeply into the infinite pool that bears stars into being. Above him was a tiny smudge of light that was the closest galaxy. It was spinning, spinning, but so far away that one could look for a whole lifetime and not see it alter. The galaxies out there whirled into each other like discs, blinding into space without colliding--passing through each other at thousands of miles per second, yet they did not appear to move.

Suddenly he understood: Time is an illusion of the mind. Only love remains.

~ from ECLIPSE OF THE SUN by Michael O'Brien
Michael O'Brien Eclipse Of The Sun time Buy on Amazon

June 2008 (Vol. XXI, No. 6)

"Is there enough Silence for the Word to be heard?"

The universe is singing, blanketed in a cocoon of sublime music. Listen in the silence and let music enter the secret places of your soul, and be soothed. Allow harmonic resonances of music to lift your spirit to higher vibrations. For, joy dwells here. Nature in all Her glory eternally sings creation's Love-Song orchestrated by the Great Musician. All is music! In the Silence, tune in.

There is a pressing need for something to be made known, for the secrets of the heart to be made public, for the music of the soul to be played. For centuries lovers of God have held the secrets of Divine Love within their own hearts, shared only with a few. But this knowledge needs to be made public, the song of Love's oneness to be heard. If the music of Divine Love is not played in the marketplaces, life will lose its meaning, and the collective despair of the soul will be too terrible to imagine.

~ from THE SIGNS OF GOD by Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee The Signs Of God song, music Buy on Amazon

The music flows within me like pure spirit.
What a wonderful conversation
within the flow of universal energy!

Eloquence needs no words --
I know this from intimacy with the divine.

O Great One, I give thanks for this
and for all music --
A power line fed into my heart from
the universal grid.

~ a prayer from Vienna
A Prayer From Vienna song, music

A divine voice sings
through all creation.

~ a Jewish prayer
A Jewish Pryaer song, music

I heard the first measures of music and was thinking how lovely it was to be in this small church in a distant land. Then a solo voice took over the room, filling everything with its power, and my next breath came with difficulty. I have never, anywhere, heard a human voice so Pure, a sound so penetrating: outside of me, then suddenly inside of me, tearing down resistances I didn't even know I had ... its love so piercing that everyone began to weep involuntarily. When I opened my eyes nothing prepared me for what I saw. The young voice was coming from eighty-three-year-old Jonas, who was singing the "Sanctus," by Beethoven, with a beauty that could not be explained. It was like the Soul of all life summoning each spirit who listened.

~ from A NEW SET OF EYES by Paula D'Arcy
Paula D'Arcy A New Set Of Eyes song, music Buy on Amazon

Music was bestowed on humankind for the sake of effecting harmonious revolutions of the soul within us whenever its rhythmic motions are disturbed. Thus when the soul has lost its harmony, melody, and rhythm, music assists in restoring it to order and concord.

~ Bruno Meinecke in MUSIC AND MEDICINE ed. by Schullian & Schoen
Schullian & Schoen, Bruno Meinecke Music And Medicine song, music

I once heard the pianist, Arthur Rubinstein, being interviewed. At one point he was asked to share his experience of playing Chopin's Nocturnes. He said in effect, "I do not know what it is. But over and over again I have had the experience of sitting in a crowded concert hall playing the Nocturnes and I can feel everyone in the room waiting for the next note." In this moment of waiting, all present find their contemplative community in their oneness with one another in the boundless mystery that enraptures them.

~ from THE CONTEMPLATIVE HEART by James Finley
James Finley The Contemplative Heart song, music Buy on Amazon

You wouldn't think
It would be so easy
To forget
Who we really are
Or that death is always at our shoulder
Or that everything is alive
Or that God is everywhere singing.

~ Claudio Mauro
Claudio Mauro song, music

There is a certain relevance to life
that is hard to hear in the business of the day.
The past and future come pounding on my brain.
It is in the time I spend alone with God
that I tune my soul to the music of the dance.
I can begin to hear the song
in the most wondrous places,
in the most unexpected circumstances.
I am called to the rhythm
and even if no one else has ears,
I enter in the song.

~ Karen Pulman, thanks to C. Humphreys
Karen Pulman song, music

Within this body
The Eternal keeps singing
And Its spring goes on and on flowing.

