Merry Christmas

Desire change, and let it be your guiding star.

- Br. David Steindl-Rast

Gifted to Mankind

When a Child is Born

A ray of hope flickers in the sky
A tiny star lights up way up high

All across the land dawns a brand new morn',
This comes to pass when a child is born.

A silent wish sails the seven seas
The winds of change whisper in the trees

And the walls of doubt crumble tossed and torn,
This comes to pass when a child is born.

It's all a dream, an illusion now.
It must come true some time soon somehow
All across the land dawns a brand new morn',
This comes to pass when a child is born.
When a child is born. 

Life as Prayer

Submission, after all, is the ultimate adoration.

- Quote from "Not My Will, But Thine" by Neal Maxwell

Salvation

Let the affections of thine heart be placed upon God forever, 
for it shall be as a man who built his house upon rock. 

- Quote by David A. Bednar, October 2008 LDS Conference

The gift of tongues

Alice Munro: In her Own Words - Media Player at Nobelprize.org

Sweet pleasure listening to her speak.

Temporal Relations

Who can say where the road goes

Where the day flows, only time

And who can say if your love grows

As your heart chose, only time

Who can say why your heart sighs

As your love flies, only time

And who can say why your heart cries

When your love lies, only time

Who can say when the roads meet

That love might be in your heart

And who can say when the day sleeps

If the night keeps all your heart

Night keeps all your heart

Who can say if your love grows

As your heart chose

- Only time

And who can say where the road goes

Where the day flows, only time

Who knows? Only time

Our Father which art in heaven

In search...

of light.

Essence

The only thing more important than being good is being real. Authenticity is kinder than resignation without conviction. Truth leads to good faster than good leads to truth. Ultimately, truth is good, but you have to live it from the inside out.

~Alan Cohen♥

We care for our inner lives

because we care about our evolution as a humankind. And because we recognize how the thoughts, feelings, and actions of each and every human being contributes to this evolution.

Life in the Deep

...

Discern

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear.

1 John 4:18, NKJV

Life is Beautiful!

Thoughts that transcend time

In the Spirit of Love

What do we hear in the gospel that we have received? Truth out of the Earth, mercy from Heaven, a voice of gladness for the living and the dead. Shall we not go on in such great a cause?

-Joseph Smith

Everything

As pure as it gets

Have a wonderful day!

Spirit

The Eagle soars in the summit of Heaven,
The Hunter with his dogs pursues his circuit.

O perpetual revolution of configured stars,

O perpetual recurrence of determined seasons,

O world of spring and autumn, birth and dying

The endless cycle of idea and action,
Endless invention, endless experiment,
Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness;
Knowledge of speech, but not of silence;
Knowledge of words, and ignorance of the Word.
All our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance,
All our ignorance brings us nearer to death,
But nearness to death no nearer to GOD.
Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
The cycles of Heaven in twenty centuries
Bring us farther from GOD and nearer to the Dust.

T. S. Eliot (1888-1965),
The Rock (1934)

Dwell

Take

12 Therefore then, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [who have borne testimony to the Truth], let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance and that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us.

- Hebrews 12:1

Heaven

Shall we not go on in so great a cause?

- Joseph Smith

Ponderings

Dance and Shine

I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance,
Never settle for the path of least resistance
Livin' might mean takin' chances but they're worth takin',
Lovin' might be a mistake but it's worth makin',
Don't let some hell bent heart leave you bitter,
When you come close to sellin' out reconsider,
Give the heavens above more than just a passing glance,
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance.
I hope you dance....

Witness

A kind act, or a kind word has power enough to turn around the heavens.

To Steady the Thoughts

"Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action." 

~Peter Drucker

Heart

"My confidence is placed in God who does not need our help for accomplishing his designs. Our single endeavor should be to give ourselves to the work and to be faithful to him, and not to spoil his work by our shortcomings" 

- from a letter of St. Isaac Jogues to a Jesuit friend in France, September 12, 1646, a month before he was martyred for his faith.

Home is where the heart is...

Thoughts on Returning to Our True Home by Thich Nhat Hahn.
 

The Wonders of Love

 "You know Shah Jahan, life and youth, wealth and glory, they all drift away in the current of time. You strove therefore, to perpetuate only the sorrow of your heart? Let the splendor of diamond, pearl and ruby vanish? Only let this one teardrop, this Taj Mahal, glisten spotlessly bright on the cheek of time, forever and ever." 

- Rabindra Nath Tagore

 

1 Corinthians 13

New International Version (NIV)

13 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. ¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. ¹² For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

 

Inner Recesses

What God desires is in the mind

and in the heart.

Know Peace

The 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature

has been awarded to Alice Munro.

Set to the Theme

Transformation

The process of life should be the birth of a soul.
This is the highest alchemy, and this justifies our presence on earth.
This is our calling and our virtue.

