Soul Mosaic

“Some men see things as they are and say why? I dream things that never were and say ‘Why not?’ ”

Robert Francis Kennedy, based on a quote by George Bernard Shaw in Back to Methuselah

“Love is what we were born with. Fear is what we learned here.”

Marianne Williamson, author of A Return To Love: Reflections on the Principles of “A Course in Miracles”

Her Wikipedia entry describes her as a “spiritual activist, author, lecturer and founder of The Peace Alliance, a grass roots campaign supporting legislation currently before Congress to establish a United States Department of Peace. She is also the founder of Project Angel Food, a meals-on-wheels program that serves homebound people with AIDS in the Los Angeles area.”

From the May 13th entry in God Calling:

“…Never judge. The heart of a man is so delicate, so complex, only its Maker can know it. Each heart is so different, actuated by different motives, controlled by different circumstances, influenced by different sufferings. How can one judge another? Leave to Me the unraveling of the puzzles of life. Leave to Me the teaching of understanding. Bring each heart to Me, its Maker, and leave it with Me. Secure in the certainty that all that is wrong I can set right.”

As an added gift, there is a God Calling website so that anyone who does not have the book, can go to the website and get that day’s reading. The readings for the evening companion volume, God at Eventide are there as well. Just click here or on the entry in the Blogroll on the right side panel of my main blog page.

Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.”

The Buddha

“War and peace begin in the hearts of individuals.”

Pema Chodron, from her book, Practicing Peace in Times of War

“Love the whole world as a mother loves her only child.”

The Buddha

“You can never hate somebody if you stand in their shoes.”

Pema Chodron, from her book: Practicing Peace in Times of War

“I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and incur my own abhorrence.”

Frederick Douglass, American abolitionist and writer, 1818-1895

His suggestions for how to live and love are simple, yet a tall order. Still, they are an ideal to at least head toward and it always feels like a success when I manage to achieve even one on any given day:

“Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not seek so much:
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning, that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.”

St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226)