Live Gently

Until then I had thought each book spoke of the things, human or divine, that lie outside books. now I realized that not infrequently books speak of books: it is as if they spoke among themselves. In the light of this reflection, the library seemed all the more disturbing to me. It was then the place of a long, centuries-old murmuring, an imperceptible dialogue between one parchment and another, a living thing, a receptacle of powers not to be ruled by a human mind, a treasure of secrets emanated by many minds, surviving the death of those who had produced them or had been their conveyors.

― Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose

Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Joy for Today: Vulnerability and Courage →

joyfortoday:

I had a significant Happiness Boost today. There has been something weighing me down for a while…nothing awful, just something I needed to get off of my chest for my own self-fulfillment and growth. And I did it. I walked right into the conversation I needed to have, awkwardly brought up the…

O, Birther of the Cosmos, focus your light within us — make it useful
Create your reign of unity now
Your one desire then acts with ours,
As in all light,
So in all forms,
Grant us what we need each day in bread and insight:
Loose the cords of mistakes binding us,
As we release the strands we hold of other’s guilt.
Don’t let surface things delude us,
But free us from what holds us back.
From you is born all ruling will,
The power and the life to do,
The song that beautifies all,
From age to age it renews.
I affirm this with my whole being.

THE ARAMAIC PRAYER OF JESUS
as translated from Aramaic by Saadi Neil Douglas-Klotz of the Sufi Order of the West

I thought this version was really beautiful and illuminating. It is interesting and encouraging to see the ways many different cultures, and even other religions, have incorporated Christian scriptures and teaching.

Joy for Today: My Sabbath is Leaking... →

joyfortoday:

Sunday for me means Sabbath. When I was 20 I became quite serious about setting aside homework, studying, laundry and any other generally unpleasant business on Sunday afternoons to really listen to myself, my body and to do things that were life-giving for me. Ironically, the loss of Sunday…

Vezelay Abbey, France. Beautiful example of Romanesque architecture. Not the gentle-est history, though. The 2nd and 3rd Crusade were preached from this Abbey or the hill nearby. Much of the artwork was destroyed during the French Revolution…

She read books as one would breathe air, to fill up and live. She read books as one would breathe ether, to sink in and die.

Annie Dillard, The Living: A Novel

I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.

G. K. Chesterton, A Short History of England

We offer our thanks to thee
for sending thy only Son to die for us all.
In a world divided by color bars,
how sweet a thing it is to know
that in thee we all belong to one family.

There are times when we,
unprivileged people,
weep tears that are not loud but deep.
when we think of the suffering we experience.
We come to thee, our only hope and refuge.
Help us, O God, to refuse to be embittered
against those who handle us with harshness.
We are grateful to thee,
for the gift of laughter at all times.
Save us from the hatred of those who oppress us.
May we follow the spirit of thy Son Jesus Christ.

-Bantu Prayer.

An African Prayer Book, by Desmond Tutu

A Thanksgiving Prayer

This prayer must make an appearance at the family Thanksgiving table this year! Beautiful, and certainly Gentle.

Thanksgiving Day Prayer
by Walter Rauschenbusch (1861–1918)

For the wide sky and the blessed sun,
For the salt sea and the running water,
For the everlasting hills
And the never-resting winds,
For trees and the common grass underfoot.
We thank you for our senses
By which we hear the songs of birds,
And see the splendor of the summer fields,
And taste of the autumn fruits,
And rejoice in the feel of the snow,
And smell the breath of the spring.
Grant us a heart wide open to all this beauty;
And save our souls from being so blind
That we pass unseeing
When even the common thornbush
Is aflame with your glory,
O God our creator,
Who lives and reigns for ever and ever.