“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering…
The fear of loss is a path to the dark side… Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose.”
Yoda
Happy Star Wars Day – May the Fourth be with you!

“Once upon a time, wasn’t singing a part of everyday life as much as talking, physical exercise, and religion? Our distant ancestors, wherever they were in this world, sang while pounding grain, paddling canoes, or walking long journeys. Can we begin to make our lives once more all of a piece? Finding the right songs and singing them over and over is a way to start. And when one person taps out a beat, while another leads into the melody, or when three people discover a harmony they never knew existed, or a crowd joins in on a chorus as though to raise the ceiling a few feet higher, then they also know there is hope for the world….
Participation, that’s what going to save the human race.”

Pete Seeger, born on this day in 1919

“Nature is the source of all true knowledge. She has her own logic, her own laws, she has no effect without cause nor invention without necessity.”

Leonardo da Vinci, died on this day in 1519

“I too have known loneliness
I too have known what it is to feel
misunderstood
rejected and suddenly
not at all beautiful.
Oh, Mother Earth,
your comfort is great, your arms never withhold.
It has saved my life to know this.
Your rivers flowing, your roses opening in the morning.
Oh motions of tenderness!”

Mary Oliver

“There is no God in the sky. God is in the heart that loves the sky’s blueness.”

A. Powell Davies, Unitarian minister (1902 – 1957)

A story told by Faraduddin Attar, 12th Century, Persia, about the desert saint Rabia al-Adawiyya, 8th Century Iraq,

“Once when Rabia al-Adawiyya was travelling on a pilgrimage to Mecca, she found herself alone in the desert for several days.
She heard a voice saying, “Hey, holy woman, do you love the presence of the divine glory?”
“I do.”
“And so do you hate Satan?”
“Because I love the ultimate Source of compassion,” she replied, “I am unable to hate Satan. Once I saw the Prophet Muhammad in a dream. He asked me, ‘Rabia, do you love me?’ I replied, ‘O Prophet, who doesn’t love you? But love of Allah has filled my heart, so there is no place for loving or hating anyone else.'”

“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.”

Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird, born on this day in 1926

“In the woods a man casts off his years, as the snake his slough, and at whatever period of life, is always a child. In the woods, is perpetual youth. Within these plantations of God, a decorum and sanctity reign, a perennial festival is dressed, and the guest sees not how he should tire of them in a thousand years.

In the woods, we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life, — no disgrace, no calamity, which nature cannot repair. Standing on the bare ground, — my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space, — all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eye-ball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson, died on this day in 1882

“Honour and revere the gods, treat human beings as they deserve, be tolerant with others and strict with yourself. Remember, nothing belongs to you but your flesh and blood – and nothing else is under your control.”

Marcus Aurelius, born on this day in 121

“Just don’t give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong.”

Ella Fitzgerald, born on this day in 1917