-Henri Frederic Amiel

Can't get enough

Character

by Ralph Waldo Emerson

The sun set, but set not his hope:

Stars rose; his faith was earlier up:

Fixed on the enormous galaxy,

Deeper and older seemed his eye;

And matched his sufferance sublime

The taciturnity of time.

He spoke, and words more soft than rain

Brought the Age of Gold again:

His action won such reverence sweet

As hid all measure of the feat.

Amazing Grace

 ...

'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear
And grace my fears relieved
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed

 ...

Rewire

Work?

Making something out of nothing.

Amidst Circumstance

Rise

We are all knocked down in the dust at some point in our lives. But only the strong will rise again, brush themselves off, and move on to conquer and win. That strength comes from inside you, from your family, and your faith.

-Kyle Maynard

Oh Happy Day

Echoes of Purity

Good stuff

Cheerio Road

Process Learning

It is possible.

...

Hale & Hearty

In Spirit

...

May you live each day with no regret
Make the most of every chance you get
Let your eyes get wide when you look at the stars
With the same sense of wonder as a child’s heart
With the ones you love treasure the time
And for those who are gone keep their memories alive

...

Our own two feet

She decided to free herself, dance into the wind, create a new language. And birds fluttered around her, writing “yes” in the sky.

~Monique Duval♥
The Persistence of Yellow

Pleasure

There's No Leaving Now

...

And with your quiet damn devotion
to be lost like your child again
claim "forever" is a close and honest friend
to your ways

Will there be time to harvest rivers
that for so long refused to grow?
All the little things you need to build a home
for your love

...

Magic

How?

“There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create. Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life.”

~ John Lennon ~

Let us Pray

"May we continue to give ourselves over to what is deepest & best in ourselves, over & over & over again, encouraging those seeds of our truest nature to grow & flower. For the sake of all beings near & far, known & unknown -- nourish our lives & work & world from moment to moment, & from day to day."

~ Jon Kabat-Zinn ~

Peace be with you...

Liberating

Just being in It

Interview: http://thegreatdiscontent.com/debbie-millman

...

...

On a Limb

“On this path let the heart be your guide
for the body is hesitant and full of fear.”

~Rumi

King of Pop

...

Guided by a beating heart... ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬

Life's a game made for everyone

And love is the prize

Forever Alive

Man's humanity to man is greater than his inhumanity.

- Charles Chaplain

God's Great Dance Floor

But I have no gift to bring...

Immerse

Snail's Pace?

All izz well

Tend to your vital heart, and all that you worry about will be solved.

~Rumi

 

Source: Title and still from the movie 3 Idiots

Strength

Invictus

- William Ernest Henley

Out of the night that covers me, 
Black as the pit from pole to pole, 
I thank whatever gods may be 
For my unconquerable soul. 

...

It matters not how straight the gate, 
How charged with punishments the scroll, 
I am the master of my fate: 
I am the captain of my soul.

Let it slide...

Sound the Beat

Yippee!

As a kid

I'd put my arms in my shirt and tell people I lost my arms.

Would restart the video game whenever I knew I was going to lose.
 

Had that one pen with four colors, and tried to push all the buttons at once.
 

Waited behind a door to scare someone, then left because they took too long to come out.
 

Used to think that the moon followed our car.
 

Tried to balance the switch between On & Off.
 

Watched two rain drops roll down the window and imagined it was a race.
 

The only thing I had to take care of was a school bag.
 

Swallowed a fruit seed and I was scared to death that a tree was going to grow in my tummy.

 

Closed the fridge extremely slowly to see when the lights went off.

 

Secretly peep into my toy room to see if my toys came alive.

Imagined that every outdoor game I played was a mission to save the world.

Yup, did all of the above... 

Origin

May God, the source of every good, bless us and give success to the work of our hands and hearts. Amen.

" "

Source: from the blog cheerio road

Fresh

Silent Whisper

Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, 'This is this the way; walk in it.'

Source: Bible, Isaiah 30:21

Tender, and Gentle

Become earth, that you may grow flowers of many colors.

~Rumi

If you do it right, you love where you are.

hmm...

Let it go ... again, and again, and again

...

Energy

Take away love and our earth is a tomb.

- Robert Browning

Go Forth

And now go, and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here. Make good art.

~ Neil Gaiman, UArts Keynote Address 5/17/12

Begin Anew

~by Br. ChiSing 

Begin anew…
It has been a long time since last we spoke.
It does not need to be so long.

In every moment
the here and now--
the eternal and timeless--
is always present.

It does not take a special feat
to touch the here and now.
You only need to awaken to
this very breath, this very step.

In just one moment of mindfulness,
everything is made new,
moment to moment.

Enlightenment, peace, wisdom, joy--
these are only a breath away,
one step away.

