Nan Merrill

February 2010 (Vol. XXIII, No. 2)

Warm greetings, dear friends, on a cold winter's day!  The sun sparkles on a field of snow, dazzling us with a sudden awareness of the miracles Love wrought in creating our beautiful world.  Perhaps one of the greatest of these miracles is that a spark of the Great Love also exists in every one of us.  The seeds of Love are planted in our hearts that we may blanket the world with fields of love.  We have only to open our hearts to enable that love to grow and bloom and spread across our world.  Look deeply into your own heart as you sit within the silence . . . find the love there, and as the husk falls away from the seed, allowing it to grow and bloom, allow any hardness of heart to dissolve into the flame of Love.  Love can change the world!

January 2010 (Vol. XXIII, No. 1)

New Year's Greetings, dear friends of silence!  As we move through the winter season, let us, like the earth, lie fallow for a while, allowing unseen and as yet unknown life to gestate within our depths.  With deep humility, let us reflect in the silence upon what it means to surrender to the Divine Spark that resides in each of us and allow that creative Life Force to do with us what it will.  It is a gift of this quieter season that we can be released from our ego-driven lives and draw closer to the source of Love in the silent darkness.  Let us surrender ourselves in humble recognition that we are called, through faith, simply to be open and accepting; to listen, without expectations, to whatever is coming to birth within us.  We are called to a humble openness, to walk the way of goodness with the comfort of Love, at one with all humanity and with our earth.  May we surrender to the call, whatever it may be, as it comes to each of us.

Humility is the base from which everything grows

Mick Hales Monastic Gardens

We are striving for humility in our lives, to draw closer to God . . .  It is not an accident that the humus, or the soil, comes from the same word.  It's the base from which everything grows.  Gardening and the spiritual life go together.

I try to be like the water

Lily Yeh The Other Side

I try to be like water. Water goes to the humblest, lowest places and provides moisture. My place in the world is pinpoint small, but it goes down deep. The residents of this bleak, barren, and disjointed community have taught me that there can be profound wisdom, wonder, and love in a place of almost total despair. Our neighborhood may be nothing like the pristine hallways of a gallery, but we do art here. Our art holds our feelings, the feeling that we care deeply -- like water, like life.

Primary prerequiste for holiness

Alan Morinis Climbing Jacob's Ladder

Humility is an inner quality that is ranked as the primary prerequisite for holiness. Without humility, we might be too proud to acknowledge our weaknesses, and so we wouldn't be inclined to work to make the necessary inner changes. . . . To strengthen the soul-trait of humility, walk the mind slowly and methodically along the full journey of life, from the fertilization of the egg all the way through death and decay. It engenders great appreciation for the wisdom of the divine and fosters a healthy and genuine sense of humility and gratitude for all we have received.

A humble spirit does not ask for more than it needs

Gary Zukav

A humble spirit does not ask for more
than it needs, and what it needs,
the Universe provides.

Humble amazement

Amar Jyoti

Humble amazement is a prerequisite for
coming to know God.

The hardest gift to accept

Judith Bluestone Polich Return of the Children of Light

Once you grasp the nature of unconditional love, you realize there is a higher order of complexity that is unfolding within human consciousness as a whole. Then you receive the next gift of the angel light -- humility, perhaps the hardest gift to accept. In the angel light, there is no room for self-importance -- it is, in fact, a major obstacle. Instead, it is necessary to surrender all our false pride. Humility ultimately teaches us that all life is sacred -- a gift of the divine union of form and the formless.

The feeling of ourselves as we are

The Cloud of Unknowing

Humility in itself is naught else but a true knowing and feeling of ourselves as we are.

The keystone human virtue of humility

Tony Hendra Father Joe

A saint is a person who practices the keystone human virtue of humility. Humility in the face of wealth and plenty, humility in the face of hatred and violence, humility in the face of strength, humility in the face of your own genius or lack of it, humility in the face of another's humility, humility in the face of love and beauty, humility in the face of pain and death. Saints are driven to humbling themselves before all the splendor and horror of the world because they perceive there to be something divine in it pulsing and alive beneath the hard dead surface of material things -- greater and purer than they are.

Humility is the gentle acceptance of that most tender place inside ourselves

Marabai Staff Dark Night of the Soul

Humility is not a matter of beating ourselves up. It is not a question of judging ourselves as stupid or sinful, as hopeless and bad. Who are we to judge these things? Humility, it seems, is the gentle acceptance of that most tender place inside ourselves that throbs with the pain of separation from the Beloved. It is that deep knowingness that identification with the false self brings nothing but further separation. It is an initially reluctant dropping down into the emptiness and an ultimate experience of peace when we stop doing and rediscover simple being . . . when we heed the call to cease creating and remember we are created.

