“My soul can find no staircase to Heaven unless it be through Earth’s loveliness.”

Michelangelo (1475 – 1564), born on this day

“I who am Divine am truly in you. I can never be sundered from you; however far we be parted, never can we be separated. I am in you and you are in Me. We could not be any closer. We two are fused into one, poured into a single mould; thus unwearied, we shall remain forever.”

Mechthild of Magdeburg (c. 1207 – 1282), quoted in Christian Mystics by Matthew Fox

“Springtime is upon us.
The birds celebrate her return with festive song,
and murmuring streams are
softly caressed by the breezes.
Thunderstorms, those heralds of Spring, roar,
casting their dark mantle over heaven.
Then they die away to silence,
and the birds take up their magical songs once more.”

Antonio Vivaldi (1678 – 1741), born on this day

World Wildlife Day

“We are beginning to learn that each animal has a life and a place and a role in this world. If we place compassion and care in the middle of all our dealings with the animal world and honor and respect their lives, our attitudes will change..

Each one of us matters, has a role to play, and makes a difference. Each one of us must take responsibility for our own lives, and above all, show respect and love for living things around us, especially each other..

Let us develop respect for all living things. Let us try to replace violence and intolerance with understanding and compassion. And love.”

Jane Goodall

“Life’s just one great journey.. What makes that journey worthwhile is the people we choose to travel with, the people we hold close as we take steps into the darkness and blindly make our way through life. They’re the people who matter.”

Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss (1904 – 1991), born on this day

Zero Discrimination Day

“When I was born, I was colored. I soon became a Negro. Not long after that I was black. Most recently I was African-American. It seems we’re on a roll here. But I am still first and foremost in search of freedom.”

Harry Belafonte (1927 – 2023), born on this day

“If the two wings of a bird are devotion and spiritual actions, spiritual knowledge is its tail. Only with the help of all three can the bird soar into the heights.”

Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, known as Amma

“I have something that I call my Golden Rule. It goes something like this: ‘Do unto others twenty-five percent better than you expect them to do unto you.’ … The twenty-five percent is for error.”

Linus Pauling, Unitarian Universalist, chemist and peace activist (1901 – 1994), born on this day

“Revolutionary love is the call of our times.

If you cringe when people say that love is the answer, I do, too. I am not talking about sentimentality or civility or thoughts and prayers. I am talking about love as labor, a conscious embodied practice. Social reformers and spiritual teachers throughout history led entire nonviolent movements anchored in the ethic of love. Time and again, people gave their bodies and breath for one another, not only in the face of fire hoses and firing squads but also in the quieter venues of their daily lives. Black feminists like bell hooks have long envisioned a world where the love ethic is a foundation for all arenas of our society. It’s time to reclaim love as a force for justice..

Love is a form of sweet labor: fierce, bloody, imperfect, and life-giving – a choice we make over and over again. Love as labor can be taught, modeled, and practiced. This labor engages all our emotions. Joy is the gift of love. Grief is the price of love. Anger protects that which is loved. And when we think we have reached our limit, wonder is the act that returns us to love.

“Revolutionary love” is the choice to labor for others, for our opponents, and for ourselves in order to transform the world around us. It begins with wonder: You are a part of me I do not yet know. It is not a formal code or prescription but an orientation to life that is personal and political, sustained by joy. Loving only ourselves is escapism; loving only our opponents is self-loathing; loving only others is ineffective. All three practices together make love revolutionary, and revolutionary love can only be practiced in community.”

From See No Stranger by Valarie Kaur

“You who let yourselves feel: enter the breathing
that is more than your own.
Let it brush your cheeks
as it divides and rejoins behind you.

Blessed ones, whole ones,
you where the heart begins:
You are the bow that shoots the arrows
and you are the target.

Fear not the pain. Let its weight fall back
into the earth;
for heavy are the mountains, heavy the seas.

The trees you planted in childhood have grown
too heavy. You cannot bring them along.
Give yourselves to the air, to what you cannot hold.”

Sonnets to Orpheus I, 4 by Rainer Maria Rilke