How Did The Rose?

How
did the rose
ever open its heart
and give to this world all of its beauty?
It felt the encouragement of light against its being,
otherwise we all remain too
frightened.

Hafiz

AM Declaration

It is a great day to be alive. 
Another morning
Another breath
Another cup of coffee
Life is good today.
     T. J. Grey

Lift Them Up

Do not leave them sitting in the dirt.
Lift them up.

But how do I lift them up?
They might be happy where they are
or too fearful to move. So what's the use?

If they seem to be reluctant to rise to you,
You might try sitting down with them.
               T. J. Grey

Taking Care Of Me - - -

Don't hide  from me.
Tell me how you are.
I want to hear the truth 
and not your fantasy.

Life is Scary When I Face it Alone

Life is scary when I'm alone.

Worst case scenarios grab my heart and soul.

Where is the corrective for my attitude

When I am stone?

Observation

And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was greater than the risk it took to blossom.
            Anais Nin

BEING KIND: The Music Video that Circle the World | Empty Hands Music | ...

GRATEFUL: A Love Song to the World | Empty Hands Music | nimo feat. dani...

Fwd: Where there is hatred

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Susan Henry-Crowe <gbcs@umc-gbcs.com>
Date: Mon, Nov 14, 2016 at 4:43 PM
Subject: Where there is hatred
To: rbu6000@gmail.com

This past Sunday, I worshipped at Asbury UMC where Dr. Ianther M. Mills is the distinguished pastor and a moral voice in the United States capital. Articulating the fears and anxieties aroused by those who touted hate and bigotry, she gave expression for so many who are now living with questions - Who can I trust? How am I to be on guard for where and when acts of terror and racism emerge? Who really are my friends? Offering Christ's love and solidarity to God's people, Dr. Mills encouraged the congregation not to hide Christ's light under a bushel but let it shine.    Reports of incidents of violence and abuse were received directly and indirectly to Church and Society this past week. Violence towards young women at gas stations, acts of hate against churches, schoolchildren terrorized and bullied in school cafeterias and bathrooms, Muslim brothers and sisters terrified for their own safety, anxiety of deportation, and the well-being of young people working here on Capitol Hill. The rhetoric that produced and allowed fear, racism, sexism, regionalism and classism to fester must be addressed. The fears are real and the wounds are deep.   Repentance must come for the sins of hate sowed in our country and the world. There are many good and faithful public servants at all levels of government. The power bestowed is the power of the people, for the people, by the people. It is for the people of every race, religion, national origin, class, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, disability or sexual orientation.    For United Methodists, we are called to not only hear the fears and see the wounds, but to take action against fear and hate. Acts of hatred and violence that are being perpetrated are unacceptable and must be rejected in any and every form.   "The United Methodist Church must be proactive in resisting hate and teaching how to live in our diverse social world without passively accepting the rise of hate and bigotry. When we do nothing about hate language or horrifying atrocities, we participate in the social support of hate." (Resolution 3421, "Grieving and Repenting from Acts of Hate and Violence.")   As Christians we must be true to the promises made at baptism. To follow in the way that leads to love and freedom. We support active engagement in promoting diversity, support those who speak up when experiencing acts of hate, encourage the reporting of crimes of hate to officials and justice-minded advocacy groups, and support witnessing to those individuals who commit acts of hate to show them compassion and the saving grace of Jesus Christ.   May our prayer be "where there is hatred let me sow love." Peace, Susan Henry-Crowe CONNECT WITH US ©2016 General Board of Church & Society You are receiving this email because you are a Member of the General Board of Church and Society Click here to unsubscribe | View this newsletter online

--

My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style. – Maya Angelou                                                                                

What I need

I need some respect from myself and from others.

                                                                       

Anthem -- Leonard Cohen

Anthem--words of a song by Leonard Cohen

The birds they sang
at the break of day
Start again
I heard them say
Don't dwell on what
has passed away
or what is yet to be.
Ah the wars they will
be fought again
The holy dove
She will be caught again
bought and sold
and bought again
the dove is never free.

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.

We asked for signs
the signs were sent:
the birth betrayed
the marriage spent
Yeah the widowhood
of every government --
signs for all to see.

I can't run no more
with that lawless crowd
while the killers in high places
say their prayers out loud.
But they've summoned, they've summoned up
a thundercloud
and they're going to hear from me.

Ring the bells that still can ring ...

You can add up the parts
but you won't have the sum
You can strike up the march,
there is no drum
Every heart, every heart
to love will come
but like a refugee.

Ring the bells that still can ring 

Forget your perfect offering 

There is a crack, a crack in everything 

That's how the light gets in. 

