Beech Street Community Garden

This is a photograph of pure potential. This is where the new dream resides. 

HOPE resides here.

An Irish Blessing

May the blessing of light be on you,

light without, light within.

May the blessed sunshine shine on you

and warm your heart till it glows like a great peat fire,

so that the stranger may come and warm at it

and become a friend.

Attitude of Gratitude

Attitude of Gratitude
A speech given by Glenn Burton several times in the mid-twentieth century.
edited by Richard Burton December 2, 2017

Attitude defined: a settled way of thinking or feeling about someone or something, typically one that is reflected in a person's behavior.

Old story that illustrates attitude and its importance
A medieval traveler, wandering across the country, comes across a huge construction project. Near his path, he sees three stone masons, hard at work with their hammers and chisels.

“What are you doing?” asks the traveler.

“Breaking stones,” grunts the first.
“Making a wall,” says the second.
“Building a cathedral!” proclaims the third.

Is there any difference in the work of these three men? Maybe not. But is there any difference in their hearts? Certainly yes.

Gratitude defined: the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return the kindness.

While I would fain have some tincture of all virtues, there is no quality I had rather have or be thought to have than gratitude, for it is not only the greatest virtue but even the mother of all of the rest.
Cicero 60BC

Thanks thinking – What do I have in my life to be thankful for?

Thanks giving – How do I express my gratitude? How do I express my gratitude to those who have        helped me through the years?

Thanks living – Gratefulness beyond words – How do I live my life in such a way that it makes the world a better place?

"A Prayer"

 by Toyohiko Kagawa

I want to be ever a child.
I want to feel an eternal friendship
for the raindrops, the flowers,
the insects, the snowflakes.
I want to be keenly interested in everything,
with mind and muscle ever alert,
forgetting my troubles in the next moment.
The stars and the sea, the ponds and the trees,
the birds and the animals are my comrades.
Though my muscles may stiffen, though my skin may
wrinkle, may I never find myself yawning
at life.

from Songs of the Slums. Translated from the Japanese by Lois Erickson. © Cokesbury, 1935.

Gratitude

“Thou that has given so much to me,

Give one thing more–a grateful heart;

Not thankful when it pleaseth me,

As if thy blessings had spare days;

But such a heart, whose pulse may be

Thy praise.”

            – George Herbert

FALLOW TIMES

There is a fallow time for the spirit when the soil is barren… Face it! Then resolutely dig out dead roots, clear the ground, work out new designs by dreaming daring dreams and great and creative planning. The time is not wasted. The time of fallowness is a time of rest and restoration, of filling up and replenishing. It is the moment when the meaning of all things can be searched out, tracked down, and made to yield the secret of living. Thank God for the fallow time!

-Howard Thurman

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

PLANTING SEEDS: A Song of Life | Empty Hands Music | nimo feat. daniel n...

A Beautiful Pearl

Rav Simcha Wasserman spoke to a fervent group of young people saying, “In every one of us is a beautiful pearl.” Then with tears pouring down his face, this elderly man said, ‘But the problem is that the pearls are all covered with mud.’ I felt the incredible sincere love he had for all of us and I was inspired to uncover my own pearl and allow my soul to shine.

 Pearl In The Oyster - This week's learning opportunities - I learned that no matter what mistakes I make in my life, no matter how much external success I achieve, my true value lies in this pearl, this unique soul whose value cannot be diminished by anyone or any events that may take place.

    The Jewish view of self-esteem is based not on having to pump myself up to get the high of feeling great in the eyes of others. Rather it is about becoming aware of the greatness that God already placed within me.
Rabbi David Green, "I’m Such a Jerk"

This is It

I have been humbled again and while it is occasionally necessary it is not a nice experience. My words were not very well chosen and I can see how others would take offense. I may end my relationship with them but I am going to do so on a positive note.   I hope.

GIFT

Life is a gift. I have created nothing. All I have is gifts. I have earned nothing. It is all a gift.
             Brother Ben

Insight From a Saint

Love turns work into rest.
Saint Teresa of Avila

Red Horse - "Sanctuary"

I thank god for the holy human spirit that each of us was given at conception. Maybe we are each of us at a different place on the same road. It is the same road though.

