Reflections on Pentecost: Breaking Open, Many Gifts
Tortoise Shout (excerpt) — DH Lawrence
Torn, to become whole again,
after long seeking for what is lost,
The same cry from the tortoise as from Christ,
the Osiris-cry of abandonment,
That which is whole, torn asunder,
That which is in part, finding its whole again
throughout the universe.
O Me! O Life! — Walt Whitman
Oh me! Oh life! of the questions of these recurring,
Of the endless trains of the faithless,
of cities fill’d with the foolish,
Of myself forever reproaching myself,
(for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)
Of eyes that vainly crave the light,
of the objects mean, of the struggle ever renew’d,
Of the poor results of all, of the plodding
and sordid crowds I see around me,
Of the empty and useless years of the rest,
with the rest me intertwined,
The question, O me! so sad, recurring—
What good amid these, O me, O life?
Answer.
That you are here—that life exists and identity,
That the powerful play goes on,
and you may contribute a verse.
Those in whom the Spirit comes to live are God’s new Temple. They are, individually and corporately, places where heaven and earth meet. — N.T. Wright
I am the Self, Arjuna, seated in the heart of all beings; I am the beginning and the life span of beings and their end as well. Of creations, the beginning and the end and the middle as well, Arjuna; of knowledge, knowledge of the Self, of orators, I am the speech; of letters, the first one, A: I am imperishable time; the Creator whose face is everywhere, death that devours all things … I am the divine seed within all beings, Arjuna; nothing, inanimate or animate, could exist for a moment without me. — Bhagavad Gita Chapter 10 (excerpt)
Dreams grow holy put in action. — Adelaide Anne Procter
If you want to speak to God, tell it to the wind. — Proverb from Ghana
A great wind is blowing, and that gives you either imagination or a headache. — Catherine the Great
Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive. — Howard Thurman
We are as the flute, and the music in us is from thee;
we are as the mountain and the echo in us is from thee.
We are as pieces of chess engaged in victory and defeat:
our victory and defeat is from thee, O thou whose qualities are comely!
Who are we, O Thou soul of our souls,
that we should remain in being beside thee?
We and our existences are really non-existence;
thou art the absolute Being which manifests the perishable.
We all are lions, but lions on a banner:
because of the wind they are rushing onward from moment to moment.
Their onward rush is visible, and the wind is unseen:
may that which is unseen not fail from us!
Our wind whereby we are moved and our being are of thy gift;
our whole existence is from thy bringing into being.
— Masnavi Book I, 599-607