Knowing that God is the sole doer

Jerry Thomas

Humility is knowing that God is the sole doer.

Passing through the portals of humility

Rudolf Steiner Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment

The heights of the spirit can only be climbed by passing through the portals of humility. You can only acquire right knowledge when you have learnt to esteem it.

To live the paradox of our blessed and broken natures

Wendy M. Wright Weavings

Humility as a virtue has to do with knowing ourselves as human, as earthy, as the clay into which the divine breath has been breathed . . .  It is to live the paradox of our blessed and broken natures, to know that matter matters, that flesh carries spirit, that life is discovered at the precise meeting place of the human and the divine.  To practice humility is to live deeply into this truth, to lift oneself to the mountain top of prayer and aspiration and to embrace the lowly valley of our own abjection.

Rooted in this earth of everyday life

Piero Ferrucci Inevitable Grace

The word "humility" (also "human") is derived from the Latin "humus," meaning "the soil." Perhaps this is not simply because it entails stooping and returning to earthly origins, but also because, as we are rooted in this earth of everyday life, we find in it all the vitality and fertility unnoticed by people who mostly tramp on across the surface, drawn by distant landscapes.

Beginning of humility

Susan Vreeland The Passion of Artemisia

Cara Mia, if that man has not separated you from the love of God, and he has not, then the only thing keeping hate of him alive is your thought about him. Only your pride keeps him in your memory. Dissolve your pride, and you dissolve your hate. To be still possessed of the hate that pain made is not intelligent. Take care. It can sap your energy to what you know to be your purpose. By being troubled about it, you have already discovered it to be unworthy of your grander aims, and that is the beginning of humility.

If you think you are humble, you are not

S. Molly Monahan Seeds of Grace

We don't talk much about humility in AA, almost never use the word. Maybe that is because, as the spiritual adage has it, if you think you are humble, you are not. But I see enough of freedom, serenity, healing, and unselfishness around me to think it must be hiding there somewhere.

December 2009 (Vol. XXII, No. 11)

"Is there enough Silence for the Word to be heard?"

Winter Greetings, dear friends, and deep peace of the season's first silent snowfall to each of you. As we naturally turn inward in response to the more reflective nature of the season, may we find there reminders that we can carry the peace of this slower, quieter season within us to every place and every time. For peace, fostered by silent communion with the Love that ever accompanies us, is not confined to any outward season or circumstance. Rather, it is born of our constant awareness of and gratitude for the companioning Presence that accompanies us all the days of our lives. May our innate longing for peace foster a growing ability to nurture it within ourselves and each other by turning within in silence. Discover the "still point" of peace within your sacred heart-space and listen for the Word to be heard.

To be at peace with myself

Anselm Grun

To be at peace with myself means to accept myself the way I am; to reduce the split that is created by the image of what I would like to be and who I really am; to be patient with myself, especially in regard to what conflicts with my idealized self.

A peacemaker prays

Henri Nouwen

A peacemaker prays. Prayer is the beginning and the end, the source and the fruit, the core and the content, the basis and the goal for all peacemaking. I say this without apology, because it allows me to go straight to the heart of the matter, which is that peace is a divine gift, a gift we receive in prayer.

This is the way of peace

Peace Pilgrim

This is the way of peace:
Overcome evil with Goodness,
falsehood with Truth,
and hatred with Love.

Peace is not something you can force on anything or anyone

Gerald May The Dark Night of the Soul

Peace is not something you can force on anything or anyone... . much less upon one's own mind. It's like trying to quiet the ocean by pressing upon the waves. Sanity lies in somehow opening to the chaos, allowing anxiety, moving deeply into the tumult, diving into the waves, where underneath, within, peace simply is.

If we have no peace

Mother Teresa

If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.

Let Peace fill our hearts, our world, our universe

World Peace Prayer

Lead me from death to Life
from falsehood to Truth.
Lead me from despair to Hope,
from fear to Trust.
Lead me from hate to Love,
from war to Peace.
Let Peace fill our hearts,
our world, our universe.

If one person remains solid and calm

Thich Nhat Hanh Love In Action

Without doing anything, things can sometimes go more smoothly just because of our peaceful presence. In a small boat when a storm comes, if one person remains solid and calm, others will not panic and the boat is more likely to stay afloat.

What brings me inner peace

14th Dalai Lama

My life, when I look back, has not been easy. One thing I learned was that compassion, a sense of caring, thinking about others' welfare, that sort of mental attitude brings me inner peace.

One moral duty: to reclaim large areas of peace in ourselves

Etty Hillsum An Interrupted Life

Ultimately, we have just one moral duty: to reclaim large areas of peace in ourselves, more and more peace, and to reflect it toward others. And the more peace there is in us, the more peace there will be in our troubled world.

