“I say to people that I’m not an optimist, because that, in a sense is something that depends on feelings more than the actual reality. We feel optimistic, or we feel pessimistic. Now, hope is different in that it is based not in the ephemerality of feelings but on the firm ground of conviction. I believe with a steadfast faith that there can never be a situation that is utterly, totally hopeless. Hope is deeper and very, very close to unshakable. It’s in the pit of your tummy. It’s not in your head…

Despair can come from deep grief, but it can also be a defence against the risks of bitter disappointment and shattering heartbreak. Resignation and cynicism are easier, more self-soothing postures that do not require the raw vulnerability and tragic risk of hope. To choose hope is to step firmly forward into the howling wind, baring one’s chest to the elements, knowing that, in time, the storm will pass.”

Desmond Tutu

“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.”

Marie Curie, first woman to win the Nobel prize in 1903, who died on this day in 1934

A Non-traditional Blessing by Sister Ruth Fox, OSB

“May God bless you with discontent with easy answers, half-truths, superficial relationships, so that you will live from deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, abuse, and exploitation of people, so that you will work for justice, equality, and peace.

May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation and war, so that you will reach out your hand to comfort them and to change their pain to joy.

May God bless you with the foolishness to think you can make a difference in this world, so that you will do the things which others tell you cannot be done.

If you have the courage to accept these blessings, then God will also bless you with:

Happiness—because you will know that you have made life better for others;

Inner peace—because you will have worked to secure an outer peace for others;

Laughter—because your heart will be light;

Faithful friends—because they will recognize your worth as a person.

These blessings are yours—not for the asking, but for the giving—from One who wants to be your companion, our God, who lives and reigns, forever and ever. Amen.”

“The following story comes from the Talmud:
Before we’re born, while in our mother’s womb, the Almighty sends an angel to sit beside us and teach us all the wisdom for living we’ll ever need to know. Then, just before we’re born, the angel taps us under the nose (forming the philtrum, the indentation that everyone has under their nose), and we forget everything the angel taught us.

What does this story teach?

That truth and wisdom is “right under your nose!”

We can look inside ourselves to learn what life is about. Buried within the subconscious mind, in the farthest corner of our memory, lies the knowledge of everything we need to know: The purpose of life, how to love, how to reach our potential. Our task is to bring that knowledge to the conscious mind – i.e. to make the effort to remember!

Nobody can ever teach you anything new. They can only help you get in touch with what you already intuitively know to be true.

“Education” means drawing out what is already inside the student. Beware of educators who try to impose their position on you.”

Rabbi Noah Weinberg

“Patience is not sitting and waiting, it is foreseeing. It is looking at the thorn and seeing the rose, looking at the night and seeing the day. Lovers are patient and know that the moon needs time to become full.”

Shams Tabrizi

“Why go to search forests to find the Divine? The One who dwells in all hearts pervades your heart also. Just as fragrance fills the rose and reflection the mirror, God pervades all; search inside yourself. Know that the Om pervades inside and out. Without knowing yourself, doubt will not be removed.”

Guru Tegh Bahadur, ninth Sikh guru (1666 – 1708)

“Teach us, O God, that when our fetters seem too strong to break, the time has come at last when we must break them.”

A Powell Davies (1902 – 1957), Unitarian minister

“Freedom is never a reaction. To be stuck in reaction is bondage, bondage to the one against whom we re-act. Freedom is observing our reactions. In that seeing, reaction dissolves. Then we can act from stillness, the silence of the Seer. Stillness is a lightning bolt. Silence is a diamond with ten thousand eyes. Why not act like a mountain floating on a sea of blossoms?”

Fred Lamotte

“A crust of bread and a corner to sleep in,
A minute to smile and an hour to weep in,
A pint of joy to a peck of trouble,
And never a laugh but the moans come double;
And that is life!

A crust and a corner that love makes precious,
With a smile to warm and the tears to refresh us;
And joy seems sweeter when cares come after,
And a moan is the finest of foils for laughter;
And that is life!”

Paul Laurence Dunbar, born on this day in 1872

Anniversary of the signing of the Charter of the United Nations in 1945

“Let us teach that the honour of a nation consists not in the forced submission of other states, but in equal laws and free institutions, in cultivated fields and prosperous cities; in the development of intellectual and moral power, in the diffusion of knowledge, in magnanimity and justice, the virtues and blessings of peace.”

William Ellery Channing (1780 – 1842), Unitarian minister and theologian