December 2010
35 posts
A different New Year's Resolution
*”Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” * Mark Twain
There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition, and of unspeakable love.
Washington Irving
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tears
*There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition, and of unspeakable love.* *** *Washington Irving heard as a quote from another
Noël
by Anne Porter
When snow is shaken From the balsam trees And they’re cut down And brought into our housesWhen clustered sparks Of many-colored fire Appear at night In ordinary windows We hear and sing The customary carols They bring us ragged miracles And hay and candles And flowering weeds of poetry That are loved all the more Because they are so commonBut there are carols That...
NOEL
Noël by Anne Porter When snow is shaken From the balsam trees And they’re cut down And brought into our houses When clustered sparks Of many-colored fire Appear at night In ordinary windows We hear and sing The customary carols They bring us ragged miracles And hay and candles And flowering weeds of poetry That are loved all the more Because they are so common But there are carols That carry...
Roses are reddish Violets are bluish If it weren’t for Christmas We’d all be Jewish.
Benny Hill
Shared by a research associate. Permalink | Leave a comment »
Christmas poetry
*Roses are reddish Violets are bluish If it weren’t for Christmas We’d all be Jewish. * *Benny Hill* *Shared by a research associate.*
Do you have an idea?
*At Rockefeller Plaza with its famous ice rink and beautifully lit tree, there were decorative posters that featured a snowstorm of adjectives like “magical,” “wondrous,” “awesome,” “thrilling,” and “fantastic.” No nouns, just a blitz of adjectives. We’re excited, the posters seemed to declare, but we have no idea about what, or at least we’re not telling.* Tony Robinson
The gifts of Christmas
*To your enemy, forgiveness.* *To an opponent, tolerance.* *To a friend, your heart.* *To a customer, service.* *To all, charity.* *To every child, a good example.* *To yourself, respect.* Novelist Oren Arnold’s Christmas gift suggestions
The Day Itself
*And here we are again,* *that time set - like no* *other - almost out of time,* *when memory and hope combine* *to make all kinds of rich ideas* *believable, not just to children,* *but to all who still can taste* *enchantment’s wine of sheer* *astonishment across the daily downturned lip.* * * *For despite all our attempts* *at merrymaking, Christmas comes* *sublime and by its ancient...
Theotokos ('God-bearer' or 'the one who gives...
*”Mary represents the ‘rebel consciousness’ that is essential to Jesus’ gospel. Wherever the gospel is preached, we must remember that its good news will make you crazy. Jesus will put you at odds with the economic and political systems of our world. This gospel will force you to act, interrupting the world as it is in ways that make even pious people indignant.”*...
Ten Commandments
*”Concerning the Ten Commandments in courthouses and legislatures: You cannot post ‘Thou Shalt Not Steal,’ ‘Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery,’ and ‘Thou Shall Not Lie’ in a building full of lawyers, judges and politicians…It creates a hostile work environment.”*** * * *with apologies to all offended attorneys.* * * *Found on...
2 commandments; the rest is just commentary
Love you G-d.
Love your neighbor.
How many more commandments do you need?
who are you?
*”Be Yourself. Everyone Else Is Taken!”* found at the end of an email from a friend.
truth as revolutionary
*“During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.”* * * *George Orwell* * * An email header from the Public Citizen, a national, nonprofit consumer advocacy organization
Advent IV - the Dream of Joseph
*The interpretation of dreams is the royal road to knowledge of the soul*. Sigmund Freud *Your vision will only become clear when you look inside your heart…Who looks outside dreams; who looks inside, awakes*. Carl Jung
The cry
** *Our ego is the agent that does not allow the bundle of desires, drives, and needs in us to come to resolution. That is precisely how it shores up in us such a profound dependency on this world. * *… The process wherein the ego ceases to forget God is the same as the one wherein it begins to forget itself.* ** Dorothee Soelle, *(1929-2003) *a German liberation theologian, former professor of...
Christmas
*”There is no ideal Christmas; only the one Christmas you decide to make as a reflection of your values, desires, affections, traditions.”* Bill McKibben,* *environmentalist and writer from Boston, *Hundred Dollar Holiday: The Case For a More Joyful Christmas* *Shared by a research assistant*
From the Head Elf
*”The need is greater this year than I’ve ever seen it. One little girl didn’t want anything for herself. She wanted a winter coat for her mother.”* * * “Head Elf” Pete Fontana at New York City’s main post office, who leads a staff of 22 people in sorting 2 million letters in Operation Santa, which connects needy children with “Secret Santas” who answer their...