Empathy and Compassion

 em·pa·thy, noun
the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.

com·pas·sion (etymology)
Origin
Middle English: via Old French from ecclesiastical Latin compassio(n-), from compati ‘suffer with.’


Do you see the connection, Richard? If you have empathy for other individuals, you will rejoice with them when they rejoice and you will suffer with them when they suffer.

Let us see

We are blinded by our selfishness. We can't see beyond our own needs.

Rewrite

revise

revise

revise

revise

revise

Art Appreciation

On appreciating art:
Does art have to be difficult to be considered legitimate art? Make it obscure and they, the critics, will proclaim its greatness. It kind of reminds me of the emperor’s new clothes. I don’t get it but I don’t want anybody to know that I don’t get it so I will act as if it is the cleverest thing in the world. – Maybe the question to be asked would better be, “What is creativity?” Is it possible that he might have been trying to express the spontaneity of childhood? That’s one thing that I take from it whether that is what he intended or not.

How one appreciates art depends on what one brings to the art that is being considered. – Often art speaks to observers in ways that the creator never intended. Does that make their assessment of the art incorrect? What is art? Who is an artist and who isn’t? It seems that we appreciate those whose craft is something that we cannot easily attain. Is Michelangelo’s statue of David art or is it craft? What elevates it from mere craft to art?

I may not be able to muster up any appreciation for a certain piece of art but I should know enough about the art to appreciate the craft. -color composition texture depiction – know the artist as much as is possible – know the artist’s intentions in so far as is possible…

Creativity can be problem-solving or it can be childlike play, or it can be both. I must choose what medium allows me to best express that which I am trying to express. Each medium will allow somewhat different expression or radically different expression.

Art is determined solely by fashion
Creativity is personal and is based on the choices that are available to the creator…
My creations may never achieve the status of art but they may be more creative than many things that have.

Social Math

We+They=family

alert

This is a test, only a test. Had this been a real emergency, you would have been notified in some other way.

Making Peace

When you are at peace with yourself, you add that peace to the peace in the world. — T.J.Grey

Commitment

To what can I give my life? What should I be doing? What gives me lite? — These are questions that I'm too tired to answer right now.  — T. J. Grey

DOUBTS

I am suffering. I don't

Verse 7

Someone who is full refuses honey, but anything bitter tastes sweet to a hungry person.

            Proverbs 27 verse 7 CEB translation

Founding Father's Words for 2017

There are seasons in every country when noise and impudence pass current for worth; and in popular commotions especially, the clamors of interested and factious men are often mistaken for patriotism.
Alexander Hamilton

Beauty and Bread

Everyone needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where Nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul alike.
John Muir

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. … And if we 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

The Light

The enormity of the world’s problems is overwhelming. What can I possibly do to make any difference? I am but one little speck in this universe. Do the things that I try to do make any difference? If I am looking at this question from a world point of view the answer is “probably not.” – The feather falling, the leaf dropping, the rippling of the water, all far reaching in their simplicity…If I let myself succumb to the desire for big solutions, I will either lose my ability to function, or I will become crazy and lose all that really matters. – I realized long ago that loneliness was no fun but I did not dare risk my life. The point I am getting at is this; the biggest impact I can have is to leave this world with a positive attitude, a positive spirit. It may have a very small impact initially, but will, as time passes, multiply exponentially.  I must be true to the self that I know. I must find that true self and then I must dare to lose that true self in order to be true to that true self…

Be satisfied with simple things.

This little light of mine,

I’m going to let it shine.

Admitting Death Into Life

I have looked our destruction, our miserable end, straight in the eye and accepted it into my life, and my love of life has not been diminished. I am not bitter or rebellious, or in any way discouraged…. My life has been extended by death, by accepting destruction as part of life and no longer wasting my energies on fear of death or refusal to acknowledge its inevitability. It sounds paradoxical: by excluding death from our life we cannot live a full life, and by admitting death into our life we enlarge and enrich it.                                                                                                                      -Etty Hillesum from An Interrupted Life

Two bits of Wisdom from Vaclav Havel

1. Follow the man who seeks the truth;
    Run from the man who has found it.

2. It is not enough to stare up the steps, 
    we must step up  the stairs.

Good Advice from Dorothy Day

We plant seeds that will flower as results in our lives, so best to remove the weeds of anger, avarice, envy, and doubt, that peace and abundance may manifest for all.
            Dorothy Day

