There are things you can’t back down on, things you gotta take a stand on. But it’s up to you to decide what them things are. (Mildred D. Taylor – Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry)
Worry is rust upon the blade. We are simply not as sharp when we worry. (Henry Ward Beecher)
I didn’t cause. I can’t control. I can’t cure. But I can contribute.
Is the inventor of the ear unable to hear? Is the creator of the eye unable to see? (Psalms 94:9)
When the mind is festering with trouble or the heart torn, we can find healing among the silence of mountains or fields, or listen to the simple, steadying rhythm of waves. The slowness and stillness gradually takes us over. Our breathing deepens and our hearts calm and our hungers relent. When serenity is restored, new perspectives open to us and difficulty can begin to seem like an invitation to new growth. (John O’Donohue – Beauty: The Invisible Embrace)
“How do I cultivate the quietness of my being, where ‘what I should do with my life’ will become apparent?” Don’t be afraid of making mistakes. The journey is constant, between listening to the inner voice and making the choice to take an action. The minute you make a decision, if you feel it is disharmonious with some other plane of existence, you must go back inside again…. My work constantly requires me to empty so that I become more of an instrument for some other kind of wisdom or presence or force. It’s true for each of us. (Ram Dass)
Letting go is never easy. The desire to have, to hold, to possess and to control is part of our nature. But the more powerful part yearns to learn the lesson of growth and openness; to enter the mystery of secret loving without desiring, to live in emptiness and stillness and therefore in a state of receptivity and readiness so that the quality of our being and “our being present to” are all that matter. (Daniel J. O’Leary – Year of the Heart)
Harken 