World Children’s Day

“Science is the one human activity that is truly progressive. The body of positive knowledge is transmitted from generation to generation..

Wisdom cannot be directly transmitted, and does not readily accumulate through the ages.”

Edwin Hubble (1889 – 1953), astronomer, born on this day

Image by Ed Hengeveld

“Procrastination is subtle and invasive self-persuasion that second-guesses all avenues of possibility as they present themselves. It is always easier to leave a difficult decision to the next day, to put off reading and signing a complex document until a later date, to ignore a request until the time is more convenient and our mood more amenable. The prince of procrastination is Shakespeare’s Hamlet, who virtually worries himself into mental illness. When deferred actions are deferred too long, the fear around their performance becomes horrifically amplified.

When we are stuck in procrastination, we need “a rabbit-bolter” – something that flushes realizations out of their deep hiding places up to the surface of our attention. This bolter may involve taking a day off work and away from the family, going into nature or to a place of some peacefulness, without stimulus and interference from any outside source, so that our minds can cease their squirrel-cage contortions and come to rest in focused attention upon how we must act. In our prayers and in the companionship of our spiritual allies, we can ask for help, clarity, and strength to make the right decisions and to defer them no longer.”

From The Celtic Spirit: Daily Meditations for the Turning Year by Caitlin Matthews

“Water does not resist. Water flows. When you plunge your hand into it, all you feel is a caress. Water is not a solid wall, it will not stop you. But water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing in the end can stand against it. Water is patient. Dripping water wears away a stone. Remember that, my child. Remember you are half water. If you can’t go through an obstacle, go around it. Water does.”

From The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood, born on this day in 1939

“I take refuge in You, O God.
I turn to you in thanksgiving, I rest in you in difficulty.
I thank you for life in this beautiful place,
for a heritage which forms me and teaches me.
I thank you for the heart you planted within me, and for the
still small voice which urges it to grow.
My spirit is glad, and my body rests in hope.
You show me the path of life,
and in your presence is Joy.”

Psalm 16 Refuge by Christine Robinson

International Day for Tolerance

“The only way to make sure people you agree with can speak is to support the rights of people you don’t agree with.”

Eleanor Holmes Norton, US congresswoman and civil rights activist

“Every leaf that grows will tell you:
what you sow will bear fruit,
so if you have any sense my friend,
don’t plant anything but Love.”

Rumi

“Nobody sees a flower really; it is so small. We haven’t time, and to see takes time – like to have a friend takes time… When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it’s your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else.”

Georgia O’Keefe (1887 – 1986), painter, born on this day

“Everything changes, even stone.”

Claude Monet (1840 – 1926), painter, born on this day

“Truth is the only safe ground to stand on… We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal.”

Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815 – 1902), women’s rights activist, born on this day

WWI Armistice Day

“November eleventh, accidentally my birthday, was a sacred day called Armistice Day. When I was a boy.. all the people of all the nations which had fought in the First World War were silent during the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of Armistice Day, which was the eleventh day of the eleventh month. It was during that minute in nineteen hundred and eighteen, that millions upon millions of human beings stopped butchering one another. I have talked to old men who were on battlefields during that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the sudden silence was the Voice of God.”

From Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut (1922 – 2007), born on this day

Image: US 64th Regiment celebrate the Armistice