tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69210935449696664882023-12-22T05:21:16.538-08:00Temet NosceMichellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14569442682455340958noreply@blogger.comBlogger123125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6921093544969666488.post-2212076966376726572018-05-11T21:09:00.001-07:002018-05-11T21:09:11.781-07:00At The River Clarion by Mary Oliver<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<i>I don’t know who God is exactly.<br />But I’ll tell you this.<br />I was sitting in the river named Clarion, on a water splashed stone<br />and all afternoon I listened to the voices of the river talking….</i></div>
<div class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">
<i><div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px;">
And slowly, very slowly, it became clear to me what they were saying.<br />Said the river I am part of holiness.<br />And I too, said the stone. And I too, whispered the moss beneath the water.</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
I’d been to the river before, a few times.<br />Don’t blame the river that nothing happened quickly.<br />You don’t hear such voices in an hour or a day.<br />You don’t hear them at all if selfhood has stuffed your ears.<br />And it’s difficult to hear anything anyway, through<br />all the traffic, the ambition.</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
~ Mary Oliver, "At the River Clarion"<br /><br />I'm heading home to Detroit now--back over the Bridge in the wind, hoping it holds me up as it's always done in so many ways over 58 years. This poem adroitly captures the essence of the time spent here--the last few days, yes, but the lifetime: ..."I'd been to the river before, a few times. Don't blame the river that nothing happened quickly. You don't hear such voices in an hour, or a day..."<br />Everything takes as long as it takes and what I know is that the present moment, the person in front of you, the love that is, the child's gaze, the wave--that one right there that just landed on the beach is the only one. <br />May 2013/May 2018</div>
</i></div>
Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14569442682455340958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6921093544969666488.post-48271490062975388052017-08-28T07:42:00.000-07:002017-08-28T07:42:07.154-07:00<pre style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;">On the day when
The weight deadens
On your shoulders
And you stumble,
May the clay dance
To balance you.
And when your eyes
Freeze behind
The grey window
And the ghost of loss
Gets into you,
May a flock of colours,
Indigo, red, green
And azure blue,
Come to awaken in you
A meadow of delight.
When the canvas frays
In the currach of thought
And a stain of ocean
Blackens beneath you,
May there come across the waters
A path of yellow moonlight
To bring you safely home.
May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
May the clarity of light be yours,
May the fluency of the ocean be yours,
May the protection of the ancestors be yours.
And so may a slow
Wind work these words
Of love around you,
An invisible cloak
To mind your life.
~ John O' Donohue, from To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings.</pre>
<hr style="border-bottom: 0px; border-image: initial; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-top-style: solid; box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: "Chronicle Text", Georgia, serif; font-size: 16px; height: 1px; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px;" />
<div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: "Chronicle Text", Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px !important; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: 1.28; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14569442682455340958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6921093544969666488.post-52302868509974710502017-08-27T13:27:00.002-07:002017-08-27T13:27:56.527-07:00Richard Rohr, "Letting Go/Emotional and Spiritual Freedom<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<i>"All great spirituality teaches about letting go of what you don’t need and who you are not. Then, when you can get little enough and naked enough and poor enough, you’ll find that the little place where you really are is ironically more than enough and is all that you need. At that place, you will have nothing to prove to anybody and nothing to protect.</i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<i>That place is called emotional and spiritual freedom and those who find the courage and strength to embark on that long journey towards healing become people who can connect with everybody--no one is left behind, left out or eliminated because the ego is no longer in play and so, there is no threat, only the promise of love, community and wholeness."</i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-top: 6px;">
<i>~ Richard Rohr</i></div>
Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14569442682455340958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6921093544969666488.post-38777463095106864762017-08-27T13:26:00.001-07:002017-08-27T13:26:13.225-07:00Lisel Mueller, "What I Am Asked"<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
When I am asked<br />how I began writing poems,<br />I talk about the indifference of nature.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
It was soon after my mother died, <span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; font-family: inherit;"><br />a brilliant June day,<br />everything blooming.</span></div>
<div class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px;">