Peace is our eternal hope

Taiwan, Museum of World Religions

Love is our shared truth.
Peace is our eternal hope.

Until it is know that true peace is within our very souls

Black Elk

But above all we should understand that there can never be peace between nations until it is known that true peace is within our very souls.

We have to be brave enough to soften what is rigid, to find the soft spot

Pema Chodron Practicing Peace in Times of War

To the degree that each of us is dedicated to wanting there to be peace in the world, then we have to take responsibility when our own hearts and minds harden and close. We have to be brave enough to soften what is rigid, to find the soft spot and play with it. We have to have that kind of courage and take that kind of responsibility. That's the true practice of peace.

Where the peace and the healing will start

Carol Schaefer Grandmothers Counsel the World

The grandmothers agree that personal healing is the essential first step toward healing the world. We need to strive for the peace of mind that has no price before we can realize peace on the planet, they say... . Deep within our hearts is where the peace and the healing will start. Surrender to Spirit. Be silent and listen to the guidance there.

Life from the Center is a life of unhurried peace and power

Thomas Kelly A Testament of Devotion

Life from the Center is a life of unhurried peace and power. It is serene and radiant. It takes no time, but it occupies all our time, making our life programs new and overcoming. We need not get frantic. Love is at the helm. And when our little day is done, we lie down quietly in peace, for all is well.

May that peace come to me!

Thomas J Craughwell Every Eye Beholds You

The peace in the sky, the peace in mid-air,
the peace on the earth, the peace in the waters,
the peace in the plants, the peace in the forest trees,
the peace in the angels, the peace in the Beloved,
the peace in all things
the peace in peace ...
May that peace come to me!

I asked for peace -- You offered your presence.

David Adam The Glory of Light

I asked for peace
You offered your presence.
I asked for hope
You came to my side.
I asked for joy
You lit my journey.
I asked for love
You gave me yourself.

You too will have peace

Goethe

Over all the mountaintops is peace,
In all the treetops, scarcely a breath;
The little birds in the forest are silent.
Wait then; you, too, will have peace.

November 2009 (Vol. XXII, No. 10)

"Is there enough Silence for the Word to be heard?"

Bountiful blessings of the Silence, dear friends!

Taking time each day to allow the Silence to permeate your whole being is a gift to your Self that keeps on giving. For, in Silence we are never truly alone. Indeed, as we abide in the Silence, countless beings are drawn to the peace and well-being that radiates around us ... those from the unseen Realm of Love along with the angels and community of heaven. Since silence is the language of Love, we are practicing the Presence daily each time we surrender ourselves into holy Silence, be it for a few moments, minutes, or hours. As our souls yearn for the Beloved, in stillness and silence our souls are guided to the Divine Indweller. To maintain a daily discipline of silence is to nourish and nurture the Divine Child within us. ... May we each sink again and again into the Silence of Love and listen ... Silence speaks.

Winds of Change

Neil Douglas-Klotz The Sufi Book of Life

Feel the winds of change blowing the superficiality of your life away.

God speaks out of the inner-most being of the mystics

Al-Junayd

God speaks out of the inner-
most being of the mystics while they are silent.

In silence we hear God's whisper

Edwina Gately A Mystical Heart

In silence
we hear God's whisper
moving like a feather
through our being,
stroking and transforming
timid souls into
fiery passion
for justice.

When your ears aren't filled with chatter and the cacophony of negativity

Dawson Church The Genie in Your Genes

When your ears aren't filled with chatter and the cacophony of negativity, and your life is free of stress-generated mindless actions and the prolonged cleanup operations that result from the subsequent mess, then the still, small voice of spirit may be heard. The music of the universe becomes louder and louder in the silence generated by the absence of charged auto-chatter, and we are able to hear the whispered instructions of the soul, the rustle of angel wings, and the divine harmony of the spheres.'

Take time

P. Dove

Take time to laugh, cry, and be silent.

In silence the idea was to recollect ourselves

D. Larsen The Tulip and the Pope

On the surface, silence was simple: we didn't speak unless it was necessary. But what was the point of silence? The point was, we learned, not mere silence, not silence to preserve some sort of order, but something much greater. In silence the idea was to recollect ourselves, to place ourselves more squarely in the presence of God than we would if people were talking to us all the time. We could pray, we could meditate, we could contemplate.

The light of the soul throws sparks, can set up flares

Clarissa Pinkola Estes

The light of the soul throws sparks, can set up flares, builds fires, causes proper matters to catch fire. To display the lantern of the soul in shadowy times like these, to be fierce and to show mercy toward others, both, are acts of immense bravery and greatest necessity. Struggling souls catch lights from other souls who are fully lit and willing to show it.

