maya angelous – Jackson Community Church

Reflections on being heard & listening: themes from Hebrews

By jacksonnhccPosted on October 18, 2018Posted in Home, Weekly MeditationsTagged ― Madeleine L'Engle, Anne Lamott, Colin Kaepernick, Ernest Shackleton, Joan D. Chittister, John C. Maxwell, madeline brewer, Mawlana Jalal-al-Din Rumi, maya angelou, maya angelous, meghan markle, mother teresa of calcutta, ralph waldo emerson, Ray Bradbury, Richard Rohr, Robert Kennedy, rumi, Simon Sinek, simon sinker, Soren Kierkegaard, Stephen R. Covey, Swiftly Tilting Planet, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change, The Illuminated Rumi, Thich Nhat Hanh, William Lloyd Garrison, Wisdom Distilled from the Daily

Do you feel heard? Seen? Recognized? Beloved?

Here are Rev Barbara Brown Taylor’s thoughts on the Love who insists one being Present and bears Witness to our lives:

“I use the word “sacred” to describe something that grounds me in this world and opens me up to another world all at the same time. Oceans usually do it, especially in the middle of summer storms. The kindness of strangers does it. Getting sick does it, especially if I am so sick that I cannot do anything for myself. Being present at the birth of a new human being does it, and so does being between the sheets with someone I love. I could go on. I use the words “holy” and “divine” to describe the same phenomena. They almost involve the sense that there is a Witness to my life, a Consciousness that is for me in the best situations but also in the worst, where this Sacredness is working around the clock to make life out of death for me and every other living thing.”

We had seen God in His splendors,
heard the text that Nature renders.
We had reached the naked soul of man.
— Ernest Shackleton

I know that when I pray, something wonderful happens.
Not just to the person or persons for whom I’m praying,
but also something wonderful happens to me.
I’m grateful that I’m heard.
— Maya Angelou

The minute I heard my first love story,
I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was.
Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere.
They’re in each other all along.
― Mawlana Jalal-al-Din Rumi, The Illuminated Rumi

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Reflections on tree of life as outgrowth of wisdom: themes from Proverbs

By jacksonnhccPosted on August 16, 2018Posted in Weekly Meditations, WorshipTagged Alexandre Dumas, Andrea Koehle Jones, Anne Lamott, charles darwin, Doris Lessing, janet autherine, johanna herrick, Lao Tzu, maya angelous, Reinhold Niebuhr, rumi, tree of life, wisdom

On Wisdom

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. — Reinhold Niebuhr

As a tree produces fruit, wisdom gives life to those who use it, and everyone who uses it will be happy. — Proverbs 3:18

Humanity’s legacy of stories and storytelling is the most precious we have. All wisdom is in our stories and songs. A story is how we construct our experiences. — Doris Lessing