Our Greatest Fear

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.' We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone and as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others".  Marianne Williamson

Living Life to the Full

It is good to use
best china
treasured dishes
the most genuine goblets
or the oldest lace tablecloth
there is a risk of course
every time we use anything
or anyone shares an inmost
mood or moment
or a fragile cup of revelation
but not to touch
not to handle
not to employ the available
artifacts of being
a human being
that is the quiet crash
the deadly catastrophe
where nothing
is enjoyed or broken
or spoken or spilled
or stained or mended
where nothing is ever
lived
loved
pored over
laughed over
wept over
lost
or found.

Thomas Carlisle

Understanding

You must understand the whole of life, not just one little part of it. That is why you must read, that is why you must look at the skies, that is why you must sing and dance, and write poems, and suffer, and understand, for all that is life. –J. Krishnamurti

New Story

"The new story we want to help birth is hidden under the louder story of our own self-doubts and the story of history.   If you want to hear a new voice you have to listen very carefully.  Another world is not only possible she is on her way. On a quiet day I can hear her breathing."  Elizabeth Lesser 

Life

"for this moment you are alive. You can dial up the magic of that at any time."  Joanna Macy

Letting Go

"Sooner or later when we surrender what we cannot control we have to hold still and let the demons we have been running from catch us.   There is no greater terror.   But there can be no greater liberation than to face those, held in the arms of your own compassionate nature and that which is larger than yourself."   Oriah

Parenting

"Parenting in all of it's stages is a spiritual path with mythic twists and turns.  If your spiritual goal is to embrace life, moment by moment, in both rapture and it's pain, then parenting offers you that opportunity every day.   Holy texts throughout the ages tell us that the truth is to be found between the seeming opposites of life.  Between your own will and the greater will; between limits and liberty; between the call to care for others and the need to care for yourself.   In the parent-child relationship you get excellent feedback all the time from a pint-sized spiritual master whose specialty lies in teaching you how to keep on loving even when you are tired, scared, confused or pissed off.  Isn't that what every seeker is after?"  Elizabeth Lesser

Suffering

"The experience of suffering can free a person to be in the world in a completely fresh and vital way.   The intention of suffering may be to break the shell of ego with which  each of us deftly surrounds ourselves.  That we spin a cocoon around ourselves is completely understandable.   We are so small and fragile.  The possibilities are endless and the dangers too frightening.   Real suffering breaks open the smallness within you and liberates you into larger and more hospitable places in life.  It enlarges your belonging."  John O' Donahue

Belief

"Belief should liberate your life.   The reduction of the wild eternity of your life into a harsh divine project  is a blasphemy against the call of your soul."   John O' Donahue

Self-Forgiveness

"It is such a great moment of liberation when you learn to forgive yourself, and walk out into a new path of promise and possibility.   To learn the art of integrating your faults is to begin a journey of healing on which you will regain your poise and find new creativity.   Your soul is more immense than any one moment or event in your past."   John O' Donahue