Saturday ~ 14 December 2013

Water does not resist. Water flows. When you plunge your hand into it, all you feel is a caress. Water is not a solid wall, it will not stop you. But water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing in the end can stand against it. Water is patient. Dripping water wears away a stone. Remember that, my child. Remember you are half water. If you can't go through an obstacle, go around it. Water does.

(Margaret Atwood, 1939 - )

Friday ~ 13 December 2013

There is already a vast abundance of room for pity. It is easy to be overcome with self-pity, that sticky substance that ruins everything it touches. My list of excuses is a long list and even as I say it I know that under the closest scrutiny, they disappear, one by one.  There is pity in me - pity for others. But there is something in it that cannot be trusted; it is mixed with pride, arrogance, cunning. I see this only when I expose myself to the eyes of God in the quiet time. It is now that I see what my pity really is and the sources from which it springs.

( Howard Thurman, 1899 - 1981)

Thursday ~ 12 December 2013

To forgive somebody is to say that one way or another, "you have done something unspeakable, and by all rights I should call it quits between us. Both my pride and principles demand no less. However, although I make no guarantees that I will be able to forget what you've done and though we may both carry scars for life, I refuse to let it stand between us. I still want you for my friend..." When somebody you've wronged forgives you, you're spared the dull and self-diminishing throb of a guilty conscience. When you forgive somebody who has wronged you, you're spared the dismal corrosion of bitterness and wounded pride. For both parties, forgiveness means the freedom to again be at peace inside their own skins and to be glad in each other's presence.

(Frederick Beuchner, 1926 -  )

Wednesday ~ 11 December 2013

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, "I have lived through this horror, I can take the next thing that comes along." You must do the thing you think you cannot do.

(Eleanor Roosevelt, 1884  - 1962)

Tuesday ~ 10 December 2013

We discovered that peace at any price is no peace at all. We discovered that life at any price has no value whatever; that life is nothing without the privileges, the prides, the rights, the joys which make it worth living.and also worth giving. And we also discovered that there is something more hideous, more atrocious than war or than death; and that is to live in fear.

(Eve Curie, 1904 - 2007)

Monday, 9 December 2013

To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,
One clover, and a bee,
And revery.
The revery alone will do,
If bees are few.

(Emily Dickenson, 1830 - 1886)

Sunday, 8 December 2013

Out of our beliefs are born deeds; Out of our deeds we form habits; Out of our habits grows our character; and on our character we build our destiny.

(Henry Hancock, mid-20th century)