Ring the bells that still can ring 

Forget your perfect offering 

There is a crack, a crack in everything 

That's how the light gets in. 

That's how the light gets in. 

That's how the light gets in.

 

Trapped or Free?

Freeing the gift of love! What a difficult undertaking for creatures like ourselves, willingly trapped as we are by sin, shut in by our selfishness. We often fail to realize the depth of evil, terrifying as it is. I am not speaking only of the selfishness of the wealthy, heaping up riches for themselves, or of those who sacrifice to achieve their self-selected goals. Or of the dictator who breathes in the incense due only to God. I am speaking of the selfishness of good people, devout people, those who have succeeded through spiritual exercises and self-denial in being able to make the proud profession before the altar of the Most High, “Lord, I am not like the rest of men."

            Carlo Carretto Letters From the Desert

A WORD FOR THE DAY

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

On Compassion

If you love the justice of Jesus Christ more than you fear human judgment then you will seek to do compassion. Compassion means that if I see my friend and my enemy in equal need, I shall help them both equally. Justice demands that we seek and find the stranger, the broken, the prisoner and comfort them and offer them our help. Here lies the holy compassion of God that causes the devils much distress.
             Mechthild of Magdeburg

In Dark Days

If the light is in you and me, we must not cloud our lives with the darkness of this world.

Read Philippians 4:8

Laugh When Trouble Comes

                                Amy Schumer

Human Beings Suffer

Human beings suffer.
They torture one another.
They get hurt and get hard.

History says, Don’t hope
On this side of the grave,
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed-for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up,
And hope and history rhyme.

So hope for a great sea-change
On the far side of revenge.
Believe that a farther shore
Is reachable from here.
Believe in miracles
And cares and healing wells.

Seamus Heaney
Source: from "The Cure at Troy" in Opened Ground

A Circle

A good leader will not exercise authority from 'the top'. The diagram for community is not a pyramid but a circle. A community leader leads with others. The pyramid is the diagram for an army or for industry.
              Jean Vanier, Community and Growth

The Better Teacher

From the age of six to fourteen I took violin lessons but had no luck with my teachers, for whom music did not transcend mechanical practicing. I really began to learn only after I had fallen in love with Mozart’s sonatas. The attempt to reproduce their singular grace compelled me to improve my technique. I believe, on the whole, that love is a better teacher than sense of duty.
      Albert Einstein

A Prayer from Thomas Merton

O God, we are one with you. You have made us one with you. You have taught us that if we are open to one another, you dwell in us. Help us to preserve this openness and to fight for it with all our hearts. Help us to realize that there can be no understanding where there is mutual rejection.

O God, in accepting one another wholeheartedly, fully, completely, we accept you, and we thank you, and we adore you, and we love you with our whole being, because our being is your being, our spirit is rooted in your spirit.

Fill us then with love, and let us be bound together with love as we go our diverse ways, united in this one spirit which makes you present in the world, and which makes you witness to the ultimate reality that is love. Love has overcome. Love is victorious.

Glass

A Sanskrit Proverb

Look to this day, for it is life, the very life of life.

In its brief course lie all the realities and verities of existence.

The bliss of growth, the splendor of action, the glory of power.

And yesterday is but a dream, and tomorrow is only a vision.

But today - well lived - makes every yesterday

a dream of happiness,

and every tomorrow a vision of hope.

Look well, therefore, to this day.

Psalm 100 --- A Psalm of thanksgiving

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.
Worship the Lord with gladness;
come into his presence with singing.

Know that the Lord is God.
It is he that made us, and we are his;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise.
Give thanks to him, bless his name.

For the Lord is good;
his steadfast love endures for ever,
and his faithfulness to all generations.

           (NRSV)

Stop Look and Listen

All of Earth is crammed with heaven, 

and every common bush aflame with God; 

but only those who see take off their shoes.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning 

Wisdom from the Past

We cannot live in a world that is not our own, in a world that is interpreted for us by others. An interpreted world is not a home. Part of the terror is to take back our own listening, to use our own voice, to see our own light.

Don’t let yourself forget that God’s grace rewards not only those who never slip, but also those who bend and fall. So sing! The song of rejoicing softens hard hearts. It makes tears of godly sorrow flow from them. Singing summons the Holy Spirit. Happy praises offered in simplicity and love lead the faithful to complete harmony, without discord. Don’t stop singing.
Hildegard of Bingen

LOOK

Retreat

Regroup

Come back

stronger than ever

Jesus went off by himself to pray.

from T. J. Grey

Home Garden

I seeded lettuce directly in the ground and put pine straw around the plants that I planted two weeks ago.

