percolating thoughts

"A life without cause is a life without effect."

                       - Paulo Coelho

"If you want to know where your heart is, look where your mind wanders."

                      - ??

the most important days

Source: Unknown

true theology

"In a very real sense, all theology is autobiography, is it not? Our experience, real and vicarious, is what informs our sense of reality, our internal picture of the way the world works, what our values are. We believe what we know is true -- that is, our felt knowledge--not what we are told is true. In the final analysis, how can a person who wishes to live with integrity do other than this?"

-Marilyn Sewell, Unitarian Minister

thoughts of the day

"Do not regret growing older.  It's a privilege denied to many."

                            -Unknown

"I don't care what you think about me.  I don't think about you at all."

                            -Coco Chanel

life report

[David Brooks is publishing a series on his blog of autobiographical essays written by people over 70.  Below are a couple excerpts from Marguerite Wolff Hessini's essay.]

"Sometimes I feel I have not lived one life, but many different ones within a 79 year lifespan so far.   Having known several different historic moments in different geographic locations, within different social and political contexts, I have a sense of fragmentation, yet there is an ongoing, uninterrupted thread that characterizes my life and links it to the wider human experience."

"Now, what have I learned through all this?
Despite appearances, real choices are few in life for most,
and circumstances beyond our control may determine our options, if any.
Still, there is our inherent aptitude for adaptation, for creating new possibilities within what seem, at times, impossible situations,
and that is an incredible force we can claim for ourselves and use constructively and creatively."

percolating thoughts (#12)

['Percolating thoughts' is an on-going collection of quotes I have found and gained wisdom from.  These are the ones that I've recently discovered and that I'm currently sitting with and reflecting on...]

"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... You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but 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 ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do."
-Steve Jobs

"Peace is not something you must hope for in the future. Rather, it is a deepening of the present, and unless you look for it in the present you will never find it."
-Thomas Merton 

"All real living is meeting."
-Martin Buber, from I and Thou 

percolating thoughts (#11)

['Percolating thoughts' is an on-going collection of quotes I have found and gained wisdom from.  These are the ones that I've recently discovered and that I'm currently sitting with and reflecting on...]

“There is nothing noble in being superior to some other others. True nobility comes from being superior to your previous self.”
- Hindu saying 

"Peace is not something you must hope for in the future. Rather, it is a deepening of the present, and unless you look for it in the present you will never find it."
-Thomas Merton

"All real living is meeting."
-Martin Buber, from I and Thou 

"Enjoy the love of others, but revel in the love of yourself.  Don't wait for someone else to save you."
-Aisha Tyler

percolating thoughts (#10)

['Percolating thoughts' is an on-going collection of quotes I have found and gained wisdom from.  These are the ones that I've recently discovered and that I'm currently sitting with and reflecting on...]

"Life is not primarily a quest for pleasure, as Freud believed, or a quest for power, as Alfred Adler taught, but a quest for meaning."
-paraphrased idea of Viktor Frankl

"When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves."
-Viktor Frankl

"No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn."
-Hal Borland

"If you hate injustice, tyranny, lust and greed, hate these things in yourself."
-Mahatma Ghandi

“The price of inaction is far greater than the cost of making a mistake.”
-Meister Eckhart

to love a person, place

This is from Kathleen Dean Moore's book The Pine Island Paradox.

In one chapter she reflects on these questions, What does it mean to love a person?  What does it mean to love a place?  And she answers the questions thus: "it means at least this: 1. to want to be near it, physically.  2. to want to know everything about it - its story, its mood, what it looks like by moonlight.  3. to rejoice in the fact of it.  4. to fear its loss, and grieve for its injuries.  5. to protect it - fiercely, mindlessly, futilely, and maybe even tragically, but to be helpless to do otherwise.  6. to be transformed in its presence - lifted, lighter on your feet, transparent, open to everything beautiful and new.  7. to want to be joined with it, taken in by it, lost in it.  8. to want the best for it.  9. desperately, and 10. to take responsibility for its well-being."

passion: let me not beg for the stilling of my pain

“Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers,
but to be fearless in facing them.

Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain,
but for the heart to conquer it.

Let me not look for allies in life’s battlefield,
but to my own strength.

Let me not crave in anxious fear to be saved,
but hope for the patience to win my freedom.

Grant that I may not be a coward,
feeling Your mercy in my success alone;

But let me find the grasp of Your hand in my failure.”

by Rabindranath Tagore

percolating thoughts (#9)

['Percolating thoughts' is an on-going collection of quotes I have found and gained wisdom from.  These are the ones that I've recently discovered and that I'm currently sitting with and reflecting on...]

"A person often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it."
-Jean de La Fontaine

“Prayer might not change things, but it will change my perspective of things. Prayer might not change the past, but inevitably, it changes the present.”
-Margaret Feinberg

"Suffering in and of itself is meaningless; we give our suffering meaning by the way in which we respond to it."
-Harold S. Kushner


"Forces beyond your control can take away everything you possess except one thing, your freedom to choose how you will respond to the situation. You cannot control what happens to you in life, but you can always control what you will feel and do about what happens to you."
-Harold S. Kushner summarizing Viktor Frankl's insight

percolating thoughts (#8)

['Percolating thoughts' is an on-going collection of quotes I have found and gained wisdom from.  These are the ones that I've recently discovered and that I'm currently sitting with and reflecting on...]

