- Marianne Williamson

God, I am scurrying around like a chicken with her head cut off,
  making a mess everywhere I light.

Why God, when I know if I wait quietly and listen for your guidance,
  I do better and work more efficiently, do I rush about
  - driven by time, rather than by you?

Help me, God to slow down, to be silent,
  so I can hear you and your will and not mine.

- Marian Wright Edelman
Guide My Feet, p.67  
(an incredible woman, an excellent book)

- from a wall of the chapel at Stanford University
(some Stanford daughter wrote it, I think)

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
 Where there is hatred, let me sow love,
 Where there is injury, pardon;
 Where there is doubt, faith;
 Where there is despair, hope;
 Where there is darkness, light;
 And where there is sadness, joy.

Divine Master, grant, that I may not so much
 seek to be consoled as to console,
 to be understood as to understand,
 to be loved, as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive,
 it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
 and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

- St. Francis of Assisi

May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind blow at your back,
May the sun shine warmly on your face.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of his hand.

- Irish blessing

A genuine revolution of values means in the final analysis that our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to humankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies.

This call for a world-wide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one's tribe, race, class and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing and unconditional love.... This often misunderstood and misinterpreted concept has now become an absolute necessity for our survival... When I speak of love, I am speaking of that force which all great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. Love is the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality. This Hindu-Moslem-Christian-Jewish-Buddhist belief about ultimate reality is beautifully summed up in the First Epistle of Saint John:

Let us love one another: for love is of God:
And every one that loveth is born of God,
and Knoweth God…; for God is love…
If we love one another, God dwelleth in us,
and his love is perfected in us.

Let us hope that this spirit will become the order of the day.

- Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community

Everybody can be great...
  because anybody can serve.
You don't have to have a college degree to serve.
You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve.
You only need a heart full of grace.
A soul generated by love.

- Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Oh, Great Spirit, whose voice I hear in the wind,
Whose breath gives life to all the world.
Hear me; I need your strength and wisdom.
Let me walk in beauty, and make my eyes ever behold the red and purple sunset.
Make my hands respect the things you have made and my ears sharp to hear your voice
Make me wise so that I may understand the things you have taught my people.
Help me to remain calm and strong in the face of all that comes towards me.
Let me learn the lessons you have hidden in every leaf and rock.
Help me seek pure thoughts and act with the intention of helping others.
Help me find compassion without empathy overwhelming me.
I seek strength, not to be greater than my brother, but to fight my greatest enemy - Myself.
Make me always ready to come to you with clean hands and straight eyes.
So when life fades, as the fading sunset, my spirit may come to you without shame.

- Iroquois Prayer

D E S I D E R A T A

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons. * Speak your truth quietly and clearly, and listen to others, even to the dull and ignorant, they too have their story. * Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexatious to the spirit. If you compare yourself to others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. * Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble, it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time. * Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is , many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism. * Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love, for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment, it is as perennial as the grass. * Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. * Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. * Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars, you have a right to be here. * And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations in the noisy confusion of life keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

- Max Ehrmann

R I S K S

To laugh is to risk appearing the fool.
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.
To reach out for another is to risk involvement.
To expose feelings is to risk exposing your true self.
To place your ideas, your dreams, before a crowd is to risk their loss.
To love is to risk not being loved in return.
To live is to risk dying.
To hope is to risk dispair.
To try is to risk failure.
But risks must be taken, because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.
The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, and is nothing.
They may avoid suffering and sorrow,
but they cannot learn, feel, change, grow, love, live.
Only a person who risks is free.

- Janet Rand

A friend is one who knows you as you are,
understands where you've been,
accepts who you've become,
and still gently invites you to grow.

- from the wall of a First Day School classroom
at Sandy Spring Friends, BYM

Love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking together in the same direction.

- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Wind, Sand, and Stars

There is always a bit of insanity in love, but there is always a bit of reason in insanity.

- Friedrich Nietzsche

A hundred years from now
it will not matter
what my bank account was,
the sort of house I lived in,
or the kind of car I drove...
but the world may be different because I was important
in the life of a child.

- Unknown

Work like you don’t need the money.
Love like you’ve never been hurt.
Dance like nobody’s watching.

- Unknown

I try to give to the poor people for love what the rich could get for money. No, I wouldn’t touch a leper for a thousand pounds; yet I willingly cure him for the love of God.

- Mother Teresa,
A Gift for God, ”Riches”

Do you want me to tell you something really subversive?
Love is everything it’s cracked up to be. That’s why people are so cynical about it.... It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for. And the trouble is, if you don’t risk anything, you risk even more.

- Erica Jong, How to Save Your Own Life, "Intuition, extuition..."

The greatest gift our children can give us is a capacity to see the world anew. Parents gain increased awareness if they allow their children to be their teachers.

- Friends Testimonies in the Home

When people change the way they think, things will never be the same.

- S. Biko

A woman is like a tea bag.
You never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water.

- Eleanor Roosevelt

When we are dreaming alone, it is only a dream.
When we are dreaming with others, it is the beginning of reality.

- Dom Helder Camara

Remember everything I told you, keep it in your heart like a stone. And when the winds have blown things round and back again what was once your pain will be your home...
Remember everything I told you, everything in it’s own time.
A lesson learned a loving God and things in their own time. In nothing more do I trust.

- Emily Saliers