~ Kabir
Kabir song, music

Consider learning how to sing or play a musical instrument, not for professional reasons but as a way to interact with the angels and to enjoy sound. Recently, I started playing my flute again. When I sit outside and play my flute it is exhilarating . I treasure these moments where I can return to the heaven-sent birds even the most meager reflection of the beautiful music they offer me throughout the year.


~ from A MESSAGE FOR HUMANITY by K. Martin-Kuri
K. Martin-Kuri A Message For Humanity song, music Buy on Amazon

We who love music of any type share one thing in common. Music touches us intellectually and emotionally. We love the notes, the rhythm, the percussion--the sound. It stirs us where we live. It speaks to us. ... Maybe our styles of faith differ from one another, but there is one binding love, this one celestial music that supersedes our differences and joins us at our hearts, into God. Loving music of any type makes us similar. Our problem is that we tend to note the differences, not the similarities.

~ from TWO MINUTES FOR GOD by Peter B. Panagore
Peter B. Panagore Two Minutes For God song, music

Next I saw the most lucid air, in which I heard in a marvelous way many kinds of musicians praising the joys of the heavenly citizens. ... And their sound was like the voice of a multitude, making music in harmony.

~ Hildegard of Bingen
Hildegard of Bingen song, music

It is my heart
that makes songs,
not I.

~ Sara Teasdale
Sara Teasdale song, music

I find it impossible to doubt music while actually playing it. Even as the rest of my life seems overpopulated with questions and uncertainties about why one thing should be done instead of another, in the midst of the playing, dancing around silence and space with the presence of notes, the music always seems to matter. I still want to reach for those notes that must be played, that are right because they are essential melodies, unavoidable tones, songs that cannot be defied. This music is silent even when it sings because it does not speak--it cannot be reduced by explanation.

~ from THE NECESSARY NOTE by David Rothenberg
David Rothenberg The Necessary Note song, music

May 2008 (Vol. XXI, No. 5)

"Is there enough Silence for the Word to be heard?"

Blessings, dear friends of silence, wherever you may live! Many are the facets of friendship. To befriend ourselves--body, mind, emotion, spirit--and to make friends with our Inner Being, from the dark areas of fear and illusion to the golden glow of our gifts and goodness, can be like cultivating a sacred space, a garden that reflects our lives.

Then, one's friends are like the flowers in our garden, each a treasure with its own unique blossoming. While to befriend strangers--the poor and disenfranchised, peoples of all nations, even those we view as enemies--the unjust and greedy who create war and inequity while ignoring the devastation left behind--can be a lifelong challenge, we must seek the source of discord in prayer and friendship with the Source of all life. And to befriend our Earth in all we do may be our greatest and most important challenge. For without a viable planet, we are left homeless.

Throughout our lives, as we befriend the Silence, we travel deeper into the light of our Inner Sacred Chapel and higher into the Light of Love. Whatever the form, friendship is a mutual gift that eternally warms and blesses our hearts and souls.

It is a sweet thing, friendship, a dear balm,
a happy and auspicious bird of calm.

~ Shelly
Shelly friendship

Ideally, friendships lead us into deeper communion with each other; those we love mirror the divine reality and so draw us closer to the One they reflect. In our humanness, however, we can forget that the friend is only a reflection of God and instead invest ultimate meaning in the relationship.

~ from CENTER TO CIRCUMFERENCE by Elizabeth-Anne Vanek
Elizabeth-Anne Vanek Center To Circumference friendship Buy on Amazon

A friend is one to whom one may pour out all the contents of one's heart, chaff and grain together, knowing that the gentlest of hands will take and sift it, keep what is worth keeping and with a breath of kindness blow the rest away.

~ Arabian Proverb
Arabian Proverb friendship

God acts upon us inescapably through the people
who befriend, touch and influence our lives.

~ Christopher Bryant
Christopher Bryant friendship

Silence is the property, the contemplative quality, the fruit of faith. Interior, mystical silence is a silence which stems from the intensity of loving faith ... the interior result of a heart that loves intensely. The presence in our hearts of a secret to be kept brings about a density which is interior silence. Communication of secrets is the sign which manifests and proves the friendship and total trust of a friend.

~ Marie-Dominique Phillippe
Marie-Dominique Phillippe friendship

Thou hast made me known to friends
whom I knew not;

Thou hast given me seats in homes
not my own.

