Poet, Author, Composer....
Community and Courage
One of the best things about a wholehearted community is the ability to borrow a little courage when you’re running low.—Brene Brown
Do Better
This quote today is by Thurgood Marshall, US Supreme Court Justice. He writes of government. I think on this particular day it is also true of each church and each person within the United Methodist Church. Here’s the quote:
“We must dissent from the fear, the hatred, and the mistrust. We must dissent from a nation that buried its head in the sand waiting in vain for the needs of its poor, its elderly, and its sick to disappear and just blow away. We must dissent from a government that has left its young without jobs, education, or hope. We must dissent from the poverty of vision and timeless absence of moral leadership. We must dissent, because America can do better, because America has no choice but to do better.”——Thurgood Marshall
One Thing
A student asked Thay, “There are so many urgent problems. What should I do?” Thay answered calmly, “Take one thing, and do it very deeply and carefully, and you will be doing everything at the same time.”—Thich Nhat Hanh and Dr. Lilian Cheung
A Grain of Wheat
If you could understand a single grain of wheat you would die of wonder.—Martin Luther
Kindness
Remember there’s no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.——Scott Adams
Not Just Talking–Living It Too
One great gift a mother can give her daughter is to live her own life as well as possible.—Harriet Lerner. I would maintain that this is true of all genders–that children may listen to what we say but they definitely watch how we live it out.
In a Day
I was interested to read this quote and think of it as applying to this day–or a week–or an entire life: “See everything; overlook a great deal; correct a little.” The quote is attributed to Pope John XXIII as his motto. I’m still mulling it over.
Shutting Down the Heart
Terry Hershey in his Monday morning “Sabbath Moments” on the computer once wrote: “I do know that when we label, we exclude, rather than include. I do know that when we label, we live with scotoma, selective blindness. And scotoma shuts down our heart, our capacity to care, give, love, or welcome.” Thank you for truth talk, Terry Hershey!
Love No Matter What
It’s a long quote. Read it out loud. Remember its context. And then apply to some situation today which you or your church or your country is struggling with. Decide it if still fits and if it does, then live it out.
“Somehow we must be able to stand up before our most bitter opponents and say: “We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We will meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will and we will still love you. We cannot in all good conscience obey your unjust laws and abide by the unjust system, because non-cooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good, and so throw us in jail and we will still love you. Bomb our homes and threaten our children, and, as difficult as it is, we will still love you. Send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our communities at the midnight hour and drag us out on some wayside road and leave us half-dead as you beat us, and we will still love you. Send your propaganda agents around the country, and make it appear that we are not fit, culturally and otherwise, for integration, and we’ll still love you. But be assured that we’ll wear you down by our capacity to suffer, and one day we will win our freedom. We will not only win freedom for ourselves; we will so appeal to your heart and conscience that we will win you in the process, and our victory will be a double victory.”
——Martin Luther King Jr.
New Release!!
Daybook of Personal Faith
Mama and Me