Merton Wisdom

Life is not attained by reasoning and analysis, but first of all by living...until we have begun to fail, we have no way of working out our success.       --Thomas Merton -- Thought in Solitude

Wisdom of Lao Tzu

Would you like to save the world from the degradation and destruction it seems destined for?  Then step away from shallow mass movements and quietly go to work on your own self-awareness.  If you want to awaken all of humanity, then awaken all of yourself.  If you want to eliminate the suffering in the world, then eliminate all that is dark and negative in yourself.  Truly, the greatest gift you have to give is that of your own self-transformation.
-Lao Tzu

The Uses of Not

Thirty spokes

meet in the hub.

Where the wheel isn’t

is where it’s useful.

Hollowed out,

clay makes a pot.

Where the pot’s not

is where it’s useful.

Cut doors and windows

to make a room.

Where the room isn’t,

there’s room for you.

So the profit in what is

is in the use of what isn’t.

Lao-Tzu

Source: Lao Tao Te Ching 

translated by Ursula Le Guin

GRATITUDE

For all that has been — thanks. 

For all that shall be — yes.

Dag Hammarskjöld

The Book .. from T. J. Grey

                       àCOMMUNITYß

CONNECTION –– UNITY

not uniformity

The only story that I can tell is my story. The only way that I can worship anything is the way that speaks to me, my history, my present life, and my future. God has given me this and I cherish it and I do not get upset if you don’t understand it. Each of us comes to life from a different place and as a consequence each of us is unique and each of us will see our lives differently.
                        

Theo Logos

Some people call it "god",

some people call it "fate",

some people call it "destiny",

and some just call it "accident".

What is this god, fate, destiny, accident?

LIFE --- in all of its colors, shades, and hues.

              -T.J. Grey

from Bird by Bird

The garden is one of the two great metaphors for humanity. The garden is about life and beauty and the impermanence of all living things. The garden is about feeding your children, providing food for the tribe– it’s part of an urgent territorial drive that we can probably trace back to animals storing food. It’s a competitive display mechanism, like having a prized bull for the best tomatoes and English tea roses. It’s about winning, about providing society with superior things and about proving that you have taste and good values and you work hard. And what a wonderful relief every so often to know who the enemy is, because in the garden the enemy is everything– the aphids, the weather, time. And so you pour yourself into it, care so much and see up close so much birth and growth and beauty and danger and triumph and then everything dies anyway–life. But you just keep doing it.
          Anne Lamott 

from Soren Kierkegaard

There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true. The other is to refuse to believe what is true.
              

You Are God

You are the peace of all things calm

You are the place to hide from harm

You are the light that shines in dark

You are the heart's eternal spark

You are the door that's open wide

You are the guest who waits inside

You are the stranger at the door

You are the calling of the poor

You are my Lord and with me still

You are my love, keep me from ill

You are the light, the truth, the way

You are my Saviour this very day.

         Celtic oral tradition 

When I Despair

When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. – Think of it - always.
Mahatma Gandhi

Eulogy for the Martyred children -1963

Now I say to you, in conclusion,
life is hard,
at times as hard as crucible steel. (Mmm)
It has its bleak and difficult moments.
Like the ever-flowing waters of the river,
life has its moments of drought and its moments of flood. (Yeah)
Like the ever-changing cycle of the seasons,
life has the soothing warmth of its summers
and the piercing chill of its winters. (Yeah)
But if one will hold on,
he will discover that God walks with him, (Yeah. Well)
and that God is able (Yeah) to lift you from the fatigue of despair
to the buoyancy of hope
and transform dark and desolate valleys
into sunlit paths of inner peace. (Mmm)
               Martin Luther King jr. 

Why the only future worth building includes everyone | Pope Francis

an Easter Message from Presiding Bishop Curry April 16, 2017

About Prayer II -- Abraham Lincoln

I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for that day.
                     Abraham Lincoln

From Raissa Maritain's Journals

“Yesterday I had a good morning. Once again when I recollect myself, I again find the same simple demands of God: gentleness, humility, charity, interior simplicity; nothing else is asked of me. And suddenly I saw clearly why these virtues are demanded because through them the soul becomes inhabitable for God and for one's neighbor in an intimate and permanent way. They make a pleasant cell of it. Hardness and pride repel, complexity disquiets. But humility and gentleness welcome, and simplicity reassures.”

