Walking you make the road

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.

Sowing Seeds

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.

And All I've Got Is a Love Poem

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.

July-August 2018 (Vol. XXXI, No. 7)

Dear Friends ~ In our quiet little forested niche amid a uniformly gray sky, it has been raining for enough days to wonder how Noah might have felt waiting for dry land. So much of what happens in the world bespeaks sorrow and loss- parents and children wrenched apart, floods and volcano eruptions, fathers and sons taking their own lives in despair. Yet into this mire, Archbishop Tutu and the Dalai Lama have dared to offer THE BOOK OF JOY. This is no "self-help 10 steps to happiness" manual. Between South African apartheid and Tibetan exile, these two have honed their wisdom in a crucible of painful reality. It is wisdom well worth pondering, rooted in deep compassion and liberally sprinkled with humility and friendship. If we are made for joy, how do we live it?

Read Email Newsletter

We can cope with whatever life has to throw at us

Joy establishes us so securely in itself, and in the remembrance of its presence, that we can cope with whatever life has to throw at us.
~ from MEDITATIONS ON JOY by Wendy Beckett
Wendy Beckett Meditations On Joy joy Buy on Amazon

Joy is a piercing desire

Joy is a piercing desire, a mystical longing both painful and sweet: a kind of homesick-ness for a home we scarcely remember.
~ Deborah Smith Douglas, in Weavings, XV:4
Deborah Smith Douglas Weavings joy Buy on Amazon

A joyful awareness

The true source of joy is love—love of God, love of beauty, love of wisdom, love of another human being, it does not matter which. It is all one love: a joyful awareness of dissolving boundaries of our ordinary narrow self, of being one with reality beyond, of being made whole.
~ from The Door to Joy by Irma Lalecki in "Heron Dance"
Irma Lalecki Heron Dance joy Buy on Amazon

The most visible joy

The most visible joy
can only reveal itself to us
when we've transformed it, within.
~ Rilke
Rainer Maria Rilke joy Buy on Amazon

The effort must be light-hearted

The holy life is concerned with the journey, not the goal..In truth it is the spiritual journey that brings great joy because it is a path of the heart . Discipline is needed; we need to put forth effort. The effort must be light-hearted. We can't be attached to our mistakes or any particular way of doing or being...We bring a sense of equanimity to all life's challenges; we learn to laugh at ourselves, to not take ourselves so seriously, and to get back up when we stumble. This brings us joy. Joy makes life whole and holy.
~ from OPEN MIND by Diane Mariechild
Diane Mariechild Open Mind joy Buy on Amazon

Joy is my name

"I have no name:
I am but two days old."
What shall I call thee?
"I happy am,
Joy is my name."
Sweet joy befall thee!
~ Wm Blake
William Blake joy Buy on Amazon

The deep power of joy

With an eye made quiet by the power of harmony and by the deep power of joy, we see into the life of things.
~ William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth joy Buy on Amazon

This is the true joy of life

This is the true joy of life: being used up for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one...I am of the opinion that my life belongs to others, and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for them whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live...Life is no brief candle for me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for a moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.
~ George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw joy Buy on Amazon

To perceive God's joy

Why is it always easier to anticipate God's wrath than to perceive God's joy? Ever expecting to be shot, we're invariably dumbfounded by a grace we can't conceive...God plays rough before breaking into laughter.
~ Belden Lane
Belden Lane joy Buy on Amazon

Authentic joy

Authentic joy is not a euphoric state or a feeling of being high. Rather, it is a state of appreciation that allows us to participate fully in our lives.
~ Pema Chodron
Pema Chodron joy Buy on Amazon

We are meant to live in joy

"We are meant to live in joy," the Archbishop explained. "This does not mean that life will be easy or painless. It means that we can turn our faces to the wind and accept that this is the storm we must pass through. We cannot succeed by denying what exists. The acceptance of reality is the only place from which change can begin."
~ from THE BOOK OF JOY, His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu with Douglas Abrams
His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu with Douglas Abrams The Book Of Joy joy Buy on Amazon

Transformed into the heart of joy

Solitude is the human condition, the universal vocation to be human. It is the willingness, with Love indwelling, to go to the heart of pain to find new life and share it with the world even though you may be separated from it physically. From this commitment to be focused through the narrow gate of solitude, self-emptying love is outpoured, and the heart of the community, the heart of pain, is transformed into the heart of joy.
~ Maggie Rose
Maggie Rose joy

The source of joy

In life's trials, little by little we realize that the source of joy does not lie in extraordinary abilities or great expertise, but rather in the humble giving of ourselves in order to understand others with kind-heartedness. Joy is always there lying in waiting for us when simplicity is united to kind-heartedness in our daily lives.
~ Brother Roger of Taizé
Brother Roger joy Buy on Amazon

Gives with joy

She gives most who gives with joy.

~ Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa joy Buy on Amazon

Joy that is like a fire

The truly wise have a inner joy that is like a fire; it warms the world.

~ the Dalai Lama
The Dalai Lama joy Buy on Amazon

The light to give you joy every day

I charge the sun, the blue of the sky, the light to give you joy every day.
~Simone Weil
Simone Weil joy Buy on Amazon

You shall go out with joy

You shall go out with joy
and be led forth with peace.
~ Isaiah 55:12
joy

A sudden and miraculous grace

Joy is a sudden and miraculous grace beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief.
~ J.R.R. Tolkien
J.R.R. Tolkien joy Buy on Amazon

In the World

I support you;
You support me.
I am in the world to offer you peace;
You are in the world to bring me joy.

~ from "CALL ME BY MY TRUE NAMES" by Thich Nhat Hanh
Thich Nhat Hanh Call Me By My True Names joy Buy on Amazon

Joy is a piercing desire

Joy is a piercing desire, a mystical longing both painful and sweet: a kind of homesick-ness for a home we scarcely remember.

A joyful awareness

The true source of joy is love—love of God, love of beauty, love of wisdom, love of another human being, it does not matter which. It is all one love: a joyful awareness of dissolving boundaries of our ordinary narrow self, of being one with reality beyond, of being made whole.

The most visible joy

The most visible joy
can only reveal itself to us
when we've transformed it, within.

The effort must be light-hearted

The holy life is concerned with the journey, not the goal..In truth it is the spiritual journey that brings great joy because it is a path of the heart . Discipline is needed; we need to put forth effort. The effort must be light-hearted. We can't be attached to our mistakes or any particular way of doing or being...We bring a sense of equanimity to all life's challenges; we learn to laugh at ourselves, to not take ourselves so seriously, and to get back up when we stumble. This brings us joy. Joy makes life whole and holy.

Joy is my name

"I have no name:
I am but two days old."
What shall I call thee?
"I happy am,
Joy is my name."
Sweet joy befall thee!

Pages