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December 30, 2007 I’ve learned to trust what I call the Braille method of living – relinquishing grand plans and schemes in favor of an intuitive approach, feeling my way from tree to tree, relinquishing my attempts to control the world and learning, instead, to trust a discerning surrender. Stephen Cope
December 31, 2007 You have to know what you need and want out of life before you can make the choices necessary to honor them. Sarah Bran Breathnach
December 29, 2007…..blessed silence, the human spirit is listening to the small voice within , seeing with the eyes of the soul, looking deeply into the presence of God. Michael O’Neil McGrath
December 27, 2007 - December 28, 2007 God is in the details...in paintings...artists hold up a mirror to the human heart, it is as if their creative expressions validate the stories and dreams that are shared by all humans in our common experience of living.
December 26, 2007 "I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief... For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free." Wendell Berry
December 25, 2007 Through Mary's love,through the purity of her faith, God has given to us the Word of Life: and the Word made flesh, with the consent of her pure love has dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. Thomas Merton
December 23, 2007 - December 24, 2007 Charles Dickens lamented, “ Would that the spirit of Christmas could live within our hearts every day of the year? ” Perhaps the Christmas spirit is our souls ' knowledge that things, no matter how beautiful, are only things; that we were created, not always to do, but sometimes simply to be. Perhaps the Christmas spirit is a loving reminder that we must make time for the long slow journey across the desert; we must take time to discover our own star; we must honour the time necessary to brood over the coming of the authentic self we were created to become. So this is my Christmas wish for all of us: that behind the toys, tinsel, carols, cards and chaos, there will come a moment of quiet reflection and peace. That it may be truly said of each of us that we know how to keep Christmas well. Sarah Ban Breathnach
December 22, 2007 Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas-time.
Laura Ingalls Wilder
December 21, 2007
I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old familiar carols play
And mild and sweet the words repeat,
Of peace on earth, good will to men.
I thought how as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had roll'd along th' unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.
And in despair I bow'd my head:
"There is no peace on earth," I said,
"For hate is strong, and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men."
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,
With peace on earth, good will to men."
'Til ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime,
Of peace on earth, good will to men!
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
December 20, 2007 ~ Whatever we are waiting for - peace of mind, contentment, grace, the inner awareness of simple abundance - it will surely come to us, but only when we are ready to receive it with an open and grateful heart ~ Sarah Ban Breathnach
December 19, 2007 All we have to do is live this life with openess imagination and a sense or paradox and wonder.