QUESTION: Has My vision Improved?

I do not know the answer to this question. That answer is probably best left to people better equipped to assess the quality of sight.

Responding to Tragedy

They came seeking refuge and we gave them shelter from the storm.

Real Security

The only real security is not in owning or possessing, not in demanding or expecting, not in hoping, even. Security in a relationship lies neither in looking back to what it was, nor forward to what it might be, but living in the present and accepting it as it is now.                                                                                     -Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Be Kind

Be kind, for everyone you meet is carrying a great burden.
            Ian Maclaren 

Lean In Toward the Light

Sanctuary

Thoughts on National Planting Day

A special day has sort of been planned.
I do not want to let my expectations get too high. I must temper my enthusiasm with a bit of reality. If there are a few people at the garden, that will be good enough and then we can start off big in January of 2017. 

Peacemaking #1

I can not promote peace in the world until I have made peace with myself. 

                 T.J. Grey

Saro - The Westerlies

Hold on to What is Good

Hold on to what is good

even if it is

a handful of earth.

Hold on to what you believe

even if it is

a tree which stands by itself.

Hold on to what you must do

even if it is

a long way from here.

Hold on to life even when

it is easier letting go.

Hold on to my hand even when

I have gone away from you.

Nancy Wood - 1974

Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.

                       Howard Thurman

Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.

       Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.

       Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

A Quero Apache Prayer

Looking behind I am filled with gratitude.

Looking forward I am filled with vision.

Looking upwards I am filled with strength.

Looking within I discover peace.

Like a Child

Every child has known God,

Not the God of names,

Not the God of don'ts,

Not the God who ever does anything weird,

But the God who knows only 4 words.

And keeps repeating them, saying:

"Come Dance with Me, come dance."

Hafiz

Beginning to Be

It is I who must begin...

Once I begin, once I try...

here and now,

right where I am,

not excusing myself

by saying that things

would be easier elsewhere,

without grand speeches and

ostentatious gestures,

but all the more persistently

to live in harmony

with the “voice of Being,” as I

understand it within myself

as soon as I begin that,

to my surprise, that

I am neither the only one

nor the first,

nor the most important one

to have set out

upon that road...

Whether all is really lost

or not depends entirely on

whether or not I am lost.

Vaclav Havel

Dialogue

HOW THE SOUL SPEAKS TO THE GOD:

Lord, you are my lover, my longing,

My flowing stream, my sun,

And I am your reflection.

HOW GOD ANSWERS THE SOUL:

It is my nature that makes me love you often,

For I am love itself.

It is my longing that makes me love you intensely,

For I yearn to be loved from the heart.

It is my eternity that makes me love you long,

For I have no end.

Mechthild of Magdeburg - 13th century

Two from Anne Lamott

Laughter really is carbonated holiness.

Lighthouses don't go running all over the island looking for boats to save They just stand there shining.

The magnitude of the present catastrophe

so nearly extinguishes the light.

Are we the light as our scriptures say?

If so only a faint bit of light in the distance

So dim.

Can it be that this light will shine brightly one day

When we can love each other with no qualifications?

I have heard that light will always overcome darkness.

Where is this light today?

Maybe this light is the little things that we do that give witness to the gratitude that we have. 

One little light in the darkness is certainly better than a burned out candle.

                 

                  T. J. Grey

from Richard's Garden

My enjoyment of gardening had little to do with the yield. Planning and executing and nurturing were what I enjoyed most. The yield was of secondary importance. I miss that since trying to develop the community garden. It is important to me that I reclaim that innocence and enjoyment.

I am certain that the only way that we can be reconciled to one another is if we have the love of God in our hearts. This does not sound very sophisticated and in fact is not very sophisticated.

It is so simple. All that I must do to make room for God's love is to realize and accept the fact that it isn't about me and what I want. It is about others and what others need. It seems to me that this is the essence of the Christian faith. Everything that I am reading in the bible points to this. Would that I could just fill every heart in the world with God's love. I can't do that but I can share God's love with the people that I am around.

Fear not. One day death will visit you and there will be nothing that you can do to stop it. “Work for the night is coming.” the old hymn says. Live life while you have life to live. Do not waste the life that God has given you.

Verse #4 of Amazing Grace

The Lord has promised good to me.

His word my hope secures.

He will my shield and portion be

As long as life endures.

I have found that the Lord has already made good on his promise. I have received so much beyond what I deserve. I realize more strongly each day just how much I owe to those who shared God's love with me. How can I repay them? I can't but I can share the love that they shared with me with others.

