Author Archives: Laura Dobson

“I say to people that I’m not an optimist, because that, in a sense is something that depends on feelings more than the actual reality. We feel optimistic, or we feel pessimistic. Now, hope is different in that it is based not in the ephemerality of feelings but on the firm ground of conviction. IContinue reading “Thought for the day, Tuesday 5th July”

“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.” Marie Curie, first woman to win the Nobel prize in 1903, who died on this day in 1934

A Non-traditional Blessing by Sister Ruth Fox, OSB “May God bless you with discontent with easy answers, half-truths, superficial relationships, so that you will live from deep within your heart. May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, abuse, and exploitation of people, so that you will work for justice, equality, and peace. MayContinue reading “Thought for the day, Sunday 3rd July”

“The following story comes from the Talmud:Before we’re born, while in our mother’s womb, the Almighty sends an angel to sit beside us and teach us all the wisdom for living we’ll ever need to know. Then, just before we’re born, the angel taps us under the nose (forming the philtrum, the indentation that everyoneContinue reading “Thought for the day, Saturday 2nd July”

“Patience is not sitting and waiting, it is foreseeing. It is looking at the thorn and seeing the rose, looking at the night and seeing the day. Lovers are patient and know that the moon needs time to become full.” Shams Tabrizi

“Why go to search forests to find the Divine? The One who dwells in all hearts pervades your heart also. Just as fragrance fills the rose and reflection the mirror, God pervades all; search inside yourself. Know that the Om pervades inside and out. Without knowing yourself, doubt will not be removed.” Guru Tegh Bahadur,Continue reading “Thought for the day, Thursday 30th June”

“Teach us, O God, that when our fetters seem too strong to break, the time has come at last when we must break them.” A Powell Davies (1902 – 1957), Unitarian minister

“Freedom is never a reaction. To be stuck in reaction is bondage, bondage to the one against whom we re-act. Freedom is observing our reactions. In that seeing, reaction dissolves. Then we can act from stillness, the silence of the Seer. Stillness is a lightning bolt. Silence is a diamond with ten thousand eyes. WhyContinue reading “Thought for the day, Tuesday 28th June”

“A crust of bread and a corner to sleep in,A minute to smile and an hour to weep in,A pint of joy to a peck of trouble,And never a laugh but the moans come double;And that is life! A crust and a corner that love makes precious,With a smile to warm and the tears toContinue reading “Thought for the day, Monday 27th June”

Anniversary of the signing of the Charter of the United Nations in 1945 “Let us teach that the honour of a nation consists not in the forced submission of other states, but in equal laws and free institutions, in cultivated fields and prosperous cities; in the development of intellectual and moral power, in the diffusionContinue reading “Thought for the day, Sunday 26th June”