I have listed to the Silence

Patricia Gentry

I have listened to the Silence; and in the deep places of Life, I have stood receptive to Thy songs and they have entered my soul. It is in silence that we find the depth of our being. In the deep places of the soul, we connect to the boundless life that connects all things. In this secret place of the Most High, we are borne like leaves floating upon a still pond. Here, beyond identities and accomplishments, we find who we truly are.

Silence is the Friend who stills lurking desires

Nan Merrill Walking With Wisdom

Basking in solitude, Silence is
the Friend who stills
lurking desires, as
Wisdom cuts through tangled
webs of illusion.
Meditation lights the Flame.

The silent voice

Oonagh Twomey

The silent voice of the Eternal
silently speaks.

A lone priestly vision embraced by sacred silence

Richard W. Bachtold

A poem is a passionate prayer of song
with blessings from and for the faithful All,
an innocent, sacramental creation
remembering ancient tradition,
a gift of praise at an invisible altar,
and a lone priestly vision embraced
by sacred silence,
seeking forever the eternal unknown.

The light that comes from an inner fire that never dies

Henri Nouwen Return of the Prodigal Son

As Rembrandt's life moves toward the shadows of old age, as his success wanes, and the exterior splendor of his life diminishes, he comes more in touch with the immense beauty of the interior life. There he discovers the light that comes from an inner fire that never dies; the fire of love. His art no longer tries to "grasp, conquer, and regulate the visible," but to "transform the visible in the fire of love that comes from his own unique heart."

Silence is filled with a Presencde that seeks us in our lostness

Trevor Hudson

... silence is filled with a Presence that
seeks us in our lostness, comforts us in our pain,
heals us in our brokenness, and guides us in our confusion.

Timely silence is precious

Evelyn Underhill

An early century desert monk once shared an image:

"When the door of the steam bath is continually left open, the heat inside rapidly escapes through it; likewise the soul, in its desire to say many things, dissipates its remembrance of God through the door of speech, even though everything it says is good ..."

Timely silence, then, is precious, for it is nothing less than the mother of the wisest thoughts.

Silence is not the absence of sound, but the absence of self

Robert Blakesly

Sometimes there would be a rush of noisy visitors and the Silence of the monastery would be shattered. This would upset the monks; not the master, however, who seemed just as content with the noise as with the Silence. To those protesting he said one day:

"Silence is not the absence of sound,
but the absence of self."

Poetry comes out of silence and yearns for silence

Max Picard

Poetry comes out of silence and yearns for silence. Like us, it travels from one silence to another. It is like flight, like a circling over silence.

A Work of Beauty

Rod MacIver Heron Dance

A work of beauty requires the diverse and contrary qualities of discipline, hard work, gentleness and love. To create a work of beauty, a human being needs a spiritual life and a rhythm, and those two things need to work well together. By "rhythm" I mean a slower, more thoughtful pace than that which is generally lived in this society.

Holy silence is God's voice

Ohiyesa Sacred Journey August/September 2006

We first Americans believe profoundly in silence – the sign of a perfect equilibrium. Silence is the absolute poise of balance of body, mind, and spirit.

If you ask us, "What is silence?" we will answer, "It is the Great Mystery. The holy silence is God's voice."

If you ask, "What are the fruits of silence?" we will answer, "They are self-control, true courage or endurance, patience, dignity and reverence. Silence is the cornerstone of character."

If dedication to silence did not exist, it would be necessary to invent it

Pierre Lacont

Silence purifies. Those who are dedicated to silence must persevere in our over-busy world zones of purified air. We must struggle against the asphyxiation, which threatens the cities of our consumer society. We live in a world mentally polluted by verbal intoxication. If dedication to silence did not exist, it would be necessary to invent it.

October 2009 (Vol. XXII, No. 9)

Warm greetings, dear friends!

Ah, the sweet mystery of our lives on Journey ... the mystery of being touched by nature's wonders, great and small ... the mystery of relationships–friends, family, community, nations ... the mystery of deep Silence, inner and outer ... the mystery of our own being–Who am I? ... the mystery of our own birth and death ... the mystery of Life beyond the Veil in the unseen Realm of Love. To sit in solitude and silence and contemplate the Mystery can bring surprises and blessings of new insight, deeper peace, and the joy of simply Being within the Sacred Chapel of our hearts.

Leave room in your heart for the Mystery

Shakespeare King Lear

Leave room in your heart for the Mystery.

Come, let's away to prison:
We two alone will sing like birds in a cage:
When thou dost ask me blessing,
I'll kneel down,
And ask of thee forgiveness:
so we'll live,
and pray, and sing,
and tell old tales, and laugh
at gilded butterflies ...
and take upon us the mystery of things,
as if we were God's spies ...

