Thought for the day, Friday 17th March

“May you listen to your longing to be free.
May the frames of your belonging be generous enough for your dreams.
May you arise each day with a voice of blessing whispering in your heart.
May you find a harmony between your soul and your life.
May the sanctuary of your soul never become haunted.
May you know the eternal longing that lives at the heart of time.
May there be kindness in your gaze when you look within.
May you never place walls between the light and yourself.
May you allow the wild beauty of the invisible world to gather you, mind you and embrace you in belonging.”

John O’Donohue

Conamara, Ireland

Thought for the day, Thursday 16th March

“An ancient Indian scripture says, “I established this universe with one fragment of Myself, and I remain.” Now, if there is only one life in which you are I are partakers, one creative thought by which the worlds were formed and maintained, then, however mighty may be the unexpressed Divine Existence – however true that Divinity transcends manifestation, nonetheless the manifestation is still divine. By understanding this we touch the feet of God. If it is true that he is everywhere and in everything, then he is as much in the marketplace as in the desert, as much in the office as in the jungle, as easily found in the street of the crowded city as in the solitude of the mountain peak.”

Annie Besant (1847 – 1933), theosophist and activist for women’s rights and Home Rule

Illustration from Thought Forms by Annie Besant and C.W. Leadbeater

Thought for the day, Wednesday 15th March

“We can no longer let the people in power decide what is politically possible. We can no longer let the people in power decide what hope is. Hope is not passive. Hope is not blah, blah, blah. Hope is telling the truth. Hope is taking action. And hope always comes from the people.”

Greta Thunberg, who inspired children all over the world to take part in climate strikes on this day in 2019

Thought for the day, Tuesday 14th March

“Tikkun Olam (repair of the world): Insofar as a progressive spirituality is committed to a politics that makes the world safe for itself, such a spirituality realizes itself in action. It strives in large and small ways to provide the fundamental preconditions for human dignity and planetary survival: food, shelter, a fair share of the Earth’s resources in the context of respect for the Earth; but also the right to name one’s own situation and desires, and to define and participate in the shaping and healing of history and creation. Such a struggle is not separate from awareness of God or the affirmation of human dignity, but is its complement and expression. Through politics, we become responsible members of a human community rooted in a far larger community and purpose. Through spirituality, we cultivate awareness of the sacred pervading the world, a presence that continually compels us to honor it through action.”

Judith Plaskow, feminist theologian and activist, born on this day in 1947

Finding Home #46 “Tikkun ha- Olam” by Siona Benjamin

Thought for the day, Monday 13th March

“To me there is in happiness an element of self-forgetfulness. You lose yourself in something outside yourself when you are happy; just as when you are desperately miserable you are intensely conscious of yourself, are a solid little lump of ego weighing a ton.”

Joseph Priestley, scientist, liberal political theorist, and Unitarian minister, born on this day in 1733

Thought for the day, Sunday 12th March

“Sin, young man, is when you treat people as things. Including yourself. That’s what sin is.’
‘It’s a lot more complicated than that -’
‘No. It ain’t. When people say things are a lot more complicated than that, they means they’re getting worried that they won’t like the truth. People as things, that’s where it starts.”

Terry Pratchett, who died on this day in 2015

Thought for the day, Saturday 11th March

“Listening creates a holy silence. When you listen generously to people, they can hear the truth in themselves, often for the first time. And in the silence of listening, you can know yourself in everyone. Eventually you may be able to hear, in everyone and beyond everyone, the unseen singing softly to itself and to you.”

Rachel Naomi Remen

SONY DSC

Thought for the day, Friday 10th March

“When the life-force of the universe and the vigour that runs through our bodies are aligned with our spiritual core, then we experience our true power and live with it. The difference between living with power and simply behaving powerfully lies in one thing: those who inhabit their power by aligning with the universe freely let power pass through them, whereas those who behave powerfully hold onto power like a commodity. When the power of the cosmos is restrained, unable to come and go like a tidal current or a mighty wind, it merely inflates the holder, it does not empower her. And when it is hoarded to aggrandize the holder, she risks disease, want, misery, and a host of ills.

We all have times when we feel powerless and insignificant, but the theft of power from another person or place cannot ultimately assist us. We may have a temporary sense of strength, but it does not last. It is only when we relinquish our fearful grip that our own power comes back to our core, empowering us again. Learning how to live with our power involves living close to the truth that is within us and not deviating; it involves periodically checking out how we are behaving, how we are giving power away to things that do not need or deserve our intervention or assistance, how we are retaining or stealing power to create a cocoon of protection.

Power cannot be owned; it is only on loan to us all.”

Caitlin Matthews

Thought for the day, Thursday 9th March

“Self-knowledge is so important that I do not care how high you are raised up to the heavens, I never want you to cease cultivating it. As long as we are on this earth, there is nothing more essential than humility. Enter the room of self-knowledge first, instead of floating off to the other places. This is the path. Travelling along a safe and level road, who needs wings to fly? Let’s make the best possible use of our feet first and learn to know ourselves.”

Teresa of Avila