Archive for the ‘Friday Flowers’ Category

“It is in the nature of saplings to quake in the winds; hesitant, learning to hold their own places. But, the older trees, with their years of testing and being tested, they are the ones who sway the most. Less like a self-conscious huddle of tentative and trembling first-time buds; much more like the leaf-perfumed hips of a hundred wide women dancing – these old ones, regardless of form, sway, by heart, to the music that thunders through them.”
-John O’Donohue

“Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the entire world revolves – slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future. Live the actual moment. Only this moment is life.”
-Thick Nhat Hank

“As such, when we choose mercy over indifference, when we choose action over apathy, when we choose self-restraint and chastity over a life given over to our many reckless desires, we choose to live in the kingdom of heaven. When we feed the hungry, cloth the naked, heal the sick, house the homeless and die to ourselves for the sake of another, we enjoy the life of the age to come. When we hear the voice of God telling us we are loved and forgiven, we experience now what we will experience forever.”
-Jeff Cook

“A stone’s throw from Jerusalem
I walked a lonely mile in the moonlight
And though a million stars were shining
My heart was lost on a distant planet
That whirls around the April moon
Whirling in an arc of sadness
I’m lost without you. I’m lost without you.
Though all my kingdoms turn to sand
And fall into the sea
I’m mad about you. I’m mad about you.
-Sting, “Mad About You”

An enchanted life has many moments when the heart is overwhelmed by beauty and the imagination is electrified by some haunting quality in the world or by a spirit or voice speaking from within a thing, a place, or a person.”
-Thomas Moore

“When someone really hears you without passing judgment on you, without taking responsibility for you, without trying to mold you, it feels damn good.”
-Marshall Rosenberg, NVC

“Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”
-Matthew 11:28-29

“To love is not to experience a particular sensation in the heart; that emotion is but a reflex phenomenon, a detail of love at the least. To love is to wish for the good, it is to give the best of one’s self for the good of another; it does not mean grasping for one’s self; love means giving one’s self.”
-Maurice Landrieux

“When you come to the edge
Of all the light you know,
And are about to step off
Into the darkness of the unknown
Faith is knowing one of two things will happen:
There will be something solid to stand on
Or you will be taught how to fly.”

–Barbara J. Winter

“It is a frightening thing to open oneself to this strange and dark side of the divine; it means letting go of our self-control, that control which gives the illusion of safety. But safety is only an illusion, and letting go is part of listening to the silence, and to the Spirit.”

–Madeline L’Engle, Walking On Water