We must return to the inner spirit and the spirit of all things

Carol Schaefer Grandmothers Counsel the World

Spirituality's highest purpose is to touch a mystery beyond words, which is perceived only in silence and solitude. Listening within the silence puts one in touch with the energy, vibration, and spiritual forces that are at the heart of creation. The realms are real and can only be reached by a quiet mind and practice. The Grandmothers believe we must return to the inner spirit and the spirit of all things, which we have abandoned while looking elsewhere for happiness.

Faint racing on the surface of mystery

Annie Dillard

Our life is a faint racing on the surface of mystery.

The experience of ecstatic oness with the Divine comes in many forms

Douglas Gillette The Shaman's Secret

The experience of ecstatic oneness with the Divine comes in many forms: quiet contentment, a sense of gentle rapture, a mystical feeling of universal harmony, all-consuming passion, flights of spiritual abandon, and ferocious joy. But the most powerful experience of ecstasy is a combination of these feelings, when, in one unforgettable moment, we touch the hidden God – the terrible and wonderful Mystery that has given birth to all things and that makes them glow and dance with Its life force. In those moments we may see what It sees and feel at least an infinitesimal part of what It feels.

We know that You are Mystery beyond mystery

Judy Cannato Radical Amazement

Creator of the Universe, we know that You are Mystery beyond mystery, yet our finite minds and fragile fears often want to contain You in a way that keeps us comfortable. We resist stretching our beliefs to include the new. We hesitate to break with the past, even if it is filled with illusion. Help us to be open to your revelation, not merely because it is new, but because it can bring us closer to the truth of who You are and who we are in You.

Love all the earth

Love all the earth,
every ray of God's light,
every grain of sand
and blade of grass,
every living thing.
If you love the earth enough,
you will know the Divine Mystery.

Changeless and calm, deep Mystery

Avis Vermilye

Changeless and calm, deep Mystery…
Ever more deeply rooted in Thee.

Mystery simply is

William J. Vertimiglia

The living myth explains the world at a non-rational, non-verbal, or preverbal level, making existence sacred and informing the believer that he/she is not alone in the universe. Myth and mystery inform the heart that a person belongs and has a part in an eternal drama. Mystery simply is.

God takes our hand and guides us through the Mystery

Paulo Coelho Brida

When you set off on the path, the first thing you do is surrender yourself to a greater power, for you will encounter things you will not understand. You will understand things only with your heart, and that can be a little frightening. For a long time, the journey will seem like a Dark Night, but then any search is an act of faith. But God, who is far harder to understand than a Dark Night, appreciates our act of faith and takes our hand and guides us through the Mystery.

Life is not a problem to be solved

Gabriel Marcel

Life is not a problem to be solved, but a Mystery to be lived.

Realize that you are the mystery

Adyashanti Empty Dancing

Being your true self, being your true nature, is different than experiencing it with thought. Realize that you are the mystery, and you can't really look at mystery because you are only capable of looking from the mystery. There is a very awake, alive and loving mystery, and that is what is seeing through your eyes at this moment. Encounter pure mystery, which is pure spirit, and wake up to what you are.

Ground yourself with deep roots in the Great Mystery

Nan Merrill Lumen Christi . . . Holy Wisdom

Aspire to humility rather than power,
prestige, and privilege; for
grace and gentleness sustain
the humble of heart.

As seed germinates in fertile soil,
the Seed of Divine Thought
will grow in soul-silence.
Ground yourself with deep roots
in the Great Mystery.

The first mystery is simply that there is a Mystery

Lawrence Kushner Honey from the Rock

The first mystery is simply that there is a Mystery. A Mystery that can never be explained or understood. Only encountered from time to time. Nothing is obvious. Everything conceals something else...  Spiritual awareness is born of encounters with the Mystery.

Death and the loss of his loved ones seemed a harsh way

Heyoka Merrifield Eyes of Wisdom

Owl thought much about his life and about the loss of his father, his brother, and now Grandmother, Eyes of Wisdom. Death and the loss of his loved ones seemed a harsh way for the Universe to arrange his time here. This is perhaps why people have named the "All That Is" the Great Mystery, and that mystery may be what has sent me on this journey to find "My-Story.

Truth's Dancing Partner

Goethe

Mystery is truth's dancing partner.

Ground yourself with deep roots in the Great Mystery

Aspire to humility rather than power,
prestige, and privilege; for
grace and gentleness sustain
the humble of heart.

As seed germinates in fertile soil,
the Seed of Divine Thought
will grow in soul-silence.
Ground yourself with deep roots
in the Great Mystery.

