Category: quotes

  • Music and Life by Alan Watts and the Makers of South Park

    In preparing for a retreat, I often accumulate a lot of delightful things that fit the theme, but can’t always find the perfect place to share them within the weekend format. This little movie, “Music and Life,” is one of those gems. I first saw it on Jess Gonacha’s blog,…

  • Occasions to See God at Work

    “The challenge he poses is to discern in the midst of our darkness the light of God…How radically new my life would be if I were willing to move beyond blaming to proclaiming the works of God in our midst. I don’t think it has much to do with the…

  • It Has Been a Whirlwind

    Sometimes you just need a moment to catch your breath. That would aptly describe my last few days; from being busy time-wise, and from being busy from heart and spirit – it has been a whirlwind. At work, we had a group of colleagues in from out of town last…

  • Oh That Pesky Nothingness

    Last week I wrote a little about being worried about attending a silent retreat which is being lead by Cynthia Bourgeault. I was wrestling with the questions of “What if I find something ugly in the quiet? Without anyone there to help it look nice? Without anyone to laugh it…

  • Love Gambles Away Every Gift

    Another poem that I’ve come across recently, and that has really had me thinking is this, by Rumi: Love is recklessness, not reason.Reason seeks a profit.Love comes on strong, consuming herself, unabashed. Yet in the midst of suffering,Love proceeds like a millstone,hard surfaced and straight forward. Having died to self-interest,she…

  • Choosing a Vocation

    Over the past couple of days, I’ve come across several quotes and ideas about how one goes about choosing a vocation in this life. I’ve really enjoyed Frederick Buechner’s thoughts from The Sacred Journey – a man who always finds the most eloquent way of choosing words, and it is…

  • Gaurdians at the Gate

    “The approaches and entrances to temples are flanked and defended by colossal gargoyles: dragons, lions, devil-slayers with drawn swords, resentful dwarfs, winged bulls, These are the threshold guardians to ward away all incapable of encountering the higher silences within … They illustrate the fact that the devotee at the moment…

  • “Hope” or “Hate”

    The other day I was sitting at a stop light and noticed two cars, each with a bumper sticker: Car One: If you surrender to HATE you’ve already LOST Care Two: Got Hope? I was really struck by the two vastly different mindsets these stickers call upon. And what an…