RESOURCES

• The Artist Way by Julia Cameron

• Scarred by Struggle, Transformed by Hope by Joan D. Chittister

• When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chödrön

• The Path to Kindness by James Crews

• The Gift of the Red Bird by Paula D’Arcy

• Stars at Night by Paula D’Arcy

• The Seasons of the Soul by Hermann Hesse

• The Dance of the Dissident Daughter by Sue Monk Kidd

• The Book of Awakening by Mark Nepo

• To Bless the Space Between Us by John O’Donohue

• Devotions: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver by Mary Oliver

• Praying the Elements by Christine Valters Paintner

• My Grandfather’s Blessings by Rachel Naomi Remen

• The Sanctuary of Women by Jan Richardson

• Just This by Richard Rohr

• All the Honey by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

• The Flowing Grace of Now by Macrina Wiederkehr

• Still Possible by David Whyte

• The Music of Strangers

• Yo-Yo Ma and The Silk Road Ensemble

• Finding Joe

• My Octopus Teacher

• The Way

• Mr. Rogers and Me

The Way In

• Whoever you are: some evening take a step
  out of your house, which you know so well.
  Enormous space is near, your house lies where it begins,
  whoever you are.
  Your eyes find it hard to tear themselves
  from the sloping threshold, but with your eyes
  slowly, slowly, lift one black tree
  up, so it stands against the sky: skinny, alone.
  With that you have made the world. The world is immense
  and like a word that is still growing in the silence.
  In the same moment that your will grasps it,
  your eyes, feeling its subtlety, will leave it. . . .

~ Rainer Maria Rilke, Selected Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke, trans. by Robert Bly, p. 71

The Guest House

• This being human is a guest house.
  Every morning a new arrival.
  A joy, a depression, a meanness,
  some momentary awareness comes
  as an unexpected visitor.
  Welcome and entertain them all!
  Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
  who violently sweep your house
  empty of its furniture,
  still, treat each guest honorably.
  He may be clearing you out
  for some new delight.
  The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
  meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.
  Be grateful for whatever comes.
  because each has been sent
  as a guide from beyond.

~ © 1997 by Coleman Barks. Posted with permission. All rights reserved. From The Illuminated Rumi

Love Matters

• Sometimes we forget

  How precious life is

  How each day matters

  Not everyone has the opportunity to grow old

  Life is unpredictable

  Out of our control

  Natural disasters, illness, accidents happen

  How we love ourselves

  How we love each other

  How we love the world

  Matters

  ~Laura Vaughan

The Clearing

• Do not try to save
  the whole world
  or do anything grandiose.

• Instead, create
  a clearing
  in the dense forest
  of your life
  and wait there
  patiently,
  until the song that is your life
  falls into your own cupped hands
  and you recognize and greet it.

• Only then will you know
  how to give yourself
  to this world
  so worthy of rescue.

~Martha Postelwaite

• “ The true work of our lives is love.”
  ~ Paula D'Arcy

• “Let God be the God of your life; let go of all the things you think you need to be or of the things you think you need to do. Stop trying to control your life and your destiny and allow yourself to be loved by God who accepts you as you are, in your truest self, and desires you as you are, with all your fragile limits. This God of compassionate love is closer to you than you are to yourself. God knows your pain and your sufferings: God is the compassionate One.”
  ~ from Compassion: Living in the Spirit of St. Francis by Ilia Delio, OSF

• "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye."
  ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery, The Little Prince

• "If we are absolutely grounded in the absolute love of God that protects us in all things, then we can face all things with courage and tenderness and touch the hurting places in others and in ourselves with love."
  ~ James Finley

• "Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom."
  ~ Victor Frankl

• "We belong to something so much greater than our individual lives."
  ~ Paula D'Arcy

• "Let go of all that seems to suggest getting somewhere, being someone, having a name and a voice, following a policy and directing people in my ways. What matters is to love."
  ~ Thomas Merton

• "Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it."
  ~ Rumi

• "All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well...For there is a force of love moving through the universe that holds us fast and will never let us go."
  ~ Julian of Norwich