September 2009 (Vol. XXII, No. 8)

No one else can know what work will make our hearts sing, but we ourselves in our own inner being. Two mystic poets can, however, help us with the essence of what our Work can aspire to be: Gibran – "Work is love made visible" and Rumi – "Let the beauty we love be what we do." Work as an offering of our Selves in love, with all our strengths and limitations, to the wider community becomes a mutual blessing that honors our very being. To know Work as a sacred vocation no matter how lofty or how humble it may seem becomes equal in the eyes of Love. For all good work contributes to the Whole ... nothing we do with love and kindness is too little.

In the silence we can ponder the ways we work in love, create or honor beauty, and bring blessing to others. What makes your heart sing?

Contemplatives are the great doers

N. Gordon Cosby

Contrary to what many think, contemplatives are the great doers. In their return from silence they take up the work of giving form to the liberating truths that have been given to them in flashes of insight and vision. Because they have been present to themselves, they are able to be present to others in a way that awakens, enlivens, gives courage. In them we see more clearly a way of existence that combines both being and doing.

Pull away the veil and allow the force to come through

Karyn D. Kedar

To be in service to God is to realize that there is a loving force in the universe, and I must pull away the veil and allow the force to come through.

In planetary service, all work and workers are equal

Jacqueline Small

In planetary service, all work and workers
are equal. ... All service leads to the good
of the whole.

Great acts are the small, quiet ones that no one hears about

Neil White In the Sanctuary of Outcasts

I didn't know exactly how to go about helping others. But if I could remember that great acts are the small, quiet ones that no one hears about, that would be a start. I could look for ways myself to help people in need of a boost, to align myself with underdogs. I need to remember Ella's way with her leprosy ... her intent. Perhaps it didn't matter what I did to earn a living, as long as the motive was to help others and not just gain attention.

What counts is the slightest effort to give one's all

Thomas Matus Nazarena

The more I withdraw into God and with God into silence, the closer I feel to everyone and the more I find everyone. The more I make my little efforts to help others by practicing my calling, the more fruit I bear, albeit without seeing a single fruit. I must live my life with naked and pure faith, giving everything without seeing anything. What holy peace and joy this gives to my soul! Even if all I give is worth no more than a penny, how pleasing it is to God, because what counts is the slightest effort to give one's all, and how great is the reward: God's all.

To be here doing whatever it is I am to be doing

Madelieine Thompson

I am learning as I go about my daily life of work, play, or prayers that it is right and good to be here doing whatever it is I am to be doing. In a word, attentiveness and being in the present. Learning to be. A growing sense of vocation with the liberty to be at One ... to be harmonious.

Your feel your longings and desires and they do the Work

David Whyte

You feel your longing and desires and they do the Work. My whole life has been following my intuition and strange beckonings.

The way to do is to be!

Lao Tzu

The way to do is to be!

Without going outside,
you may know the whole world.
Without looking through the window,
you may see the ways of heaven.
The farther you go, the less you know.

Thus the sage knows without traveling ...
sees without looking ...
works without doing.

God, give me work

Winifred Holthy

God, give me work
Till my life shall end
And life
Till my work is done.

Work helps prevent one from getting old

Scott Nearing

Work helps prevent one from getting old. My work is my life. I cannot think of one without the other. The one who works and is never bored is never old. A person is not old until regrets take the place of hopes and plans. Work and interest in worthwhile things are the best remedy for aging. ... With age your facility of expression and perception diminishes. I have almost nothing left but time. But if I can be of service, I would like to go on living.

The Work of our lives

John Woolman

To turn all we possess into the channel of universal love becomes the Work of our lives.

Your work is to discover your world

Buddha

Your work is to discover your world and then with all your heart give yourself to it.

When love and skill work together

John Ruskin

When love and skill work together,
expect a masterpiece.

I am lent to be spent in the service of others

Douglas Speer

O Thou, cut down in me this hour and every
hour the swift growing tree of self-regard
which screens me from the needs of others.

Fill me with the realization that for these
few swift years I am put here on earth,
I am lent to be spent in the service of others.

Simple labor is smoothing my edges

Joan Anderson A Year By the Sea

I'm learning that what's important is not so much what I do to make a living as who I become in the process. Simple labor is smoothing my edges, teaching me to crave work not because it might make me special or wealthy but because the job pleases my spirit, makes me a more pleasant person, and meets my immediate financial needs.

... Forcing things works against instinct and the elements. Working within the tides and the rules of the universe is fast becoming my preference.

They worked at a gentle pace

Helena Norberg-Hodge Ancient Futures

I found that the Ladakhis had an abundance of time. They worked at a gentle pace and had a surprising amount of leisure. Even during harvest season, when the work lasts long hours, it is done at a relaxed pace that allows an eighty-year-old as well as a young child to join in and help. People work hard, but at their own rate, accompanied by laughter and song. The distinction between work and play is not rigidly defined.