But the question is:
Are you really there, my dear?
Are you really there in your breath, in your step?
Or are you only daydreaming, sleepwalking?

Whatever you think you've done wrong,
whatever penance you believe you must perform
before you awaken,
I invite you now to let that go.

Let there be a moment of awakening,
let there be several moments of awakening,
every time you rest into this Great Reality,
your True Self.

And as you begin to rest in your true vastness,
a healing takes place
organically and naturally--
forgiveness takes place,
reconciliation takes place--
effortlessly.

In the eternal and timeless
here and now,
you can always begin anew.

You can always find refreshment and rejuvenation
for your earthly body and human mind
as you awaken to
your Universal body and Divine mind.

Yes,
you can do it.
It is your birthless birthright.
It is your deathless inheritance.

So, my beloved,
can you drop the story,
drop the delusions?
Can you let go of
self-hate, shame and unworthiness?
Are you willing to relax your hold
on control and manipulation?
Are you willing to loosen your grasp
on false securities from false fears?

It only takes one breath,
one step,
in mindfulness,
my dear.

In just one moment of enlightenment, 
you can awaken from the illusions of time,
pressure, guilt, failure and regret.

You can awaken to 
the eternal and timeless
here and now--
to peace and love and wisdom,
to strength and true joy and true beauty,
to the Ultimate dimension of all things--
the Divine All in all:

You can do it…

From the Earth

Hey

“A person's maturity consists in having found again the seriousness one had as a child, at play.”

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

...

Something Beautiful

                                       - Newsboys                        

...

I've heard it in the silence
Seen it on a face
I've felt it in a long hour
Like a sweet embrace
I know this is true
It's calling out to me

CHORUS
It's a voice that whispers my name
It's a kiss without any shame
Something beautiful
Like a song that stirs in my head
Singing love will take us where
Something's beautiful 

...
When we laugh so hard we cry
It's the love between you and I
Something beautiful 

What is Love?

The Chinese word for Love is Ai. If we study the word vertically, from top to bottom, it is made up of 4 minor character or parts:

1. The top minor character is zhua, meaning “grip”.


2. The second is “roof”.


3. The third is xin or “heart”.


4. The last character is you or “friendship”. Once we put all these into the context of an arranged marriage, which is the mode of marriage until the recent decades, the recipe for building a lasting and loving relationship is unraveled.

At the beginning of the marriage is a promise, represented by the minor character “grip”. The word grip shows deliberateness and solemnity of the promise of marriage. It also paints a picture of two people holding hands as they walk into their home, represented by the second minor character “roof”. Under the “roof”, we see the central character, the third character “heart”.

In each set of minor characters that forms a Chinese word, there is always a central character that is given the most weight in interpretation because it informs us of the essence of the whole word. In the word Ai, the minor character “heart ” is the central. This tells us that Love is a matter of the heart and it must be approached wholeheartedly. Finally, the foundation that supports the entire structure of Ai is the last and bottom minor character “friendship ”.

 

Source: Post on Chinese love character analysis

The Unknown Realm

When you long for blessings that you may not name, and when you grieve knowing not the cause, then indeed you are growing with all things that grow, and rising toward your greater self.

~Kahlil Gibran♥

It's what makes some poets really great -- the keen perception of human nature, coupled with the ability to express it softly.

So let the sun shine in ♩ ♫ ♬ ♪ ♫

The Naughty Preposition

by Morris Bishop, published in The New Yorker September 27 1947

I lately lost a preposition;
It hid, I thought, beneath my chair
And angrily I cried, ‘Perdition!
Up from out of in under there.’

Correctness is my vade mecum,
And straggling phrases I abhor,
And yet I wondered, ‘What should he come
Up from out of in under for?’

Passion

They (two of Jesus' disciples) said to each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he (Jesus) was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?’

- The Book of Luke in the Bible, Chpt. 24

Great Expectations

He (Walt Disney) expected a miracle, and that's what he got.

- Dr. Norman Vincent Peale 

in his book 

You Can If You Think You Can

Dream

Humankind is being led along an evolving course,

through this migration of intelligences,

and though we seem to be sleeping,

there is an inner wakefulness

that directs the dream,

and that will eventually startle us back

to the truth of who we are.

~Rumi

Peaceful Serenade

The Whisper in Your Heart

Happy 2013!

We have come
With words yet untold,
And with faces full of mercy for people.
We have sensed the yearning of hearts,
And we have come with tongues that transcend any tongue.

We have come,
Taking the sky above us as our home,
And all people as our family,
And we have adopted colorlessness as our color.
We have taken the seventy two nations as our siblings.

We have come.
Others came and left
They lived, died, and disappeared.
We have been born, never to die,
And we have come, never to leave.

We have come,
In order to pour everywhere like the rain,
To enter every house like the sun,
And to touch our face to people, like the earth.
In short, to love and be loved,
We have come....Rumi♥