Patterns

"We are all constantly in a process of creating, sustaining or destroying the patterns that carry our life.  Often we suffer terribly because we resist these elemental needs.   Given our stubbornness and willfulness, we often find ourselves sorely stalled in the face of change."  Mark Nepo

Spiritual Maturity

"A growing surrender to the unknown is a sign of spiritual maturity and encourages us to give up illusions of immortality we still might have and to experience in a new way our total dependence on God's love, a dependence that does not take away our free selfhood but purifies and ennobles it...those who have learned through living that there is nothing and nobody in this life to cling to, are the really creative people.   The are free to move constantly away from the familiar, safe places and can keep moving forward to new, unexplored areas of life."  Inayat Khan

Problems

“It is characteristic of all deep human problems that they are not to be approached without some humor and some bewilderment.”
Freeman Dyson

Discovery

"A discovery is said to be an accident meeting a prepared mind."  Albert Szint-Gycrgyi

Creativity

"I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some Blues."  Duke Ellington

Grief

"There is an art to grieving.   To grieve well the loss of anyone or anything is a creative act.   It takes attention and patience and courage.   Grief is messy and painful.  But grief is also a tonic.   It is a healing elixer., made of tears that lubricate the heart.   Grief is a proof of our love, a demonstration of how deeply we have allowed another to touch us."  Elizabeth Lesser

God

"We need to reimagine God as the energy of transfigurative Eros, the source from which all creativity flows."  John O' Donahue

Eros

"Eros is ultimately the energy of divine creativity.   In the transfiguration of the sensuous, the wildness of eros and the playfulness of the soul come into lyrical rhythm."   John O' Donahue

Creativity

"All creativity awakens at the primal threshold where light and darkness test and bless each other.  You only discover balance in your life when you learn to trust the flow of this ancient rhythm."   John O' Donahue

Solitude

"When you cease to fear your solitude, a new creativity awakens in you.   Your forgotten or neglected inner wealth begins to reveal itself.   You come home to yourself and learn to rest within."   John O' Donahue

Love

"Love is the continuous birth of creativity within and between us."   John O' Donahue

Religion

"The great religious traditions advocate ideals.  Increasingly, the custodianship and representation of these traditions have fallen into the hands of frightened functionaries who can only operate through edict and prescription.  Few of them have the sensibility and imagination to address our longing in a way that respects our complexity and wildness of soul.   They are unable to invite our sense of freedom and creativity to awaken.   We need to take back our power and exercise our right to inhabit in a creative and critical way the traditions to which we belong."   John O' Donahue

Creativity

"The irony of being her is that sometimes it is precisely what you want to avoid that brings you further towards creativity and compassion."   John O' Donahue