“Why do you run around looking for the truth? Be still, and there it is—in the mountain, in the pine, in yourself.” ~ Lao Tzu, Conscious Arrival
When does it happen? When will it happen?
“It can only be after we stop hating ourselves that we have the opportunity to stop hating (and love) others.” ~ cjzurcher
‘Learn to mourn your actions without blame, without guilt’
“Learn to look behind your judgments to the need at the root of them. Learn from your limitations without losing self-respect. Learn to mourn your actions without blame, without guilt.” ~ Marshall B. Rosenberg
La clairvoyance “clear vision” is Camus’ word for lucidity
“On the whole, men are more good than bad; that, however, isn’t the real point. But they are more or less ignorant, and it is this that we call vice or virtue; the most incorrigible vice being that of an ignorance that fancies it knows everything and therefore claims for itself the right to kill. The soul of the murderer is blind; and there can be no true goodness nor true love without the utmost clear-sightedness.” (sans toute la clairvoyance possible) ~ Albert Camus from one of the more memorable passages of The Plague, in which he addresses the volunteer sanitary groups put together by citizens to clean the town’s overloaded hospitals.
John Lewis: Together, You Can Redeem the Soul of Our Nation | NYT
John Lewis wrote this article in the New York Times as he was dying.
Though I am gone, I urge you to answer the highest calling of your heart and stand up for what you truly believe.
Read the rest here: Opinion | John Lewis: Together, You Can Redeem the Soul of Our Nation – The New York Times
The masks we wear, inside and out
I started writing something about the masks we wear and this quotation from James Baldwin popped up in my email today:
“Love takes off the masks we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.” ~ James Baldwin
And what if we spoke of peace but did not act to bring it about?
“The use of atomic energy for purposes of war is immoral. We will be judged on this. Future generations will rise to condemn our failure if we spoke of peace but did not act to bring it about among the peoples of the earth.”
— Pope Francis, speaking in Hiroshima on November 24, 2019.
‘It seems to me we’re all just beginners at love’ (with apologies to Raymond Carver)
One of the more beautiful passages of writing I’ve read recently:
Outside in the backyard, one of the dogs began to bark. The leaves of the aspen that leaned past the window ticked against the glass. The afternoon sun was like a presence in this room, the spacious light of ease and generosity. We could have been anywhere, somewhere enchanted. We raised our glasses again and grinned at each other like children who had agreed on something forbidden.
~ From Raymond Carver’s
“What We Talk About When We Talk About Love”
A favorite:
“I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.” ~ E.B. White
… there is only one human heart.
“I have never met any human being in all my travels—and I have traveled extensively, including time spent with Native American peoples, with Australian Aborigines, and with the Maoris of New Zealand—that gave me the slightest doubt that in our heart of hearts we are all one. Not just similar—one; there is only one human heart.” ~ David Steindl-Rast, Timeless Visions, Healing Voices (again with thanks to Pace e Bene’s daily quotation email)
The emerging and blossoming of understanding, love, and intelligence….
“The emerging and blossoming of understanding, love, and intelligence has nothing to do with any tradition—no matter how ancient or impressive—it has nothing to do with time. It happens completely on its own when a human being questions, wonders, listens and looks without getting stuck in fear. When self-concern is quiet, in abeyance, heaven and earth are open.” ~ Toni Packer
On Listening Completely
“When people talk, listen completely. Don’t be thinking what you’re going to say. Most people never listen. Nor do they observe. You should be able to go into a room and when you come out, know everything that you saw there and not only that. If that room gave you any feeling you should know exactly what it was that gave you that feeling. Try that for practice.” ~ Ernest Hemingway
Do you have a deficit of wonder in your life?
“We live in an age when you say casually to somebody ‘What’s the story on that?’ and they can run to the computer and tell you within five seconds. That’s fine, but sometimes I’d just as soon continue wondering. We have a deficit of wonder right now.” ~ Tom Waits
And new from the master storyteller:
What is the meaning of your life?
“What am I living for and what am I dying for are the same question.”
—Margaret Atwood