Thou hast brought the distant near and
made brothers and sisters of strangers.

~ Tagore
Tagore friendship

Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibility not born until they arrive, and it is
only by this meeting a new world is born

~ Annais Nin
Annais Nin friendship

A friend is someone who abides. Waits.

~ Shaun McNiff
Shaun McNiff friendship

I breathed a song into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For who has sight so keen and strong,
That it can follow the flight of song--
The song from beginning to end,
I found again in the heart of a friend.

~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow friendship

My friends have made the story of my life.
In a thousand ways they have turned all my
limitations into beautiful privileges and enabled
me to walk serene and happy in the shadow
cast by my deprivation.

~ Helen Keller
Helen Keller friendship

Friends have been defined as people who know you at your worst and like you anyway, people in whose company you can be yourself. But perhaps more than anything else, friends are people who care about you for who you are, not what you can do for them. There is a kind of holiness in true friendship, because it makes sure that we are never alone when we desperately need to not be alone.

~ from LIVING A LIFE THAT MATTERS by Harold S. Kushner
Harold S. Kushner Living A Life That Matters friendship

"You don't need a big sister," Lulu said, "you need a friend. I'd much rather be that."

"Okay," Emily muttered shyly. "Only I don't know why. I'm just a kid."

"You know things most adults don't even think of. You care about the same things I do. That's a lot of what a friend really is. And you're strong. I've needed that. And you share your world, and you don't judge it. Those are very grown-up things; and Emily, I can't name one of my so-called friends who have them all."

~ from SWEETWATER CREEK by Anne Rivers Siddons
Anne Rivers Siddons Sweetwater Creek friendship

If you maintain a feeling of compassion, loving kindness, then something automatically opens your inner door. Through that, you can communicate more easily with other people. And that feeling of warmth creates a kind of openness. You'll find that all human beings are just like you, so you'll be able to relate to them more easily. That gives you a spirit of friendship.

~ from THE ART OF HAPPINESS by the Dalai Lama
Dalai Lama The Art Of Happiness friendship

Friends are relatives you make for yourself.

~ Eustache Deschamps
Eustache Deschamps friendship

A friend is a gift you give yourself.

~ Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson friendship

I asked the old couple what secrets they could tell me about living long and well. At first they looked at each other and laughed, then he declared,

"Things are as they are. I know my wife and she knows me. We don't hide from each other. We don't ask each other lots of questions, we aren't anxious, running around all the time. Everything is open between us. We say our prayers and do our work. Most of the day I am outside, and she is inside, and when we unite, we enjoy our company, thanks be to God."

~ from MYSTIC STREET by S. T. Georgiou
S. T. Georgiou Mystic Street friendship

April 2008 (Vol. XXI, No. 4)

"Is there enough Silence for the Word to be heard?"

Every blessing, dear friends, in this season of new growth.

To spend time in Nature's tapestry of Life is like opening an amazing gift: an instruction book of Love and Life given to us by the Creator, Source of All Being. Here we can see how we participate in the seasons of our lives, the interplay and interconnectedness of all things that sustain our lives, the beauty and wisdom of unity in diversity, and the intricate patterns of every variety of flora and fauna. Celebrating, honoring, and learning from this Divine Gift is in a very real sense to reverence our own lives and the life of the planet, which depend on Nature's abundant bounty. May we share and care for Nature's gifts with equity and gratitude. May we gift ourselves with times in the Silence while basking in some of Nature's sacred settings, even if it be in our own backyard. Here, peace, harmony, and renewal will be sure to nest in your heart.

The Mikmaq on the Atlantic coast have no sound for Nature. They have "space" or "place of creation" ... they have cultural literacy with the ecosystem ... every aspect of nature to Mikmaqs is Spirit. They live in harmony with this intelligible essence. The Mikmaq can perceive the web.

~ Marie Battiste
Marie Battiste nature

I bind unto myself today
The virtues of the starlit heavens,
The glorius sun's lifegiving ray,
The whiteness of the moon at even,
The flashing of the lightning free,
The whirling wind's tempestuous shocks,
The stable earth, the deep salt sea
Around the old eternal rocks.

~ from the hymn "Saint Patrick's Breastplate"
Saint Patrick's Breastplate nature

Nature soothes, heals, and teaches with her silence.

