Wait

Wait on the Lord” is a constant refrain in the Psalms, and it is a necessary word, for God often keeps us waiting. He is not in such a hurry as we are, and it is not his way to give more light on the future than we need for action in the present, or to guide us more than one step at a time. When in doubt, do nothing, but continue to wait ….. When action is needed, light will come.

J.I. Parker, 1926 – 2020 Canadian evangelical theologian, cleric and writer 

Adding

So, what if, instead of thinking about solving your whole life, you just think about adding additional good things.

One at a time.

Just let your pile of good things grow.

Rainbow Rowell, American author, Attachments

As temporary as clouds

You who are training your daughters to check for the words
“Calvin Klein” before they look to see if there are pockets
are giving them no hands to put in those pockets.

You are giving them eyes that will find nothing solid in stones.
No comfort in rough land, nameless sheep trails.
No answers from things which do not speak.

Since when do children sketch dreams with price tags attached?
Don’t tell me they were born this way.
We were all born like empty fields.
What we are now shows what has been planted.

Will you remind them there were people
who hemmed their days with thick-spun wool
and wore them till they fell apart?

Think of darkness hugging the houses,
caring nothing for the material of our pyjamas.
Think of the delicate mesh of neckbones
when you clasp the golden chains.
These words the world rains back and forth
are temporary as clouds.

Clouds? Tell your children to look up.
The sky is the only store worth shopping in

for anything as long as life.

Naomi Shihab Nye, Rebellion Against the North Side (extracts)

Do not lose hope

I see the sun, and if I don’t see the sun, I know it’s there.

And there’s a whole life in that,

in knowing that the sun is there.

Dostoyevsky

Sunday Quote: Remind yourself

 Sometimes I go about in pity for myself,

and all the while,

a great wind carries me across the sky

Ojibwe Tribe saying.  

Doing and non-doing

One of the most important lessons in balance which we have to learn, and one of the central teachings in the Bhagavad Gita: the way of Inaction-in-Action.

You can’t catch the wild horse by running,

but nobody who is not running will catch the wild horse.

Sufi Proverb