"What you draw to you is what you are."
-Iyanla Vanzant

"At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want."
-Lao Tzu

"True battles are fought in the heart."
-Ghandi

"If you want to go fast, go alone.  If you want to go far, go together."
-African Proverb

a piece of wisdom

I forgot who said this to me, but this is a piece of wisdom I have always carried with me:

"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

are you listening?

"Only make moves when ya heart's in it."
-Notorious BIG

I heard this today, and it's a sentiment that's been on my mind lately.  When we want something or see something is available, we often just grab it without pause.  We think it should be ours, that we deserve it.  However, sometimes those things aren't meant to be ours, they're not developed and ready for us, or there's something better down the road we just can't see yet.

Our hearts speak all the time; it's our compass.  The problem is that most people aren't truly listening.

in thoughts in solitude

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going,
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.

Nor do I really know myself,
and the fact that I think I am following your will
does not mean that I am actually doing so.

But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.

I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road,
though I may know nothing about it.

I will not fear, for you are ever with me,
and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

by Thomas Merton

percolating thoughts (#7)

['Percolating thoughts' is an on-going collection of quotes I have found and gained wisdom from.  These are the ones that I've recently discovered and that I'm currently sitting with and reflecting on...]

“Compassion for the other comes out of our ability to accept ourselves. Until we realize both our own weaknesses and our own privileges, we can never tolerate lack of status and depth of weakness in the other.”
-Joan Chittister

"Accustom yourself continually to make many acts of love, for they enkindle and melt the soul."
-Mother Teresa

"Your attitude about who you are and what you have is a very little thing that makes a very big difference."
-Theodore Roosevelt

“The great aim of every human being is to understand the meaning of total love. Love is not to be found in someone else, but in ourselves; we simply awaken it. But in order to do that, we need the other person. The universe only makes sense when we have someone to share our feelings with.”
-Pauolo Coelho, Eleven Minutes

Hopi thoughts

Hopi Elder Speaks

"You have been telling the people that this is the 11th Hour,
Now you must go back and tell the people that this is the Hour.
And there are things to be considered:
Where are you living?
What are you doing?
What are your relationships?
Are you in right relation?
Where is your water?
Know your garden.
It is time to speak your truth.
Create your community.
Be good to each other.
And do not look outside yourself for the leader."

Then he clasped his hands together, smiled, and said, "This could be a very good time! There is a river now very fast. It is so great and swift that there are those that will be afraid. They will try to hold on to the shore. They will feel they are being torn apart and will suffer greatly."

"Know the river has its destination. The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep our eyes open, and our heads above the water." "And I say, see who is in there with you and celebrate. At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally. Least of all, ourselves. For the moment we do, our spiritual growth and journey comes to a halt."

"The time of the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves."

"Banish the word struggle from your vocabulary. All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration."

"We are the ones we have been waiting for."

Oraibe, Arizona
Hopi Nation

masks

Everyone wears them-- all different shapes and sizes.  Allowing only a select few, and sometimes no one at all, to see behind them.  We claim to hide from other people, from pain, from the past, from the future...  We try to be what we want others to see.  But we truly only end up hiding from ourselves.

"Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within."
–James Baldwin

Love is power.
Learn love.

percolating thoughts (#6)

['Percolating thoughts' is an on-going collection of quotes I have found and gained wisdom from.  These are the ones that I've recently discovered and that I'm currently sitting with and reflecting on...]

"It's not where you look that matters, it's what you see."
-Anonymous

"Every difficulty, disharmony and obstacle is either because we refuse to let go of what we no longer need, or refuse to accept what we require.”
-Anonymous

"If you want to shrink something, you must first expand it.  If you want to get rid of something, you must first allow it to flourish."

-Tao

"Knowing other people is intelligence, knowing yourself is power.  Mastering other people is strength, mastering yourself is power.  If you realize that what you have is enough, you are truly rich."
-Tao

"If you want to be whole, you must first be partial.  If you want to be straight, you must first bee crooked.  If you want to be full, you must first become empty.  If you want to be reborn, you must first die.  If you want everything, give up everything.  If you don't display yourself, people will see your light.  If you have nothing to prove, people will trust you.  If you don't try to be something, people will see themselves in you."

-Tao

percolating thoughts (#5)

['Percolating thoughts' is an on-going collection of quotes I have found and gained wisdom from.  These are the ones that I've recently discovered and that I'm currently sitting with and reflecting on...]

"If I am walking with two other men, each of them will serve as my teacher.  I will pick out the good points of the one and imitate them, and the bad points of the other and will correct them in myself."
-Confucius

"Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated."
-Confucius

"What you believe has more power that what you dream or wish or hope for.  You become what you believe."
-Oprah

"Some people mistakenly believe that their loneliness is a product of another person's absence."
-Anonymous

"The purposes of a man's heart are deep waters, but a man of understanding draws them out."
-Proverbs 20:5