Respect for our Differences

photo by Craig Smith

"I believe America has a rendezvous with redemption
and that the spiritual question is the principle one.
We are intended to establish respect for our differences
and then, on the basis of that respect,
transcend our differences
to embrace the highest common denominator
of the human spirit."

~ Al Gore

 

a warm and loving message

The Fabric of The Heart

A cold heart restricts every part of the body. A warm and loving heart sends messages for life. "What the world needs now is love, sweet love. That's the only thing that there's much too little of."

To have life-giving activities rather than life-destroying ones ~ helps our hearts stay healthy.

"This is what I want from now on:
a slower pace, a more centered existence, and
the feelings of perfect happiness to be found
in the moments I come home to myself." ~ Linda Weltner

"Awaken From The Illusion Of Our Separateness"

"I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment, while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance than I should have been by any epaulet I could have worn." ~ Henry David Thoreau

"We are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness." ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

"Taking life for granted ~ such an easy thing to do, and such an important thing "not to." ~ Patty Ann Smith

Harmony and Real Freedom

photo by Patty Ann Smith

"...I slept as never before, a stone on the river bed,
nothing between me and the white fire of the stars
but my thoughts, and they floated light as moths
among the branches of the perfect trees.
All night I heard the small kingdoms
breathing around me, the insects,
and the birds who do their work in the darkness.
All night I rose and fell, as if in water,
grappling with a luminous doom. By morning
I had vanished at least a dozen times
into something better."

from "Sleeping In The Forest" by Mary Oliver

Greatness is "A Heart Full of Grace and A Soul Generated By Love"

Greatness was Corretta Scott King

The Most Comforting Speech in the World

"What a thing it is to sit absolutely alone, in the forest, at night, cherished by this wonderful, unintelligible, perfectly innocent speech, the most comforting speech in the world, the talk that rain makes by itself all over the ridges, and the talk of the watercourses everywhere in the hollows! Nobody started it, nobody is going to stop it. It will talk as long as it wants, this rain. And, as long as it talks....I'm going to listen." ~ Thomas Merton