Saturday ~ August 18, 2018

Tribal people say the words are sacred. We don't mean that you are supposed to kneel down and worship them. We mean that you should in your being, recognize that when you speak, your utterance has consequences inwardly and outwardly and that you are accountable for those consequences. You can't just say anything that comes to your head and then get distressed if another person acts on it. Now that other person may have misunderstood you, which means that they have a responsibility to find out exactly what you mean before they act, but the principle is still there.
 Without linguistic honor there can be no community, there can be no ethnic, there can be no love,  there can be no creative vision, there can be no peace, and there can be no relationship.

(Paula Gunn Allen, 1939 - 2008)

Friday ~ August 17, 2018

We are much involved, all of us, with questions about things that matter a good deal today but will be forgotten by this time tomorrow - the immediate wheres and whens and hows that face us daily at home and at work - but at the same time we tend to lose track of the questions about things that matter always, life-and-death questions about meaning, purpose, and value. To lose track of such deep questions as these is to risk losing track of who we really are in our own depths and where we are really going.

(Frederick Buechner, b. 1926)

Thursday ~ August 16, 2018

We touch this strength, our power, who we are in the world, when we are most fully in touch with one another and with the world. There is no doubt in my mind that, in so doing, we are participants in ongoing incarnation, bringing god to life in the world. For god is nothing other than the eternally creative source of our relational power, our common strength, a god whose movement is to empower, bringing us into our own together, a god whose name in history is love.

(Carter Heyward, b. 1945)

Wednesday ~ August 15, 2018

Not because of victories
I sing,
having none,
but for common sunshine,
the breeze,
the largess of the spring.
Not for victory
but for the day's work done
as well as I was able;
not for a seat upon the dais
but for at the common table.

(Charles Reznikoff,  1894 - 1976)

Tuesday ~ August 14, 2018

Now if you listen closely
I'll tell what I know
Storm Clouds are gathering
The wind is gonna blow
The human race is suffering
And I can hear the moan,
'Cause Nobody,
But nobody
Can make it out here alone.

(Maya Angelou, 1928 - 2014)

Monday ~ August 13, 2018

Blessed be my brain
that I may conceive my own power.
Blessed be my breast
that I may give sustenance to those I love.
Blessed be my womb
that I may create what I choose to create.
Blessed be my knees
that I may bend so as not to break.
Blessed be my feet
that I may walk in the path of my highest will.

(Robin Morgan, 1941 -  )

Sunday ~ August 12, 2018

The secret of success is concentration; wherever there has been a great life, or a great work, that has gone before. Taste everything a little, look at everything a little; but live for one thing.

(Olive Emilie Albertina Schreiner, !855 - 1920)