About Prayer -- Kierkegaard

 The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays. Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)

More Wisdom

For many years, at great cost, I traveled through many countries, saw the high mountains, the oceans. The only things I did not see were the sparkling dewdrops in the grass just outside my door.

Rabindranath Tagore

Wisdom from Rabbi Kushner

Can you see the holiness in those things you take for granted – a paved road or a washing machine? If you concentrate on finding what is good in every situation, you will discover that your life will suddenly be filled with gratitude, a feeling that nurtures the soul.

Rabbi Harold Kushner

Every farmer who plants a seed takes a risk. We work through faith that the good deeds we do are to put down roots. The roots are invisible, but they sustain plants that may not give fruit for awhile. How lovely is this planting the seeds of love.
           Omid Safi

NEWBIES

These are four little newborn kittens, Born February 26, 2017. I was the midwife for Mama.

Thomas Merton says:

          In an age where there is much talk about "being yourself,"
          I reserve to myself the right to forget about being myself
          since in any case. there is very little chance of my being
          anybody else.

From R.W. Emerson

To Grow

Rabbi Uri taught: “Man is like a tree. If you stand in front of a tree and watch it incessantly to see how it grows and to see how much it has grown, you will see nothing at all. But tend to it at all times, prune the runners, and keep the vermin from it, and—all in good time—it will come into its growth. It is the same with man: all that is necessary is for him to overcome his obstacles, and he will thrive and grow. But it is not right to examine him every hour to see how much has been added to his growth.”

Martin Buber
Source: Tales of Hasidim: Later Masters

See Christ Everywhere

A friend sent us a dollar yesterday, and with it the remark: “Enclosed is for bread, but not to make bums out of those who should be earning their own.”

I thought of that this morning when I passed a little group of four who always seem to be hanging around the place, out in front, in the coffee room, in the doorway. Always drunk, sometimes prostrate on the side walk, sometimes sitting on the curb, they give a picture of despair or hilarity, according to the mood they are in. And, to the minds of many of our friends, they epitomize the 600 or so who come here to eat everyday.

This morning as I came from Mass, I passed the little vegetable woman around the corner, washing her mustard greens in a huge barrel of cold water. Her hands were raw and cold. It was one of those grey mornings, wet and misty, and the pavement was slimy under foot. I commiserated with her over her hand, and she said: “What are you going to do? If you don't work, you don't eat.”

When I passed this same little knot of men in front of the house, whom I had passed on the way to church, I told them about the little Italian woman, and they hung their heads sheepishly and went away. I don't know what can be done – except to pray. Here are the most humiliated of men, the most despised, the evidence of their sins flagrant and ever present. And as to what brought them to this pass – war and poverty, disease and sorrow – who can tell? Why question? We must see Christ everywhere, even in the most degraded guise.

          Dorothy Day  The Catholic Worker (April 1943)

When Way Closes

by Parker Palmer

A while back, I saw that my 21year old granddaughter had posted a quote from one of my books on her Facebook page. I was honored, of course.

Because my granddaughter is a lot smarter than I am about a lot of things, I thought I ought to take a look at what I wrote in that book. Maybe there was something to it!
So here's a story about what I was struggling with in my late thirties when I lived and worked at Pendle Hill, the Quaker living-learning community near Philadelphia. I was trying and failing to find a new direction for my life, and feeling very discouraged about it, when I got some life-changing counsel from an older woman named Ruth. I'm older now than Ruth was then, but her counsel continues to guide me. If someone else finds it helpful, I'll be glad I passed her wisdom along...

"If I were to discover a new direction, I thought, it would be at Pendle Hill, a community rooted in prayer, study, and a vision of human possibility. But when I arrived and started sharing my vocational quandary, people responded with a traditional Quaker counsel that, despite all the good intentions, left me even more discouraged. 'Have faith,' they said, 'and way will open.'

'I have faith,' I thought to myself. 'What I don't have is time to wait for "way" to open. I'm approaching middle age at warp speed, and I have yet to find a vocational path that feels right. The only way that's opened so far is the wrong way.'

