Tag: Courage

Lent 2 – Definition

 

“If I were really asked to define myself, I wouldn’t start with race; I wouldn’t start with blackness; I wouldn’t start with gender; I wouldn’t start with feminism. I would start with stripping down to what fundamentally informs my life, which is that I’m a seeker on the path. I think of feminism, and I think of anti-racist struggles as part of it. But where I stand spiritually is, steadfastly, on a path about love.”

Quote: Bell Hooks
Image: source unknown (Pinterest)

Once the door is opened

 

Admit that once you have got up
from your chair and opened the door,
once you have walked out into the clear air
toward that edge and taken the path up high
beyond the ordinary you have become
the privileged and the pilgrim,
the one who will tell the story
and the one, coming back
from the mountain
who helped to make it.

 

Doors — They begin an adventure. They end a long day.

Doors — They stand open to call us toward a time of growth. They slowly close to create a space for quiet when it’s time to gather and reflect.

Today, I sit at a door. Today, I welcome a new year… My 65th. It is a day to pause. I never imagined what it would be like to reach this birthday. As a person with a disability, it is a challenge to plan for the future because so many things can come up along the way. Yet, here I am at 65 – healthy, able to pursue my interests, and still full of curiosity.

There have been adventures leading to this birthday and there will be adventures following this birthday. I greet each like a new door, calling me to trust as I move over its threshold.

I celebrate this day with gratitude and look ahead with anticipation.

From Mameen in David Whyte: Essentials
Many Rivers Press © David Whyte

Never Give Up

Fragile as a spider’s web
Hanging in space
Between tall grasses,
It is torn again and again.
A passing dog
Or simply the wind can do it.
Several times a day
– gather myself together
And spin it again.
Spiders are patient weavers.
They never give up.
And who knows
What keeps them at it?
Hunger, no doubt,
And hope.

Quote: May Sarton, “Love” in “Poems between Women: Four Centuries of Love, Romantic Friendship, and Desire” complied by Emma Donoghue (Columbia University; January 1, 1997)

Photo by Bence Balla-Schottner on Unsplash

Quote from DK (Tumbler)

… in sunshine and in shadow…

Photo by Hatice Baran:

Be at peace today. Even if it is one of your worst days: be at peace. What hurts us will one day cease. What worries us will be resolved. What we long for will be revealed. Even if we are engaged in a great struggle right now, we can be at peace in our mind and heart through the Spirit, for life is more than what limits us. There is an endless love surrounding us, broader and deeper than any ocean. There is beauty and hope and healing. There is change and there is renewal. Remember this promise in sunshine and in shadow. And be at peace. Be at peace today.

Gratefula for the wise ones in our midst. Today’s reflection by Stephen Charleston.

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