“My wish is that South Africans never give up on the belief in goodness, that they cherish that faith in human beings as a cornerstone of our democracy. The first value mentioned under the founding principles of our Constitution is that of human dignity. We accord persons dignity by assuming that they are good, that they share the human qualities we ascribe to ourselves. Historical enemies succeeded in negotiating a peaceful transition from apartheid to democracy exactly because we were prepared to accept the inherent capacity for goodness in the other…

In a cynical world we have become an inspiration to many. We signal that good can be achieved amongst human beings who are prepared to trust, prepared to believe in the goodness of people.”

From his address during a joint sitting of Parliament to mark 10 years of democracy in South Africa, Cape Town, 10 May 2004, by Nelson Mandela (1918 – 2013), born on this day

“Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps the singing bird will come.”

Lois Lowry, writer

“Recent research has shown that the smell of humus exerts a physiological effect on humans. Breathing in the scent of Mother Earth stimulates the release of the hormone oxytocin, the same chemical that promotes bonding between mother and child, between lovers. Held in loving arms, no wonder we sing in response.”

From Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

“I find that quakerism and research science fit together very, very well. In quakerism you’re expected to develop your own understanding of god from your experience in the world. There isn’t a creed, there isn’t a dogma. There’s an understanding but nothing as formal as a dogma or creed and this idea that you develop your own understanding also means that you keep redeveloping your understanding as you get more experience, and it seems to me that’s very like what goes on in “the scientific method.” You have a model, of a star, its an understanding, and you develop that model in the light of experiments and observations, and so in both you’re expected to evolve your thinking. Nothing is static, nothing is final, everything is held provisionally.”

Jocelyn Bell Burnell, astrophysicist, born on this day in 1943 – pictured at the International Astronomical Union General Assembly, 2006

“I have hoped as many hopes and dreamed so many dreams, seen them swept aside by weather, and blown away by men, washed away in my own mistakes, that — I use to wonder if it wouldn’t be better just to haul off and quit hoping. Just protect my own inner brain, my own mind and heart, by drawing it up into a hard knot, and not having any more hopes or dreams at all. Pull in my feelings, and call back all of my sentiments — and not let any earthly event move me in either direction, either cause me to hate, to fear, to love, to care, to take sides, to argue the matter at all — and, yet … there are certain good times, and pleasures that I never can forget, no matter how much I want to, because the pleasures, and the displeasures, the good times and the bad, are really all there is to me.

And these pleasures that you cannot ever forget are the yeast that always starts working in your mind again, and it gets in your thoughts again, and in your eyes again, and then, all at once, no matter what has happened to you, you are building a brand new world again, based and built on the mistakes, the wreck, the hard luck and trouble of the old one.”

Woody Guthrie (1912 – 1967), folk singer-songwriter, born on this day

“Willa Cather’s poem, “I Sought the Wood in Summer,” tells of its protagonist despairing during the hot months. The trees tremble beautifully in the light, the daffodils glisten, yet every breath Beauty “gives the vagrant summer but swifter woos her death.” It’s not until the poet returns to the wood in winter that she sees the power of beauty, its ability to renew itself continually.

Amid the season’s heat and light, it’s easy sometimes to forget there has ever been or will be anything else. But we cannot judge a thing by the climate of one day, or even one month. It’s not until you spend years in a place that you know its true strengths and weaknesses, the range of miracles.”

From Earth Bound: Daily Meditations For All Seasons by Brian Nelson

“We need the tonic of wildness…At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature.”

Henry David Thoreau (1817 – 1862), transcendentalist, writer, naturalist, born on this day

Feast Day of St Benedict

“Let all guests who arrive be received as Christ, because He will say: “I was a stranger and you took Me in” (Mt 25:35)…

And above all let care be scrupulously shewn in receiving the poor and strangers; for in them specially is Christ received.”

From The Rule of St. Benedict, Chapter LIII

Artwork by Jules-Joseph Dauban

“The creation and the Creator are not two. Just as all golden jewelry is nothing but gold, just as all earthen pots are essentially nothing but clay, just as every wave is basically water, so too it is the Creator that has become this world.”

Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, known as Amma

“I stand on the edge of myself and wonder where is home?
Oh, where is the place where beauty will last?
When will I be safe? And where?

My tourist heart is wearing me out.
I am so tired of seeking for treasures that tarnish.
How much longer, Lord?
Oh, which way is home?
My luggage is heavy. It is weighing me down.
I am hungry for the holy ground of home.

Then suddenly, overpowering me with the truth,
A voice within me gentles me, and says:

There is a power in you, a truth in you
That has not yet been tapped.
You are blinded with a blindness that is deep
For you’ve not loved the pilgrim in you yet.

There is a road that runs straight through your heart.
Walk on it.

To be a pilgrim means to be on the move, slowly,
To notice your luggage becoming lighter
To be seeking for treasures that do not rust
To be comfortable with your heart’s questions
To be moving toward the holy ground of home
With empty hands and bare feet.

And yet, you cannot reach that home
Until you’ve loved the pilgrim in you.
One must be comfortable with pilgrimhood
Before one’s feet can touch the homeland.

Do you want to go home?
There’s a road that runs straight through your heart.
Walk on it.”

Tourist or Pilgrim? by Sister Macrina Wiederkehr (1939 – 2020)