~ Kenneth S. Leong
Kenneth S. Leong nature

Arriving daffodils will make no sound,
will blow no trumpets -- only the earthworm
close to its root, burrowing underground,
will hear the upsurge, feel the green stems yearn.

Beauty returns to Earth, devoid of noise,
devoid of clamor. Now it lifts its head
epitome of stillness and of poise
and in unbroken silence all is said.

~ Fanny De Groot Hastings, thanks to Sally Hopkins
Fanny De Groot Hastings nature

As mind slowly empties itself,
nature undresses herself.

~ Christopher M. Bache
Christopher M. Bache nature

Robert could not find the answer; his mind was driving him in circles. There was only one way to make it stop. Robert walked across the fields at dusk into the Forest of Welferding. His better self always seemed to come out in nature, perhaps because he had come from and would eventually die and go into nature. He felt the cool moisture on his skin, smelled the musky moss tucked between the stones along the brook, walking until he almost forgot why he'd come. The sky was filled with stars with no air raid sirens, no distant roaring of planes. In the forest Robert had caught a glimpse of what the world could be like without war, and it was good.

~ from PROPHET by Douglas Gillies
Douglas Gillies Prophet nature

When we enter the Stillness and listen, we feel the aliveness that is all around us. We give ourselves the opportunity to be a part of the vibrant, living, natural world. The Stillness brings a deep serenity into our hearts and a vital life force into our bodies. When we practice Entering the Silence in nature, there is no frantic separation between the creatures of the forest and the gentleness of our hearts.

~ from GRANDFATHER by Tom Brown
Tom Brown nature

Nothing has the potential to move us off dead center quite as powerfully as unexpected encounters in nature. From the meadows to the mountaintops, from the devoted pet to the flight of the bumblebee--the ways that nature nurtures us bring tears to our eyes and resolve to our hearts. And we are often brought into the place of allowing the spirit to finally get through to us. The possibilities are endless--the motion of the tides, the cleansing of a rainstorm, the dormancy of winter--all remind us that a force greater than ourselves turns the clock of this universe. Nature immerses us in that power.

~ from HOW CAN I LET GO IF I DON'T KNOW I'M HOLDING ON by Linda Douty
Linda Douty How Can I Let Go If I Don't Know I'm Holding On nature

Nature is the great teacher, the book of life to be read and understood. That's why it is important not just to protect the natural world, but to guide it to the highest level of perfection. Our task as spiritual people is to foster an intimate bond between the world of nature--rivers, mountains, oceans, animals, forests--and our own felt nature. When one is thriving, the other will find needed support.

~ from THE LOST SUTRAS OF JESUS ed. by Riegert and Moore
Riegert and Moore The Lost Sutras Of Jesus nature

If we will think of ourselves as coming out of the earth, rather than having been thrown in here from somewhere else, we see that we are the earth, we are the consciousness of the earth. These are the eyes of the earth. And this is the voice of the earth.

~ Joseph Campbell
Joseph Campbell nature

The earth is at the same time mother,
she is mother of all that is natural,
mother of all that is human.
She is the mother of all,
for contained in her are the seeds of all.
The earth of humankind contains all moisture,
all verdancy, all germinating power.
It is in so many ways fruitful.
All creation comes from it.
Yet it forms not only the basic raw materials
for humankind, but also
the substance of Incarnation.

~ Hildegard of Bingen
Hildegard of Bingen nature

Each creature that Love made must live its own true nature.

~ Mechtild of Magdeburg
Mechtild of Magdeburg nature

Made of the stuff of probability waves, starlight, planetary cycling, mighty mountains, continents, and oceans of our silver blue sphere, genetic journeys, language, learning, and loving, we each were birthed by this glorious universe that continues to show us its awesome majesty with each year cycling, each day dawning, each breath repeated, and each moment unfolding. We can only be joyous with the realization that so much of this awesome majesty is reflected in human consciousness. It is precisely this fact that enables us to call ourselves Sparks of God.

~ from "Meditations on Our Deep Roots" by Morty Breier in "Tikkun" Sept/Oct 1998
Morty Breier Meditations On Our Deep Roots nature

I was looking at the sky, just watching. I don't know how to say it, but I felt everything was perfect and connected--it's like there was no room even to think. It felt like my chest could explode and be the sun and the clouds.

~ Debbie, age 11
Debbie (age 11) nature

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