Re: abandoning old dreams
-Simeon 1-562-Min-shew http://minshew.net On Tue, Dec 14, 2010 at 5:39 AM, the starthrower wrote: > *For, after all, you do grow up, you do outgrow your ideals, which turn to > dust and ashes, which are shattered into fragments; and if you have no other > life, you just have to build one up out of these fragments. And all the time > your soul is craving and longing for something else....
Re: On Exercise Frequency
On Exercise Frequency
*One reasonable approach is to exercise on every day that you don’t want to have a heart attack or stroke.* *Some authorities recommend exercising on every day ending in “y”.* * * *Miles Hassell, M.D., Good Food, Great Medicine, p. 47*
Anselm
*Teach me to seek you, and when I seek you show yourself to me,* *for I cannot seek you unless you teach me, nor can I find you unless you show yourself to me.* *Let me seek you in desiring you and desire you in seeking you,* *find you in loving you and love you in finding you.* * * Anselm of Canterbury, 1033-1109 Proslogion (or *Discourse on the Existence of God)*
THE question
*It is not enough for me to ask questions;* *I want to know how to answer the one question that seems to encompass everything I face:* ***What am I here for?* Abraham Joshua Heschel
always preparing ourselves
*Therefore I say: In every gift, in every work, we ought to learn to look toward God, and we should not allow ourselves to be satisfied or be detained by any thing. Whatever our way of life may be, we must not cease to progress; this has been true for everyone, however far he may have advanced. Above all else, we should always be preparing ourselves, always renewing ourselves to receive...
What is your hope?
*“The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. * *And the most you can do is live inside that hope.* *Not admire it from a distance but live right in it, under its roof.”* Barbara Kingsolver Shared by a research associate
second quote of the day
Sorry about this, but can anyone tell me who put the Jr High kids in charge of the government and when it happened? I am puzzled as to how this stuff goes on and we aren’t all totally outraged. This is from a recent column by Thomas Friedman. *…the cynical quote of the week — courtesy of The Daily Beast — goes to Dan Bartlett, the former George W. Bush administration spokesman who was...
Mystery of Advent
*The Advent mystery is the beginning of the end of all in us that is not yet Christ. * Thomas Merton
What must I do?
*What must be the first step of the self upon this road to perfect union with the Absolute? Clearly, a getting rid of all those elements of normal experience which are not in harmony with reality: of illusion, evil, imperfection of every kind. … A literal and deliberate getting out of the cave must be for every mystic, as it was for Plato’s prisoners, the first step in the individual hunt for...
it all about the paperwork
*”We can lick gravity, but sometimes the paperwork is overwhelming.”* Wernher von Braun (1912-1977) U.S. scientist - designed the V-2 rocket; after World War II, became a U.S. citizen and an engineer on U.S. space program. Found on the internets
St Anselm
*Come on now little man, get away from your worldly occupations for a while, escape from your tumultuous thoughts. Lay aside your burdensome cares and put off your laborious exertions. Give yourself over to God for a little while, and rest for a while in God. Enter into the cell of your mind, shut out everything except God and whatever helps you to seek once the door is shut. Speak now, my heart,...
70x7
*A brother once sorrowfully asked Sisoes the Great:* *”Father, what can I do? I have fallen into sin.”* *The Staretz answered him: “Rise again.”* *The brother said: “I rose up and fell.”* *The Staretz answered: “Rise again.”* *The brother answered: “How often must I fall and rise up?”* *The Staretz said: “Until your death.”*...
action
*It is not what you believe that counts;* *It is what you believe enough to do.* Richard Stearns, President of World Vision, USA, *The Hole in our Gospel p.* 87
living water
*Our brokenness is the wound through which the full power of God can penetrate our being and transfigure us in God. Loneliness is not something from which we must flee but the place from where we can cry out to God, where God will find us and we can find God. Yes, through our wounds the power of God can penetrate us and become like rivers of living water to irrigate the arid earth within us. Thus...
Accept your acceptance
*“Don’t struggle and strive so, my child* *There is no race to complete, no point to prove, no obstacle to conquer for you to win my love. I have already given it to you. I loved you before creation drew its first breath. I dreamed you as I molded Adam from the mud. I saw you wet from the womb. And I loved you then.”** * Mpho Tutu and Desmond Tutu, *Made for Goodnes*s