I sat on a gray stone bench<br />in a lovingly planted garden,<br />but the day lilies were as deaf<br />as the ears of drunken sleepers<br />and the roses curved inward.<br />Nothing was black or broken<br />and not a leaf fell<br />and the sun blared endless commercials<br />for summer holidays.</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
I sat on a gray stone bench<br />ringed with the ingenue faces<br />of pink and white impatiens<br />and placed my grief<br />in the mouth of language,<br />the only thing that would grieve with me.</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
~ Lisel Mueller, "When I am Asked" from Alive Together: New and Selected Poems.</div>
</div>
Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14569442682455340958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6921093544969666488.post-17633272022504398312017-08-24T14:59:00.002-07:002017-08-24T14:59:20.993-07:00Robert Wilbert/ Emma Wilbert<div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
<i>My hero has passed away. I have no words to do him justice, let alone the present constitution to write them, but suffice to say that he was one of the kindest,<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; font-family: inherit;"> warmest, funniest and most honest people I've ever known, as well as being one of the very very few that I just plain liked the most.</span></i></div>
<div class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; display: inline; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">
<i><div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
My heart is so heavy, but he got both a long life and a cookie, and that's all I ever knew him to wish for.</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
So long, Grandpa. Thanks for everything.</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
Robert Wilbert, 1929-2016</div>
</i></div>
Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14569442682455340958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6921093544969666488.post-56074807570607433892017-08-24T14:57:00.002-07:002017-08-24T14:57:20.165-07:00Robert Wilbert/ Stephen Wilbert<i><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">The world lost a great man this week.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">My grandfather, Robert Wilbert passed quietly on Monday. I was the first family member at the hospital after it happened and had the great privilege to spend a few minutes alone with him. Throughout his life, my grandfather left the greatest impression on me for two things. One was his endless kindness and warmth. He was always happy to see and talk to nearly anybody he met. The lobby attendant at the Book Building. The homeless bum on th</span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">e street. A stranger asking questions at an art opening. He approached everyone with a genuine interest in their lives and was always quick with encouragement and affirmation. His other great quality was his wonder and excitement at new knowledge. He was forever remarking on some new tidbit or trivia he had just learned. No matter how mundane. New knowledge and experience always seemed to animate and excite him to no end. These qualities in him stuck with me and I attempt to emulate them.<br />The greatest single period of time I spent with my grandfather was from 2004-2005 when he did a painting of me in his studio on the 22nd floor of the Book Tower. My love for that building is closely intertwined with my relationship with him. He talked to me about my life and about the city and seemed to care about my opinions. He took me wandering through the lower sections of the building and inadvertently kicked off my obsession with abandoned buildings. He introduced me to coffee (the beginning of a long and happy relationship). When I think of my grandfather, the time spent with him in The Book springs first to mind and the memories are wonderful.<br />My grandfather was an amazing man and I miss him deeply. He lived a full and good life, though, and is survived by the most loving family one could ask for. He - and his son, my father as well, inspired many of the qualities and ethics which I attempt to emulate in my own life. I hope only to live half as well.<br />Rest in peace, Grandpa. The greatest love and affection rests with you.</span></i>Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14569442682455340958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6921093544969666488.post-80598130517449067632017-04-06T04:26:00.004-07:002017-04-06T04:26:51.706-07:00Thomas Merton<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">"Yet it is in this loneliness that the deepest activities begin. It is here that you discover act without motion, labor that is profound repose, vision in obscurity, and, beyond all desire, a fulfillment whose limits extend to infinity." </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">~ Thomas Merton</span>Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14569442682455340958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6921093544969666488.post-46087607498428213922017-04-06T04:26:00.002-07:002017-04-06T04:26:29.811-07:00After A Month Of Rain, by Linda Paston<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
Everything I thought I wanted<br />is right here,<br />particularly when the sun<br />is making such a comeback,</div>
<div class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px;">
and the lilac engorged<br />with purple has recovered<br />from its severe pruning,<br />and you will be back soon</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
to dispel whatever it is<br />that overtakes me like leaf blight,<br />even on a day like this. I can still<br />hear remnants of the rain</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