After a few months of deepening frustration, I took my troubles to an older Quaker woman well-known for her thoughtfulness and candor. 'Ruth,' I said, 'people keep telling me that "way will open." Well, I sit in the silence, I pray, I listen for my calling, but way is not opening. I've been trying to find my vocation for a long time, and I still don't have the foggiest idea of what I'm meant to do. Way may open for other people, but it's sure not opening for me.'

Ruth's reply was a model of Quaker plain-speaking: 'I'm a birthright Friend,' she said somberly, 'and in sixty-plus year of living, way has never opened in front of me.' She paused, and I started sinking into despair. Was this wise woman telling me that the Quaker concept of guidance was a hoax? Then she spoke again, this time with a grin: 'But a lot of way has closed behind me, and that's had the same guiding effect.'

I laughed with her, laughed loud and long, the kind of laughter that comes when a simple truth exposes your heart for the needlessly neurotic mess it has become. Ruth's honesty gave me a new way to look at my vocational journey, and my experience has long-since confirmed the lesson she taught me that day: there is as much guidance in what does not and cannot happen in my life as there is in what can and does — maybe more."                          

from Pearl Buck

The person who tries to live alone will not succeed as a human being. The heart withers if it does not answer another heart. The mind shrinks away if it hears only the echoes of its own thoughts and finds no other inspiration. 
                  Pearl S. Buck

Several Different Perspectives on Life

It’s important to have as much fun as possible while we’re here. It balances out the times when the minefield of life explodes. 

Jimmy Buffett

It is impossible to live without failing at something unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.
       J. K. Rowling

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime. 

Mark Twain

The attempt to develop a sense of humor and to see things in a humorous light is some kind of a trick learned while mastering the art of living. 

Viktor E. Frankl

Everyone who works with love and with intelligence finds in the very sincerity of his love for nature and art a kind of armor against the opinions of other people. 

Vincent van Gogh

If there is meaning in life at all, then there must be meaning in suffering. 

Viktor E. Frankl

An Important Thought

“We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself.” 
                        Dietrich Bonhoeffer 

Wisdom from Rumi

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.

Jalaluddin Rumi - Sufi mystic-13th century

The Holy Club’s 22 Questions

In 1729, while John Wesley was a student at Oxford, he started a club with his brother Charles. It was soon mockingly dubbed “The Holy Club” by some of his fellow collegians. The club members rigorously self-examined themselves every day by asking the following 22 questions:

1. Am I consciously or unconsciously creating the impression that I am better than I really am? In other words, am I a hypocrite?
2. Am I honest in all my acts and words, or do I exaggerate?
3. Do I confidentially pass on to others what has been said to me in confidence?
4. Can I be trusted?
5. Am I a slave to dress, friends, work or habits?
6. Am I self-conscious, self-pitying, or self-justifying?
7. Did the Bible live in me today?
8. Do I give the Bible time to speak to me every day?
9. Am I enjoying prayer?
10. When did I last speak to someone else of my faith?
11. Do I pray about the money I spend?
12. Do I get to bed on time and get up on time?
13. Do I disobey God in anything?
14. Do I insist upon doing something about which my conscience is uneasy?
15. Am I defeated in any part of my life?
16. Am I jealous, impure, critical, irritable, touchy or distrustful?
17. How do I spend my spare time?
18. Am I proud?
19. Do I thank God that I am not as other people, especially as the Pharisees who despised the publican?
20. Is there anyone whom I fear, dislike, disown, criticize, hold a resentment toward or disregard? If so, what am I doing about it?
21. Do I grumble or complain constantly?
22. Is Christ real to me?

A Must Reminder From Me to Me

I have said this before and I will say it again, 
"Blessed are they who have made peace with themselves." 

from "You and Me of the 10,000 Wars" - Emily Saliers

"Try making one and one make one. Twist the shapes until everything comes undone. Watch the wizard behind the curtain, the larger than life and the power of seeming certain.

The evil ego and the vice of pride. Is there ever anything else that makes us take our different sides? I wanted everything to feed me. About as full as I got was of myself and the upper echelons of mediocrity."

- Indigo Girls - Amy Ray and Emily Salier

Advice from A Dying Man

Disarm Yourself -- Andrew Forstoefel