Accepting limitations

Do what you CAN do,

and do your best to stop blaming yourself

for not doing what you can’t.

Those who love you will understand

and appreciate that we all have limitations...

Life happens

Life happens.

Whatever barriers we erect in hopes of protecting ourselves

will not shut out the waves of what's determined to wash in.

The question is: what can we do to deal with what we're given?

The courage to try

What matters is not what people say about you.

What matters is that you were brave enough to try;

To believe, and to carry the power of that belief

into the work that you were born to do.

Overflowing with compassion

As in spring our world

is filled to overflowing with flowers,

may our hearts, even the hardest,

be filled to overflowing with compassion...

Hang on tight

When all the world seems broken,

hang on tight: this, too, shall pass...

The color of your thoughts

The thoughts with which we fill our heads

will not only be visible,

but will color the world around us.

What will you choose to think and see

and project onto the world today?

Will it be hate, distrust, or fear,

or will you choose fill your thoughts with love?

Balancing comfort and adventure

There are days when we feel like we’re forging 

a new path in the wilderness

and days when the road we walk feels all too familiar, 

and we’re aching for a change.

What will today be like for you,

and what might you do differently

without sacrificing the comfort of familiarity?

Leaving the cave of winter

Spring is here!

Time to wake up,

step out of the cave of winter,

and carry your gifts into the light!

Happy Easter

The mix that keeps things interesting

As we sail into the end of the day,

be grateful, both for the light that calls us forth,

and for the clouds that give depth and color

to the light, to the day, and to our lives:

It’s the mix that keeps things interesting.

Hope lies waiting

However dark the clouds that loom,

however imprisoned you may feel

by your current circumstances,

I trust you will remember Light and hope

are waiting just beyond the clouds...

Paddle slowly through the weeds

Paddle slowly through the weeds, my friend,

and may the currents carry you

to open waters soon; to where a feast

and freedom wait to fill your heart to soaring.

Love anyway

When everything you’ve worked so hard to build is in ruins — 

love anyway.

What truly matters

We artists paint and write or dance and sing;

we act, or bake, or cook and clean;

we protest, we plant gardens;

we adopt both pets and children —

All ways of bringing hope into this troubled world;

declaring worth, patience, and care —

to say, despite it all, this truly matters...

How can you help?

Whose burden might you ease today?

Whose heavy heart could you lift up

with a simple act of kindness?

What might you do to lighten

the dark corners of our world?

Holding out hope

Whenever dark clouds, gathering on the horizon,

seem destined to extinguish hope, or joy,

we hold within our hearts trust and awareness

that light waits just beyond the cross and cave;

that flowers lost to winter’s cold

will break through crusts of earth and bloom again.

What will you radiate?

From each of us there flows a radiance:

of hope, of love, of anger, sadness, pain...

whatever energy absorbs us spills out in waves,

affecting — or infecting — those around us.

What influence will you radiate today?

Go ahead: lie back and howl!

Some days you just need to lie on your back and howl.

Don’t be embarrassed or ashamed:

Give yourself permission to feel what you feel.

Let it out; let it go — you’re only human!

Why isn't compassion automatic?

The people who seek shelter in this pink house,

behind these bars, are human, too:

like us, they hunger for joy and an end to suffering;

They know the pain of loss

and pray for inner peace just as we do.

Why is it that we humans are so determined

to ignore our common humanity?

Why isn’t compassion as natural as breathing?

The surest signs of aging

What keeps us young is curiosity,

a welcoming of possibility.

The surest sign of aging is a refusal

to look beyond the path you’ve always trod;

to drop the burdens you’ve decided you must carry;

to set aside your prejudice and open to the light.

You are never alone

Whether you have chosen solitude

or had it thrust upon you, uninvited,

you are never truly alone:

The earth is there to support you,

the sky to inspire you,

and the hills to invite you

to imagine a future full of possibility.

The fountain of grace

There is a fountain of grace,

always flowing at the center of things.

Sit. Rest. Breathe. Listen.

Let it spill over and refresh your soul.

A head full of hope

Hope is a kind of relentless, surprising optimism

that lives, not in your head, but in your heart;

those times when despite the dark and dirt

you dare to trust that dawn is on its way...

Beware of looking foolish...

Warning: when you’re that determined

to climb to the top,

you might end up looking like an ...

well, a little foolish!

Feel the tenderness

Stop for a moment. Breathe.

Feel the tenderness that is your birthright.

Know the tenderness you carry within you.

Look around you, and let that tenderness

flow through you into the world.

Tired of tilting at windmills?

Tired of tilting at windmills?

Maybe it’s time to pick something smaller;

Something or someone closer to home

whose life might be brightened by your attentions...

The web of connection

See how the mountains are linked to one another?

And see how those connections are echoed

in the bridges we build to link one another?

We all of us live in a web of connection;

Each of us is critical to the maintenance of that web.

What's keeping you?

What is it that’s keeping you

from where you long to be?

Can you see past the obstacles

to the hope that lies ahead?