in the swollen stream<br />behind the house, in the faint<br />dripping under the eaves,<br />persistent as memory.</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
And all the things I didn't think<br />I wanted, cut like the lilac back<br />to the root, push up again<br />from underground.</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
~ Linda Paston "<span style="font-family: inherit;">After a Month of Rain" </span></div>
</div>
Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14569442682455340958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6921093544969666488.post-60661537478028851682017-04-06T04:25:00.002-07:002017-04-06T04:25:34.873-07:00Rumi<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
"What matters is how quickly you do<br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" />what your soul wants."</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; margin-top: 6px;">
~ Rumi</div>
Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14569442682455340958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6921093544969666488.post-30349832561015346482017-04-06T04:24:00.005-07:002017-04-06T04:24:57.794-07:00Salutation, by Ezra Pound<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
O generation of the thoroughly smug<br />and thoroughly uncomfortable,<br />I have seen fishermen picnicking in the sun,<br />I have seen them with untidy families,<br />I have seen their smiles full of teeth<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; font-family: inherit;"><br />and heard ungainly laughter.<br />And I am happier than you are,<br />And they were happier than I am;<br />And the fish swim in the lake<br />and do not even own clothing.</span></div>
<div class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px;">
~ Ezra Pound, "Salutation"</div>
</div>
Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14569442682455340958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6921093544969666488.post-91989826494554689262017-04-06T04:24:00.003-07:002017-04-06T04:24:23.579-07:00"The Three Goals" David Budbill<div class="_1dwg _1w_m _2ph_" style="font-family: inherit; padding: 12px 12px 0px;">
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<div class="_5pbx userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" id="js_28a" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.38;">
<div class="text_exposed_root text_exposed" id="id_58e624a2e7bec3342971943" style="display: inline; font-family: inherit;">
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px;">
The first goal is to see the thing in itself<br />in and for itself, to see it simply and clearly<br />for what it is.<br />No symbolism, please.<br />The second goal is to see each individual thing<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; font-family: inherit;"><br />as unified, as one, with all the other<br />ten thousand things.<br />In this regard, a little wine helps a lot.<br />The third goal is to grasp the first and the second goals,<br />to see the universal in the particular,<br />simultaneously.<br />Regarding this one, call me when you get it.</span></div>
<div class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; font-family: inherit;">
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px;">
~ David Budbill, "The Three Goals"</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="_3x-2" style="font-family: inherit;">
<div data-ft="{"tn":"H"}" style="font-family: inherit;">
</div>
</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<form action="https://www.facebook.com/ajax/ufi/modify.php" class="commentable_item collapsed_comments" data-ft="{"tn":"]"}" id="u_n_u" method="post" rel="async" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<div class="_sa_ _gsd _5vsi _192z" style="color: #90949c; font-family: inherit; margin-top: 12px; padding-bottom: 4px; position: relative;">
<div class="_37uu" style="font-family: inherit;">
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<div class="_3399 _1f6t _4_dr" style="clear: both; font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px; margin-top: 8px; padding: 0px 12px 8px;">
<div class="_524d" style="font-family: inherit;">
<div class="_ipn clearfix" data-interaction-root-id="_-5d" style="color: #898f9c; font-family: inherit; zoom: 1;">
<br /><div data-interaction-root-id="_1vaq" style="font-family: inherit;">
<div class="_ipp" style="font-family: inherit;">
<div class="_3t53 _4ar- _ipn" style="font-family: inherit; white-space: nowrap;">
<span aria-label="See who reacted to this" class="_3t54" role="toolbar" style="background-color: white; float: left; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-right: 2px;" tabindex="0"><a ajaxify="/ufi/reaction/profile/dialog/?ft_ent_identifier=10201140960834483&reaction_type=1&av=1483486375" aria-label="5 Like" class="_3emk" href="https://www.facebook.com/ufi/reaction/profile/browser/?ft_ent_identifier=10201140960834483&av=1483486375" rel="dialog" role="button" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-radius: 10px; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 0px -2px; outline: none; padding: 2px; position: relative; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: bottom; z-index: 3;" tabindex="-1"><span class="_9zc _2p7a _4-op" style="display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; height: 16px; position: relative; vertical-align: top; width: 16px;"><i class="_3j7l _2p78 _9--" style="background-image: url("/rsrc.php/v3/yN/r/Ru6Qm8jIE_O.png"); background-position: -17px -52px; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: auto; display: block; height: 16px; left: 8px; margin-left: -8px; margin-top: -8px; position: absolute; top: 8px; transform: none; width: 16px;"></i></span></a></span><a class="_2x4v" href="https://www.facebook.com/ufi/reaction/profile/browser/?ft_ent_identifier=10201140960834483&av=1483486375" rel="ignore" style="background-color: white; cursor: pointer; display: block; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; max-height: 20px; overflow: hidden; text-decoration: none;"></a></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</form>
