Mystery in a Traffic Light

Life’s wonder and mystery can be discovered as easily at a traffic light as on a mountaintop.
• Ezra Bayda in Saying Yes to Life

Traffic light in Vatican City by statue of St. Catherine of Siena
Traffic light in Vatican City by statue of St. Catherine of Siena

Forgiveness of the Violet

Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.
-Mark Twain in Untrain Your Parrot by Elizabeth Ham

Not exactly crushed, but a little past its prime
Not exactly crushed, but a little past its prime

ilton

To Develop the Eye of an Artist

To look at something as though we had never seen it before requires great courage.
– Henri Matisse

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Another View of Compassion

Compassion is the keen awareness of the interdependence of all things.

– Thomas Merton in The Mystic Hours by Wayne Teasdale

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All Creation Teaches Us

One should pay attention to even the smallest crawling creature for these may have a valuable lesson to teach us.

– Black Elk in All Our Relatives by Paul Goble

Clustered, creeping lady bugs
Clustered, creeping lady bugs

Using Wise Caution

Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river.

– A Chang Proverb in Generous Strangers by John Skoyles

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He looks like he’s sleeping. But who knows?!

 

Wisdom of Don Quixote

Sanity may be madness but the maddest of all is to see life as it is and not as it should be.

-Don Quixote

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I can’t think of Don Quijote without thinking of windmills

Choose Hope

Once you choose hope, anything’s possible.
-Christopher Reeve

Open to hope!
Open to hope!

How Do You Know What Is Important?

Sister Theophane Lewis's pressed flowers
Sister Theophane Lewis’s pressed flowers

A certain Bektashi dervish was respected for his piety and appearance of virtue. Whenever anyone asked him how he had become so holy, he always answered: “I know what is in the Koran.” One day he had just given this reply to an enquirer in a coffee-house, when an imbecile asked: “Well, what is in the Koran?” “In the Koran,” said the Bektashi, “there are two pressed flowers and a letter from my friend Abdullah.

-Idries Shah

If You Truly Desire Peace . . .

Love it the way it is.
-Thaddeus Golas, The Lazy Man’s Guide to Enlightenment

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These sculptures at Chrissy Field are not my favorite, but I still love the place as it is