Vernal Equinox and International Day of Happiness

“If you restore balance in your own self, you will be contributing immensely to the healing of the world.”

Deepak Chopra

“i’ve heard her calling me
late at night
between the wind
and the wings

my soul is a song
she sings along
the green unfurling
of leaves and loam

her branches speak
my truths alone
tell the wild
I’m coming home”

Angi Sullins

“What struck me most was the silence. It was a great silence, unlike any I have encountered on Earth, so vast and deep that I began to hear my own body: my heart beating, my blood vessels pulsing, even the rustle of my muscles moving over each other seemed audible. There were more stars in the sky than I had expected. The sky was deep black, yet at the same time bright with sunlight…

The Earth was small, light blue, and so touchingly alone, our home that must be defended like a holy relic. The Earth was absolutely round. I believe I never knew what the word round meant until I saw Earth from space.”

Alexei Leonov, first person to conduct a spacewalk, on this day in 1965

St. Patrick’s Day

“Images of leprechauns, magical creatures who live in the earth and play tricks on humans, are a staple of Saint Patrick’s Day. Yet like many legends, the leprechauns may have their basis in fact. In the so-called Dark Ages, it is believed that Lapps sailed across the sea from Lapland to make their homes on the warmer Emerald Isle. As they did in their native land, the Lapps – who were markedly shorter than the Irish – hollowed out homes under the sod.
The ways of the Lapps were mysterious to the natives and may have given rise to the legends of leprechauns. The ways of others often seem incomprehensible to us. Today, learn more about a tradition that seems alien to you. Perhaps you’ll find magic in it.”

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

“You are my Source, my Way, my Home.
In You I rest secure.
In You I gather strength.
In You I begin to see.

When fear arises
from within or from without
I remember
who You are
and how I am
in You.

Oh that I may dwell in You
day by day, moment by moment.
Then peace would be mine.
Then I could persevere
when the waters threaten to overwhelm.
Then my eyes would be filled with beauty
and my mouth with song.
Then courage and wisdom
would carry me to safe shores.

This I know:
You are.
In You,
I am.

Your goodness is seen
in the land of the living.
All who turn to You,
turn towards Home.”

Psalm 27 Redux by Carla Grosch-Miller

“To make life a little better for people less fortunate than you, that’s what I think a meaningful life is. One lives not just for oneself but for one’s community.”

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court (1933 – 2020), born on this day

“The moral decline we are compelled to witness and the suffering it engenders are so oppressive that one cannot ignore them even for a moment. No matter how deeply one immerses oneself in work, a haunting feeling of inescapable tragedy persists. Still, there are moments when one feels free from one’s own identification with human limitations and inadequacies. At such moments, one imagines that one stands on some spot of a small planet, gazing in amazement at the cold yet profoundly moving beauty of the eternal, the unfathomable: life and death flow into one, and there is neither evolution nor destiny; only being.”

Albert Einstein, theoretical physicist (1879 – 1955), born on this day, writing to Queen Mother Elisabeth of Belgium on 9 January 1939, asking for her help in getting his elderly cousin out of Germany into Belgium.

“Respect a parliamentary king, and chearfully pay all parliamentary taxes; but have nothing to do with a parliamentary religion, or a parliamentary God.
Religious rights, and religious liberty, are things of inestimable value. For these have many of our ancestors suffered and died; and shall we, in the sunshine of prosperity, desert that glorious cause, from which no storms of adversity or persecution could make them swerve? Let us consider if as a duty of the first rank with respect to moral obligation, to transmit to our posterity, and provide, as far as we can, for transmitting, unimpaired, to the latest generations, that generous zeal for religion and liberty, which makes the memory of our forefathers so truly illustrious.”

From Institutes of Natural and Revealed Religion by Unitarian minister and scientist, Joseph Priestley (1733 – 1804), born on this day

Image: Joseph Priestley playing backgammon as he receives the news that his house is about to be attacked by a mob, in 1791

“You gotta have a swine to show you where the truffles are.”

From Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1961) by Edward Albee, playwright (1928 – 2016), born on this day

“Meditation isn’t for avoiding problems or running away from difficulties. We don’t practice escaping. We practice so that we have enough strength to confront problems effectively. To do this, we must be calm, fresh, and solid. That is why we need to practice the art of stopping. When we learn to stop, we become calmer, and our mind becomes clearer, like clear water after the particles of mud have settled. Sitting quietly, just breathing in and out, we develop strength, concentration, and clarity. So sit like a mountain. No wind can blow the mountain down. If you can sit for half an hour, enjoy sitting for half an hour. If you can sit for a few minutes, enjoy sitting for a few minutes. That is already good.”

From Peace Is This Moment by Thich Nhat Hanh