</div>
Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14569442682455340958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6921093544969666488.post-60370883027374379462017-04-06T04:21:00.003-07:002017-04-06T04:21:36.093-07:00Ram Dass, Born 6 April 1931<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
"We're all just walking each other home."</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; margin-top: 6px;">
~ Ram Dass </div>
Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14569442682455340958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6921093544969666488.post-42167101675840249942017-04-06T04:21:00.000-07:002017-04-06T04:21:02.101-07:00Rings Of Passage, by Joanne Monte<div class="_1dwg _1w_m _2ph_" style="font-family: inherit; padding: 12px 12px 0px;">
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<div class="_5pbx userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" id="js_s" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.38;">
<div class="text_exposed_root text_exposed" id="id_58e62372bafdd7465980281" style="display: inline; font-family: inherit;">
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px;">
There is a wind<br />breaking with eloquence, rain,</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
a thousand origami cranes for longevity;<br />and two women, hibakusha, in a garden</div>
<div class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; font-family: inherit;">
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px;">
of castle rock, stepping stones,<br />a pond of blue feathers, hiding their faces</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
behind the fluttering motifs of bamboo<br />and pine, their skin peeled like a soft plum</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
exposing the red pit of a muscle. There is a sense<br />that here in this city, there is a language</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
we cannot speak. It's the translation we fear most,<br />like a stone that first glowed,</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
thrown into the river, widening the rings<br />of passage, but still visible, still spreading.</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
The faces we did not see where the mouth<br />of the river choked on burnt flesh;</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
where the willow, clutching the dark,<br />stood weeping over the corpses of children.</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
~ Joanne Monte "Rings Of Passage"</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="_3x-2" style="font-family: inherit;">
<div data-ft="{"tn":"H"}" style="font-family: inherit;">
</div>
</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<form action="https://www.facebook.com/ajax/ufi/modify.php" class="commentable_item collapsed_comments" data-ft="{"tn":"]"}" id="u_0_3u" method="post" rel="async" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<div class="_sa_ _gsd _5vsi _192z" style="color: #90949c; font-family: inherit; margin-top: 12px; padding-bottom: 4px; position: relative;">
<div class="_37uu" style="font-family: inherit;">
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<div class="_3399 _1f6t _4_dr" style="clear: both; font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px; margin-top: 8px; padding: 0px 12px 8px;">
<div class="_524d" style="font-family: inherit;">
<div class="_ipn clearfix" data-interaction-root-id="_-5d" style="color: #898f9c; font-family: inherit; zoom: 1;">
<div class="_ipo" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); float: right; font-family: inherit; max-width: 250px; text-align: right;">
<div class="_36_q" style="display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; margin-left: 2px;">
</div>
<div class="_36_q" style="display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; margin-left: 2px;">
</div>
<div class="_36_q" style="display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; margin-left: 2px;">
</div>
<div class="_36_q" style="display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; margin-left: 2px;">
</div>
<div class="_36_q" style="display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; margin-left: 2px;">
</div>
<div class="_36_q" style="display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; margin-left: 2px;">
</div>
</div>
<div data-interaction-root-id="_1vaq" style="font-family: inherit;">
<div class="_ipp" style="font-family: inherit;">
<div class="_3t53 _4ar- _ipn" style="font-family: inherit; white-space: nowrap;">
<span aria-label="See who reacted to this" class="_3t54" role="toolbar" style="background-color: white; float: left; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-right: 2px;" tabindex="0"><a ajaxify="/ufi/reaction/profile/dialog/?ft_ent_identifier=10203929239299702&reaction_type=1&av=1483486375" aria-label="2 Like" class="_3emk" href="https://www.facebook.com/ufi/reaction/profile/browser/?ft_ent_identifier=10203929239299702&av=1483486375" rel="dialog" role="button" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border-radius: 10px; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; font-size: 11px; line-height: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 0px -2px; outline: none; padding: 2px; position: relative; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: bottom; z-index: 3;" tabindex="-1"><span class="_9zc _2p7a _4-op" style="display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; height: 16px; position: relative; vertical-align: top; width: 16px;"><i class="_3j7l _2p78 _9--" style="background-image: url("/rsrc.php/v3/yN/r/Ru6Qm8jIE_O.png"); background-position: -17px -52px; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: auto; display: block; height: 16px; left: 8px; margin-left: -8px; margin-top: -8px; position: absolute; top: 8px; transform: none; width: 16px;"></i></span></a></span><a class="_2x4v" href="https://www.facebook.com/ufi/reaction/profile/browser/?ft_ent_identifier=10203929239299702&av=1483486375" rel="ignore" style="background-color: white; cursor: pointer; display: block; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; max-height: 20px; overflow: hidden; text-decoration: none;"></a></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</form>
