Words of Wisdom

"Prayer is not an old woman's idle amusement. Properly understood and 
applied, it is the most potent instrument of action." - Gandhi

I was dead, then alive.
Weeping, then laughing.
The power of love came into me,
and I became fierce like a lion,
then tender like the evening star.  -RUMI

"There are many ways leading to God; 
I have chosen that of music and dance." ~Rumi 

MY WORST HABIT

My worst habit is I get so tired of winter I become a torture to those
I'm with

If you're not here, nothing grows.
I lack clarity. My words
tangle and knot up.

How to cure bad water? Send it back to the river How to cure bad
habits? Send me back to you.

When water gets caught in habitual whirlpools, dig a way out through
the bottom to the ocean. There is a secret medicine given only to
those who hurt so hard they can't hope.

The hopers would feel slighted if they knew.

Look as long as you can at the friend you love, no matter whether that
friend is moving away from you or coming back toward you.

Don't let your throat tighten
with fear. Take sips of breath
all day and night,
before death
closes your mouth.

RUMI 

"Awe is the salve that will heal our eyes." 

~Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks 

"You have everything you need in the present situation to work with impeccability.  That doesn't mean that you shouldn't work toward manifesting additional resources and opportunities.  It does mean that the present situation supplies you with everything you need to take the next step."

~Jonathan Zap,
"A Guide to the Perplexed Interdimensional Traveler"

"Sound when stretched is music.

Movement when stretched is dance.

Mind when stretched is meditation.

Life when stretched is celebration."

~Shri Shri Ravishankar Jee

However young,
The seeker who sets out upon the way
Shines bright over the world.
But day and night
the person who is awake
Shines in the radiance of the spirit.
Meditate.
Live purely.
Be quiet.
Do your work, with mastery.
Like the moon,
Come out from behind the clouds!
Shine.
-from the DHAMMAPADA, translated by Thomas Byron

The divine path is nothing but courtesy;
Courtesy itself is compassionate action.
As long as you have a soul,
It should be seeking.
Should the entire ocean
Be poured in your mouth,
Drink a little, but be content.
-Khwaja Baqi Billah

Taking a new step, uttering a new word is what people fear most. -Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Enough
these few words are
enough.
If not these words,
this breath.
If not this breath, this
sitting.
This opening to the
life
we have refused
again and again,
until now.
Until now.

~David Whyte

"The urge to transform one's appearance, to dance outdoors,to mock the powerful and embrace perfect strangers is not easy to suppress...The capacity for collective joy is encoded into us...We can live without it, as most of us do, but only at the risk of succumbing to the solitary nightmare of depression...Why not reclaim our distinctively human heritage as creatures who generate their own ecstatic pleasures out of music, color, and dance...There is no 'point' to it -- no religious overtones, ideological message, or money to be made -- just the chance, which we need much more of on this crowded planet, to acknowledge the miracle of our simultaneous existence with some sort of celebration."

-Barbara Ehrenreich, Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy

"Strength is not always about bouncing back all bright and smiley; it is more about letting go and looking around with curiosity and openness. Strength is allowing the story I tell myself about myself to fall away. It's about standing tall in this place of "not knowing" and trusting that the journey down the "bottomless hole" leads to the places that need looking at and loving. These places have something important to teach me."

When the Heart Waits Sue Monk Kidd

"To be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others." ~Nelson Mandela

"Holding each other close across differences, beyond conflict, through change, is an act of resistance." ~bell hooks

"And you would accept the seasons of your heart, even as you have Always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields.

And you would watch with serenity through the winters of your grief."

~Kahlil Gibran

"Magic...is all around us...[A]ll we need is that ability to see and understand. We do not need to join high-sounding "secret" fraternities [sic], swear frightful oaths and pay fees in order to become magicians...still less do we need to buy a load of expensive paraphernalia such as ceremonial swords, wands and so on, which can be seen advertised for sale today."

~Doreen Valiente in Natural Magic