“God writes the gospel not in the Bible alone, but on trees and flowers and clouds and stars.”

Martin Luther, born on this day in 1483

“The world isn’t getting any easier. With all these new inventions I believe that people are hurried more and pushed more… The hurried way is not the right way; you need time for everything – time to work, time to play, time to rest.”

Hedy Lamarr, actress and inventor, born on this day in 1914

“A Unitarian holds the view that no-one has yet found the final and complete truth. We can, however, try to grasp a good measure of it and hold it till we become capable of something more. The search for truth has its own reward – it brings new meaning and dignity into life.”

Gábor Kerecki (1914 – 1995), Unitarian minister

“The older one gets, the more one feels that the present must be enjoyed; it is a precious gift, comparable to a state of grace.”

Marie Curie, born on this day in 1867

“O Great Spirit, whose voice I hear in the winds,
and whose breath gives life to all the world – hear me.
I am small and weak. I need your strength and wisdom.
Let me walk in beauty, and make my eyes ever behold the red and purple sunset.
Let me learn the lesson hidden in every leaf and rock.”

 ‘Red Cloud’ (Mahpiua Luta), 1822 – 1909, chief of the Oglala Lakota nation

“When the mind is festering with trouble or the heart torn, we can find healing among the silence of mountains or fields, or listen to the simple, steadying rhythm of waves. The slowness and stillness gradually takes us over. Our breathing deepens and our hearts calm and our hungers relent. When serenity is restored, new perspectives open to us and difficulty can begin to seem like an invitation to new growth.

This invitation to friendship with nature does of course entail a willingness to be alone out there. Yet this aloneness is anything but lonely. Solitude gradually clarifies the heart until a true tranquillity is reached. The irony is that at the heart of that aloneness you feel intimately connected with the world. Indeed, the beauty of nature is often the wisest balm for it gently relieves and releases the caged mind.”

John O’Donohue

“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”

Rainer Maria Rilke

Image: Portrait of Rilke by Leonid Pasternak

“In a true awakening, it is realized very clearly that even the awakening itself is not personal. It is universal Spirit or universal consciousness that wakes up to itself. Rather than the “me” waking up, what we are wakes up from the “me”. In awakening, what’s revealed to us is that we are not a thing, nor a person, nor even an entity. What we are is that which manifests as all things, as all experiences, as all personalities. We are that which dreams the whole world into existence. Spiritual awakening reveals that that which is unspeakable, is actually what we are.”

Adyashanti

Enduring Blessing by Jan Richardson

“What I really want to tell you
is to just lay this blessing
on your forehead,
on your heart;
let it rest
in the palm of your hand,
because there is hardly anything
this blessing could say,
any word it could offer
to fill the hollow.
Let this blessing
work its way
into you
with its lines
that hold nearly
unspeakable lament.
Let this blessing
settle into you
with its hope
more ancient
than knowing.
Hear how this blessing
has not come alone—
how it echoes with
the voices of those
who accompany you,
who attend you in every moment,
who continually whisper
this blessing to you.
Hear how they
do not cease
to walk with you,
even when the dark
is deepest.
Hear how they
encompass you always—
breathing this blessing to you,
bearing this blessing to you
still.”

“Perpetual Presence, always near to us, may the fire of our gratitude be kindled and our souls flame up towards You.
We thank You for the world of matter under our feet, over our head, and about us on every side.
We thank You for the bread we eat, for the garments we put on, for the houses which hold us, for the sleep which all night slides into our bones, bringing strength to the weary and health to the sick.
We thank You for the vast gifts which You have bestowed upon us, for these bodies so wonderfully made, for the ever-questioning mind which hungers for truth and beauty, for the vision of You held by Your children of every age and every land.
We thank You for great philosophers and prophets and poets who have gathered justice and taught love as well as for the billions of unremembered men and women who in their common callings were faithful to the light which shone upon them, and we rejoice in the heritage which their toil has won and bequeathed to us.
O God, our Father and our Mother, may we know You as You are, for Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever.”