</div>
Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14569442682455340958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6921093544969666488.post-85971491533940263732017-04-06T04:20:00.002-07:002017-04-06T04:20:17.005-07:00"This Present Moment" Peter Matthiesen<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<i>“When we are mired in the relative world, never lifting our gaze to the mystery, our life is stunted, incomplete; we are filled with yearning for that paradise that is lost when, as young children, we replace it with words and ideas and abstractions - such as merit, such as past, present, and future - our direct, spontaneous experience of the thing itself, in the beauty and precision of this present moment.”</i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-top: 6px;">
<i>~ Peter Matthiessen</i></div>
Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14569442682455340958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6921093544969666488.post-43812842505502193062017-04-06T04:19:00.001-07:002017-04-06T04:19:35.518-07:00Spring Follows Winter Once More<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lying here in the tall grass<br />Where it's so soft<br />Is this what it is to go home?<br />Into the earth<br />Of worms and black smells<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline;"><br />With a larch tree gathering sunlight<br />In the spring afternoon</span></span></i></div>
<div class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-size: 14px;">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><div style="margin-bottom: 6px;">
And the gates of paradise open just enough<br />To let out<br />A flock of geese.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
~ Tom Hennen, "Spring Follows Winter Once More" (Darkness Sticks To Everything: Collected and New Poems)</div>
</span></i></div>
Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14569442682455340958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6921093544969666488.post-85368858660741021862017-04-06T04:18:00.002-07:002017-04-06T04:18:19.273-07:00A Card Carrying Human Being, Steven Charleston<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<i>"I am a card carrying human being. I am not a political party, a denomination, a class, a race, or a demographic. I am just a human being. I am not a nationality, a sexuality, an age, or even a gender since we all start out pretty much the same and we are all going to the same destination. I like to do what human beings like to do: live at peace, enjoy my life, be with the family. I like learning from other human beings, sharing my own thoughts, and finding ways to make this world safer, happier and as natural as we found it. I am a card carrying human being. That means I am proud to be what God made me."</i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-top: 6px;">
<i>~ The Rt. Rev. Steven Charleston, Choctaw</i></div>
Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14569442682455340958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6921093544969666488.post-73337421110770775152017-04-06T04:17:00.002-07:002017-04-06T04:17:36.002-07:00Such Singing In the Wild Branches, by Mary Oliver<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><i>It was spring<br />and I finally heard him<br />among the first leaves––<br />then I saw him clutching the limb<br />in an island of shade<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline;"><br />with his red-brown feathers<br />all trim and neat for the new year.<br />First, I stood still<br />and thought of nothing.<br />Then I began to listen.<br />Then I was filled with gladness––<br />and that’s when it happened,<br />when I seemed to float,<br />to be, myself, a wing or a tree––<br />and I began to understand<br />what the bird was saying,<br />and the sands in the glass<br />stopped<br />for a pure white moment<br />while gravity sprinkled upward<br />like rain, rising,<br />and in fact<br />it became difficult to tell just what it was that was singing––<br />it was the thrush for sure, but it seemed<br />not a single thrush, but himself, and all his brothers,<br />and also the trees around them,<br />as well as the gliding, long-tailed clouds<br />in the perfect blue sky–––all of them<br />were singing.<br />And, of course, so it seemed,<br />so was I.<br />Such soft and solemn and perfect music doesn’t last<br />For more than a few moments.<br />It’s one of those magical places wise people<br />like to talk about.<br />One of the things they say about it, that is true,<br />is that, once you’ve been there,<br />you’re there forever.<br />Listen, everyone has a chance.<br />Is it spring, is it morning?<br />Are there trees near you,<br />and does your own soul need comforting?<br />Quick, then––open the door and fly on your heavy feet; the song<br />may already be drifting away.</span></i></span></div>
