Posts tagged ‘new york’
Wednesday of Hope – Hope in Chaos
Whenever there is chaos, it creates wonderful thinking. I consider chaos a gift.
– Septima Clark
The Job of a Lighthouse
Lighthouses don’t go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining.
– Anne Lamott
Wednesday of Hope – Hopefulness Is Not Romantic
The United Nations was established in Hope
To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction./ And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.
– Howard Zinn
Whole Worlds of Wonder even in a Single Drop of Water
Mountains and oceans have whole worlds of innumerable wondrous features. We should understand that it is not only our distant surroundings that are like this, but even what is right here, even a single drop of water.
– Eihei Dogen
Wednesday of Hope – Staring Despair in the Face
Faith is crumpling and throwing away everything, proposition by proposition, until nothing is left, and then writing a new proposition, your very own, to throw in the teeth of despair.
– Mary Jean Irion, Yes, World: A Mosaic of Meditation
Wednesday of Hope – Hopeful in Bad Times
To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives.
– Howard Zinn
Wednesday of Hope – Which Does Not Depend on Hopes
Faith leads to beliefs, just as hope leads to hopes. Yet faith does not depend on beliefs, nor does hope depend on hopes.
– David Steindl-Rast