July/August 2009 (Vol. XXII, No. 7)

Summertime Blessings of sunshine's radiance, blossoming's beauty, laughter of children at play ... Love's eternal and infinite variety at the heart of Life. In the stillness of no-time we are free of fear, free to simply be without burdensome thoughts of past or future. Here, "I am who I am" ... here, we are One in Being with All. In the deep Silence of timelessness, may we surrender to the Eternal Now, be present to each holy instant, and know Love-with-us always.

Windforest take our breath away

Ellen Fremedon Windforest

Windforest: take our breath away,
and return it to us refreshed
with the life you can give it.
Take it to the ends of the earth,
to nourish what you sustain,
And bring back what is offered you
there to sustain others.
Transform our breath so that new life
can be nurtured.

The world is breathing

Kabir

Something inside of me has reached to the place
where the world is breathing.

Two graces in breathing

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

There are two graces in breathing:
drawing in air and discharging it.
The former constrains, the latter refreshes:
so marvelously is life mixed.

Nurture yourself with feasts of breath in silence and solitude

Anne Amerson

"From LUMEN CHRISTI, the wording 'Nurture yourself with feasts of breath in silence and solitude' blew me away, to put it mildly. Although most mornings I do some breathing exercises, it occurred to me that I had not really paid attention to my breath otherwise in months. Going into meditation, I focused on inhaling Divine Love and exhaling peace and harmony. My mind became like a prism, drawing the energy of the pure white light of Love to a focal point and then refracting it into the colors of peace and harmony and breathing them out to the world ... thirty-five minutes in the Silence without distracting thoughts intruding!"

Breathing is the connection between the mind and the body

Aaron Hoopes Breath Smart

Breathing is the connection between the mind and the body. When the mind concentrates on the breath, it focuses attention on the present moment. Breathing is the first step on the path to discover your spiritual nature. As you get the body to breathe correctly, the mind settles down, and that creates fertile ground to develop whatever spiritual nature exists within you.

Breathing in, breathing out

Thich Nhat Hanh

Breathing in I calm my body and mind.
Breathing out I smile.

People can live only by dwelling in the living breath of God

Thomas Moore, Ray Riegert The Lost Sutras of Jesus

People can live only by dwelling in the living breath of God. Only in this way can they be at peace and realize their aspirations. From sunrise to sunset, they dwell in the living breath of God; every sight and thought is part of that breath. God provides a place for them filled with clarity and bliss and stillness. In the silence, we are moved by this wind, which blows everywhere in the world.

Breathing properly and consciously

Jerome Witkam The Eye Aware

Breathing properly and consciously assumes an attitude of openness and attentiveness. Our breath has a connection with the deeper emotional layers of consciousness. This is evident when we are emotional, angry, or anxious. At the same time, however, our breath remains open to those dimensions of our consciousness where we unfold and become receptive to God.... We need to discipline ourselves to attain an inner stillness and receptive attention toward God, who is our beginning.

The art of contemplative practice can be facilitated by the breath

Martin Laird

In any activity that requires concentrated effort, the breath quite naturally plays a role. If you have ever tried to thread a needle or repair a watch, you might have observed that without even thinking about it the breath quiets and deepens. Singers, swimmers, people who struggle with panic attacks, and a host of others learn the importance of proper breathing in order to negotiate the respective tasks at hand. Thus, that the art of contemplative practice can be facilitated by the breath should come as no surprise.

Give us a heart for simple things

Walter Wink Prayer

Give us a heart for simple things:
Love and laughter
Bread and wine
Tales and dreams

Fill our lives with
Green and growing hope
Make us a people of justice
Whose song is Allelujah
And whose name
Breathes Love.
Amen.

... a Prayer by Walter Wink

Breath of life, you ride the waves of life with me

Joyce Rupp Prayer

Breath of life,
You ride the waves of life with me
in the rhythms of my communion with you.
You enter the comings and goings
of each day and in every prayer I breathe.
Whether I am in the stillness of quiet prayer
or in the fullness of the day's activity,
may your peace flow through my being.

Each breath as a newborn baby

Michelle McDonald

When we understand how precious each moment is, we can treat each breath, each moment, as a newborn baby. Awareness can become that tender.

The spiritual core of "soul-breath"

P.M.H. Atwater

We live in a time of religious fervor, with adherents too busy clashing with each other to honor the sacred space we all share, the spiritual core of "soul-breath" – the same human family from the same Source breathing the same air on the same planet.

God's breath breathing me

Susan Tiberghien Circling to the Center

In this latter part of life, my prayer of the heart is most often without words. My tongue is stilled. My mind is stilled. The prayer of the heart becomes the heart's own respiration. I breathe in and I breathe out. It is God's breath. God breathing in, God breathing out. It is God's breath breathing me.