<div class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-size: 14px;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><i>~ Mary Oliver, "Such Singing In The Wild Branches"</i></span></div>
</div>
Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14569442682455340958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6921093544969666488.post-84712571872460341432017-04-06T04:15:00.002-07:002017-04-06T04:15:28.453-07:00"A Feast of Being" Mary Rose O'Reilly<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<i>"The spiritual life--or the writing life--depends above all on fidelity to objects...whatever your eye falls on--for it will fall on what you love--will lead you to the questions of your life, the questions that are incumbent on you to answer, because that is how the muse works in concert with the eye. The things of this world draw us where we need to go...all contemplative acts, silences, poems, house the world in this way. Brought together by the eye of love, a milkweed pod, a twig, allow us to see how things have been all along...A feast of being."</i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-top: 6px;">
<i>~ Mary Rose O'Reilly from, "The Barn at the Edge of the World: The Apprenticeship of a Quaker Buddhist Shepherd"</i></div>
Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14569442682455340958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6921093544969666488.post-53911826964710136912016-12-29T16:19:00.004-08:002016-12-29T16:19:42.263-08:00"A NOTE OF GRATITUDE" John Jeremiah Edminster<div class="_5x46" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 11px;">
<div class="clearfix _5va3" style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: -6px; zoom: 1;">
<div class="clearfix _42ef" style="font-family: inherit; overflow: hidden; zoom: 1;">
<div class="_5va4" style="font-family: inherit; padding-bottom: 6px;">
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<div class="_6a _5u5j" style="display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; width: 438px;">
<div class="_6a _5u5j _6b" style="display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: middle; width: 438px;">
<div class="_5pcp _5lel" style="color: #90949c; font-family: inherit; position: relative;">
<span aria-hidden="true" role="presentation" style="font-family: inherit;">· </span><div aria-label="Shared with: Public" class="_6a _29ee _4f-9 _43_1" data-hover="tooltip" data-tooltip-content="Shared with: Public" role="img" style="cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-family: inherit; position: relative; vertical-align: middle;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i class="_1lbg img sp_-iEjZgsrWzH sx_4f8b03" style="background-image: url("/rsrc.php/v3/y7/r/Zl_rU0vh6-g.png"); background-position: -14px -125px; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: auto; display: block; height: 12px; margin-top: -1px; width: 12px;"></i></span></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="_5pbx userContent" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" id="js_4ho" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.38;">
<div class="text_exposed_root text_exposed" id="id_5865a7ba03bd52449393405" style="display: inline; font-family: inherit;">
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<i>"I'm a retired craftsman, a midlife convert to Christianity and Quakerism, grieving the ongoing destruction of the earth by my ignorant people, and the loveless way we often treat one another, praying to the God who loves us all to show us a better way: I’m prepared for it to be challenging. I’m deeply grateful: I’ve lived sinfully and felt myself washed clean. I’ve now consecrated my life to the service of God, by whose grace my wife and I were called to c<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; font-family: inherit;">ome to ESR as residential Masters of Divinity candidates, and given scholarship funding sufficient for us to live on my Social Security income, simply but comfortably, while we study. By God’s grace I still enjoy a spry body in my mid-seventies, a mind open to new wisdom, and a merry heart. I don’t expect to need a paying position once I leave ESR, but to continue to serve as one of Christ’s unpaid odd-job men: a healer and comforter, a tract-writer and bearer of prophetic ministry, a hearer of confessions, a good husband, father, and friend, and at the end of this life a cheerful relinquisher of the body. I want everyone in heaven and earth who facilitated my seminary education to be happy that they did so."<br /><br />~ John Jeremiah Edminster</span></i></div>
</div>
</div>
Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14569442682455340958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6921093544969666488.post-82552436698355018622016-12-29T16:16:00.002-08:002016-12-29T16:16:50.301-08:00"Common Folk" Henry Cadbury<span style="background-color: whitesmoke; color: #181818; font-family: "Cantora One", georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; text-align: center;">“</span><a class="qlink" href="http://izquotes.com/quote/339699" style="background-color: whitesmoke; color: #181818; font-family: "PT Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 20px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; transition-duration: 400ms; transition-property: color;">Common folk, not statesmen, nor generals nor great men of affairs, but just simple plain men and women, can do something to build a better, peaceful world. The future hope of peace lies with such personal sacrificial service. To this ideal humble persons everywhere may contribute.