geospirituality

Shared Wisdom

Quiet
My favorite quotation from poet and author Wendell Berry...

"Best of any song is birdsong in the quiet, but first you must have the quiet."

—Wendell Berry, A Timbered Choir

The Magic of Manifestation
An inspiring passage from a Ted Andrews book lent to me by Anna Roach

"What blocks most people from manifesting their dreams in life is their fear of being who they are. Sometimes this is a fear of non-acceptance from others. Sometimes it is a fear of failing. Sometimes it is simply because their whole life has conditioned them to live in a a manner entirely alien to who they really are. When we are afraid, we are more likely to miss or neglect opportunities when they appear. When you are true to yourself and your instincts and your potentials, there will be no fear."

—Ted Andrews, Animal Speak: The Spiritual & Magical Powers of Creatures
Great & Small

11 Prayers for Peace
My favorite assignment from my spiritual journey through the 12 days of Christmas

"Deep peace of the quiet Earth to you..."

Favorite Quotations

Let Us Give Thanks
This long-time Unitarian-Universalist favorite was the source of inspiration for my sermon, A Harvest of Gratitude...

Let us give thanks for a bounty of people:

For children who are our second planting, and, though they grow like weeds and the wind too soon blows them away, may they forgive us our cultivation and fondly remember where their roots are.

Let us give thanks:

For generous friends…with hearts as big as hubbards and smiles as bright as their blossoms;
For feisty friends as tart as apples;

For continuous friends, who, like scallions and cucumbers, keep reminding us we had them;
For crotchety friends, as sour as rhubarb and as indestructible;

For handsome friends, who are as gorgeous as eggplants and as elegant as a row of corn — and the others — as plain as potatoes, and so good for you.

For funny friends, who are as silly as brussels sprouts and as amusing as Jerusalem artichokes, and serious friends as complex as cauliflowers and as intricate as onions;

For friends as unpretentious as cabbages, as subtle as summer squash, as persistent as parsley, as delightful as dill, as endless as zucchini, and who — like parsnips — can be counted on to see you through the long winter;

For old friends, nodding like sunflowers in the evening-time, and young friends coming on as fast as radishes;

For loving friends, who wind around us like tendrils, and hold us despite our blights, wilts, and witherings;

And finally, for those friends now gone, like gardens past, that have been harvested — but who fed us in their times that we might have life thereafter;

For all these we give thanks.

—The Late Rev. Max Coots

I Will Light Candles
This Christmas
Shared by Rev. Thomas Perchlik

I light Candles this Christmas;
Candles of joy despite all sadness,
Candles of hope where despair keeps watch,
Candles of courage for fears ever present.

Candles of peacefor tempest-tossed days,
Candles of grace to ease heavy burdens,
Candles of love to inspire all my living,
Candles that will burn all the year long.

— Howard Thurman

The Arc of Justice

"I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways; I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience. And from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice."

—Theodore Parker