The grace of God fills my heart to overflowing and I can only cry, “Thank you God” as I share my abundance with others. It makes no sense in the world of “it's all for me” –

       T. J. Grey

A Pledge

Though we are surrounded by difficulties, we will not give in to our fears.

More Wise Word from one who dared...

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.
        - Helen Keller

Where The Mind Is Without Fear

Where the mind is without fear 

and the head is held high 

Where knowledge is free 

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments 

By narrow domestic walls 

Where words come out from the depth of truth Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection 

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way 

Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit 

Where the mind is led forward by thee 

Into ever-widening thought and action 

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

Rabindranath Tagore 

Wisdom from Helen Keller

So much has been given to me; I have no time to ponder over that which has been denied.

Helen Keller

Another Thought from a Wise Man

We do not want to be beginners. But let us be convinced of the fact that we will never be anything else but beginners, all our life!

      Thomas Merton ex "CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER"

Philippians 4:8

8 Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. (New Revised Standard Version)

     

OLD FASHIONED DOUBLE DAY LILLY

AGAIN

YIKES. I MESSED UP AGAIN.

GOATS

Today, like every other day,

we wake up empty and frightened.

Don't open the door to the study and begin reading.

Take down a musical instrument.

Let the beauty we love be what we do.

There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.

Jelaluddin Rumi - 13th century

To risk being disturbed and changed.

May I have the courage today

To live the life that I would love,

To postpone my dream no longer

But do at last what I came here for

And waste my heart on fear no more.

John O'Donohue

The magnitude of the present catastrophe

so nearly extinguishes the light.

Are we the light as our scriptures say?

If so only a faint bit of light in the distance

So dim.

Can it be that this light will shine brightly one day

When we can love each other with no qualifications?

I have heard that light will always overcome darkness.

Where is this light today?

Maybe this light is the little things that we do that give witness to the gratitude that we have. 

One little light in the darkness is certainly better than a burned out candle.

                 

                      T. J. Grey

The magnitude of the present catastrophe

so nearly extinguishes the light.

Are we the light as our scriptures say?

If so only a faint bit of light in the distance

So dim.

Can it be that this light will shine brightly one day

When we can love each other with no qualifications?

I have heard that light will always overcome darkness.

Where is this light today?

Maybe this light is the little things that we do that give witness to the gratitude that we have. 

One little light in the darkness is certainly better than a burned out candle.

                 ex the pen of T. J. Grey

The magnitude of the present catastrophe

so nearly extinguishes the light.

Are we the light as our scriptures say?

If so only a faint bit of light in the distance

So dim.

Can it be that this light will shine brightly one day

When we can love each other with no qualifications?

I have heard that light will always overcome darkness.

Where is this light today?

Maybe this light is the little things that we do that give witness to the gratitude that we have. 

One little light in the darkness is certainly better than a burned out candle.

                 
             T. J. Grey

It is such a sad thing that we have nothing better to talk abou. I cry and I cry.

Where am I?

 I am daring to try out something new. It is often difficult to take the challenge of doing something new but it is always very rewarding when you do. I will continue to learn as long as I live and I will And I will stretch myself in the process.

Thought from January 1, 2000

Crossing bridges can be a scary thing to do. When we cross a bridge we put our lives in the hand of those who designed it, those who built it, and those who maintain it. --- Some bridges are so long that we can't see the other end. We trust that the other end is there because we see no indication that it isn't. --- There is a lot of trust that we must have when we cross bridges.

Shake it Off – Classical style. A From the Top & Time for Three Cover

See You Again cover

animated sibling duo

Amazing

Patience

Those who would climb to a lofty height must go by steps, not leaps.

                  -Saint Gregory the Great

Wisdom from a beautiful Person

My greatest beauty secret is being happy with myself. I don't use special creams or treatments - I'll use a little bit of everything. It's a mistake to think you are what you put on yourself. I believe that a lot of how you look is to do with how you feel about yourself and your life. Happiness is the greatest beauty secret.

- Tina Turner -

So, what is this artist?

It is the place in our spirit that births...

creativity,

enchantment,

imagination,

play,

risk,

and wonder.

Terry Hershey

We have to live as close as possible to all that leaves the door open to the ‘holy.’ … The problem is not to sink into apathy. The chores, the household tasks, do provide a kind of frame, but I get more and more impatient with bothering about things…. Gardening is altogether different. There the door is always open into the ‘holy’—growth, birth, death. Every flower holds the whole mystery in its short cycle, and in the garden we are never far away from death, the fertilizing, good, creative death.

May Sarton