</a><span style="background-color: whitesmoke; color: #181818; font-family: "Cantora One", georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; text-align: center;">”</span><br style="background-color: whitesmoke; color: #181818; font-family: "Cantora One", georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; text-align: center;" /><span style="color: #181818; font-family: Cantora One, georgia, serif;">~ </span><a href="http://izquotes.com/author/henry-cadbury" style="background-color: whitesmoke; color: #e86565; font-family: "PT Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-weight: bold; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; transition-duration: 400ms; transition-property: color;">Henry Cadbury</a>Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14569442682455340958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6921093544969666488.post-13457912648429311302016-08-05T11:37:00.001-07:002016-08-05T11:38:25.125-07:00"A Firm Persuasion" David Whyte<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">"To have what William Blake called ‘a firm persuasion’ in our work -- to feel that what we do is right for ourselves and good for the world at exactly the same time — is one of the great triumphs of human existence... To have a firm persuasion - to set out boldly; to look back and delight in error as a way of having rediscovered the way, to find a mature generosity through what we thought at first, was only for personal gain, to see humiliation not as a punis</span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">hment but as the daily test of our sincerity: is to make a pilgrimage of our labors, to understand that the consummation of work lies not only in what we have done, but who we have become while accomplishing the task and finding the way as we do it... work, at its best, at its most sincere, and in all its heartbreaking forms, is one of the great human gateways to the eternal and the timeless."<br /><br />~ David Whyte</span>Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14569442682455340958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6921093544969666488.post-2448340743960746452016-07-05T08:26:00.003-07:002016-07-05T08:27:02.636-07:00"To live content with small means..." William Henry Channing<div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.08px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
"To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and we<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; font-family: inherit;">althy, not, rich; to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with open heart; to study hard; to think quietly, act frankly, talk gently, await occasions, hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common -- this is my symphony."</span></div>
<div class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; display: inline; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16.08px;">
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
~ William Henry Channing</div>
</div>
Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14569442682455340958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6921093544969666488.post-20223413607419292672016-06-18T07:20:00.000-07:002016-06-18T07:20:10.564-07:00"Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Sundays too my father got up early<br />and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,<br />then with cracked hands that ached<br />from labor in the weekday weather made<br />banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
I'd wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.<br />When the rooms were warm, he'd call,<br />and slowly I would rise and dress,<br />fearing the chronic angers of that house,</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px; margin-top: 6px;">
Speaking indifferently to him,<br />who had driven out the cold<br />and polished my good shoes as well.<br />What did I know, what did I know<br />of love's austere and lonely offices?<br /><br />~ Robert Hayden, "Those Winter Sundays"<br /></div>
Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14569442682455340958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6921093544969666488.post-33093526645560958752016-05-30T19:33:00.002-07:002016-05-30T19:33:51.115-07:00"Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings" by Joy Harjo<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<i>Bless the poets, the workers for justice,<br />the dancers of ceremony, the singers of heartache,<br />the visionaries, all makers and carriers of fresh<br />meaning--we will all make it through,<br />despite politics and wars, despite failures<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline;"><br />and misunderstandings. There is only love.</span></i></div>
<div class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px;">
<i>~ Joy Harjo, "Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings"</i></div>
</div>
Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14569442682455340958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6921093544969666488.post-2436123735760742302016-05-23T17:21:00.001-07:002016-05-23T17:21:42.386-07:00Peacemaking<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
“Avoiding conflict isn’t peacemaking. Avoiding conflict means running away from the mess while peacemaking means running into the middle of it.<br />Peacemaking means addressing those issues that caused conflict in the first place.<br />Peacemaking can never be separated from doing justice. They go hand in hand. Peacemaking means having to stir the waters on the way to peace.<br />Peacemaking means speaking the truth in love, but speaking the truth nonetheless."</div>
<div class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.32px;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px;">
~ Peggy Haymes from "Strugglers, Stragglers and Seekers"</div>
</div>
Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14569442682455340958noreply@blogger.com0