“We do not have to build a church. Let us be complete in ourselves. Let us drink ourselves empty, give ourselves fully, extend ourselves outward – until, at last, the waving treetops are our own gestures and our laughter is resurrected in the children who play beneath them…”

Rainer Maria Rilke, quoted in A Year with Rilke by Joanna Macy and Anita Barrows

DIWALI

“The light is not in the stars, but in the lamp that burns in our hands.”

Rabindranath Tagore (1861 – 1941), Bengali polymath

“One of the best pieces of advice I ever got was from a horse master. He told me to go slow to go fast. I think that applies to everything in life. We live as though there aren’t enough hours in the day but if we do each thing calmly and carefully we will get it done quicker and with much less stress.”

Viggo Mortensen, actor and filmmaker, born on this day in 1958

Image: Grooming Horse (1909) by Robert Polhill Bevan (1865 – 1925)

“I lift my eyes to the hills.
From whence will my help come?
My help comes from the creativity of the cosmos
Which is making the heavens and the earth.
It comes also from the core of myself.
It is my guide and hope.
On this path I am safe
Whatever befalls me.”

Psalm 121 The Hills by Christine Robinson

Image: New Mexico Hills by Marsden Hartley (1877 – 1943)

“In an age of speed, I began to think, nothing could be more invigorating than going slow. In an age of distraction, nothing can feel more luxurious than paying attention.”

Pico Iyer, travel writer

“It is better to keep quiet about our beliefs, and live them out, than to talk eloquently about what we believe, but fail to live by it.”

Saint Ignatius of Antioch (died c. 107), Feast Day today

“It will be a marvellous thing–the true personality of man–when we see it. It will grow naturally and simply, flowerlike, or as a tree grows. It will not be at discord. It will never argue or dispute. It will not prove things. It will know everything. And yet it will not busy itself about knowledge. It will have wisdom. Its value will not be measured by material things. It will have nothing. And yet it will have everything, and whatever one takes from it, it will still have, so rich will it be. It will not be always meddling with others, or asking them to be like itself. It will love them because they will be different. And yet while it will not meddle with others, it will help all, as a beautiful thing helps us, by being what it is. The personality of man will be very wonderful. It will be as wonderful as the personality of a child.”

From The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891), by Oscar Wilde (1854 – 1900), born on this day

“I believe natural beauty has a necessary place in the spiritual development of any individual or any society. I believe that whenever we destroy beauty, or whenever we substitute something man-made and artificial for a natural feature of the earth, we have retarded some part of man’s spiritual growth… As human beings, we are part of the whole stream of life… Our origins are of the earth. And so there is in us a deeply seated response to the natural universe, which is part of our humanity.”

Rachel Carson, marine biologist and conservationist (1907 – 1964)

“The result of a consistent and total substitution of lies for factual truth is not that the lie will now be accepted as truth, and truth be defamed as lie, but that the sense by which we take our bearings in the real world – and the category of truth versus falsehood is among the mental means to this end – is being destroyed.”

Hannah Arendt (1906 – 1975), political theorist, born on this day

“I try to open up my heart as much as I can and keep a real keen eye out that I don’t get sentimental. I think we’re all afraid to reveal our hearts. It’s not at all in fashion.”

Paul Simon, singer-songwriter, born on this day in 1941