Spent some time at a small chapel. Loved the quiet.
A Small Chapel
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A Small Chapel -
Listening
Prayer Prayer is first of all listening to God. It’s openness. God is always speaking; he’s always doing something. Prayer is to enter into that activity. … Convert your thoughts into prayer. As we are involved in unceasing thinking, so we are called to unceasing prayer. The difference is not that prayer is thinking about other things, but that prayer is thinking in dialogue, … a conversation with God.
Henri Nouwen -
I Miss My Books
Books I miss my books. They are in storage back in Colorado, collecting dust. I’ve enjoyed reading books over the past few years. Books can refresh the mind. When we read a book we individually draw up the scenes and create characters as only we can do. I’ve bought and read books on spirituality, personal growth, enneagrams, religions and of course photography. I’ve learned to read back over these books every once in a while as they seem to go through a editing process since I last read them. Very seldom do I read novels, usually one or two a year, that’s all. I have a few favorite authors who have helped me along life’s journey and in a way have become my friends. Their books adorn my book shelves. Sure miss my books. I may have to wander in to the library or bookstore today.
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Acceptance
Happy Birthday, Sheree! Our very brokenness allows us to become whole. “No one is a whole as he who has a broken heart.” said Rabbi Moshe Leib of Sasov. “Wholeness,” then, does not mean that the heart is not “broken.” that pain does not sear. To experience sadness,despair, tears, and howls of pain demonstrates not some violation or deficit of spirituality but rather the ultimate spirituality of acceptance.
The Spirituality of Imperfection by Ernest Kurtz and Katherine KetchamToday is my sisters birthday, so I want to say “Happy Birthday, Sheree!”
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Changing the World
New Leaves “If we do not change our daily lives, we cannot change the world.”
Thich Nhat Hanh -
Solitude is in the Present
Empty Bench in Shenandoah National Park “Solitude is not something you must hope for in the future. Rather, it is a deepening of the present, and unless you look for it in the present you will never find it.”
Thomas MertonAs time has move on and my age has increased I joyfully welcome my times of solitude. We can create a place in our homes to sit in quiet solitude to start and end our days. With our busy and noisy world I also seek to find places outside the community of cities and towns. I can find these places in our parks, both local and national. To some this bench may seem lonely while shrouded by fog but it is offering rest to anyone who wishes to sit.
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A Spiritual Way of Life
Spiritual Light “If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are half way through. We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness. We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it. We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace, No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others, That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear. We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows. Self-seeking will slip away. Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change. Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us. We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us. We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.”
Alcoholics Anonymous -
Experiencing Spirituality
Daisies “If we can accept the reality of our imperfection, the fact that we are put together funny, that we are, by our very nature, limited and thus do not have absolute control over our lives, we are taking the tentative steps that are all that we can take on the pilgrimage that is spirituality. Once we accept the common denominator of our own imperfection, once we begin to put into practice the belief that imperfection is the reality we have most in common with all other people, then the defenses that deceive us begin to fall away, and we can begin to see ourselves and others as we all really are.”
The Spirituality of Imperfection -
Lifetime Commitment
Daisies “… love, for ourselves and others, is a lifetime commitment.”
Thich Nhat Hanh -
Waiting to be played
Easter morning. The sun has risen and Christians all over the world are celebrating. Many will be singing songs of thanksgiving and praise. In this image I have included the risen sun and a guitar as symbols in that belief. Happy Easter!
During this same time the Jewish Holiday of Passover is being celebrated with the most important day being the Seder meal. They are celebrating the flight of the Jewish people from slavery as told in the Bible’s Book of Exodus. Whatever you are celebrating I hope you have a wonderful day.