 

Breathing

Frank Waters

Breathing is an act of prayer

Take the breath of the new dawn

Hopi saying

Take the breath of the new dawn,
make it a part of you,
it will give you strength.

June 2009 (Vol. XXII, No. 6)

Blessings of great beauty be with you all, dear friends of silence.

Without Beauty what a dull world this would be. For, when we are able to see and feel the beauty that abides within us, we, naturally, begin to see the beauty within everyone and everything. Beauty hides Her face only to those whose eyes see others and things as objects to be collected or used. We can, however, learn to see beauty everywhere through the eyes of Love abiding within our hearts. When you love — especially those you would rather turn from — Beauty will gently reveal Herself, if you are open to Her. Then, you will both begin to shine with the Divine Beauty of Love and extend it out to the world. Be still, silent, and see.
 

If Only You Could See Your Face Through My Eyes

Rumi

If only you could see your face through my eyes,you would realize how beautiful you are

The Beauty of the Trees

Chief Dan George

The beauty of the trees,
the softness of the air,
the fragrance of the grass,
speaks to me . . .

The strength of fire,
the freshness of morning,
the taste of salmon,
the trail of the sun,
and the life that never goes away,
they speak of me.
And my heart soars.

The Most Wholesome Beauty is Virtue-Beauty

Colton and Murro Galaxy Gate: The Holy Universe

The most wholesome beauty is virtue-beauty, the beauty of the soul-emergence into the whole of life, producing a whole person. Virtue-beauty is centered in mortal and immortal goodness shining forth upon the countenance, the movements of the body, and the expression of the individual. The deep, sweet memories of a beloved face, of a beloved deed, passed on from a pure soul, leave the underlying mark of good which all yearn and hope for.

The lamp of grace keeps alive virtue-beauty.
 

Don't Fill Up Your Life with Petty Knowing

Dale Salwak

Don’t fill up your life with petty knowing. Leave space for something more mysterious, more beautiful, more profound than you can presently even imagine. The Great Creator has more beauty in store for you than you can even dream is possible at this point in your life... Leave space for the Great Mystery to offer something new and wonderful! Everything is unfolding in beauty; we need only stop holding on to the familiar.

There Is a Way to Smile Through Your Eyes

V. Inayat Khan

There is a way to smile through your eyes: to see the beauty behind the appearance of things. Imagine looking at a person who is forlorn and broken and has a bad self-image, and seeing the hidden beauty in that person. When you smile, that person sees their beauty through your eyes. Imagine the gift you are offering that person... A silent, gentle gift of love.

God First Came in the Atlas Mountains

Pinions Wind on the Sand

To me the realization of God first came in the Atlas Mountains and then in the beauty of nature which stirred my whole inner being. The flowers growing everywhere were absolutely breathtaking, and I saw in them such beauty and wonder that could not have been put there by humankind. When I picked the frangi-pangi flower and thought much about it, I saw Spirit Creator. Who else could have made such beauty?  Once natural beauty had turned my heart to God, I found myself continually raising my heart to God, without words but in thought. That is prayer in itself.

 

Our Lives and Deaths Can Be of the Beauty Way

Joan Halifax

Teachings can only bring us back to who we truly are. Our lives and deaths can be of the Beauty Way. But we must start now; we must become refined—the grinding away process to become truly who we are ... beautiful.

 
 

She Is From God's World -- A Direct Disciple.

Tony Bentley Winter Season

She is from God’s world -- a direct disciple, I think, sent down to brighten our lives and teach us of higher things. To me she is beauty itself—the word came after her presence. Each time she smiles, I can only cry, and I think of something I read about the sadness of beauty: just to find it is not hard, but to bear it, that is impossible. If she were totally aware of the beauty she was creating, she would stop in awe of herself. She somehow makes life so much more than it is.

A Poem Lovely as a Tree

Joyce Kilmer

I think that I shall never see
a poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;
a tree that looks at God all day,
and lifts her leafy arms to pray;
a tree that may in summer wear
a nest of robins in her hair;
upon whose bosom snow has lain
who intimately lives with rain.
 
Poems are made by fools like me
but only God can make a tree.
 

Liken Yourself to a Beautiful Original Part of Creation

Robert J. Wicks

Liken yourself to a beautiful original part of creation—a true work of art. Then each day ask yourself how you are living: either in ways that show gratitude for this beauty or in ways that indicate how you are defacing it.

 
 

Hear Creation Sing

Alaysinta

Hear creation sing
As your heart slowly opens
Towards inner beauty.

Wild and Untamable Beauty

Bernard Leach

There is a wild and untamable beauty in us when we are in harmony with nature.

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