Author Archives: Laura Dobson

“All of us are connected by Conscience, which unites us as human beings. If you lose your conscience, your humanity is lost.” Yusuf Islam (stage name Cat Stevens), singer-songwriter, born on this day in 1948, speaking at the National March For Palestine 2024

International Moon Day “Here I work in the hollow of God’s handwith Time bent round into my reach. I touchthe circle of the earth, I throw and catchthe sun and moon by turns into my mind.I sense the length of it from end to end,I sway me gently in my flesh and eachpoint of theContinue reading “Thought for the day, Sunday 20th July”

“ “As Plato said, every soul is deprived of truth against its will. The same holds true for justice, self-control, goodwill to others, and every similar virtue. It’s essential to constantly keep this in your mind, for it will make you more gentle to all.”Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 7.63 As he wound his way up ViaContinue reading “Thought for the day, Saturday 19th July”

“My wish is that South Africans never give up on the belief in goodness, that they cherish that faith in human beings as a cornerstone of our democracy. The first value mentioned under the founding principles of our Constitution is that of human dignity. We accord persons dignity by assuming that they are good, thatContinue reading “Thought for the day, Friday 18th July”

“Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps the singing bird will come.” Lois Lowry, writer

“Recent research has shown that the smell of humus exerts a physiological effect on humans. Breathing in the scent of Mother Earth stimulates the release of the hormone oxytocin, the same chemical that promotes bonding between mother and child, between lovers. Held in loving arms, no wonder we sing in response.” From Braiding Sweetgrass byContinue reading “Thought for the day, Wednesday 16th July”

“I find that quakerism and research science fit together very, very well. In quakerism you’re expected to develop your own understanding of god from your experience in the world. There isn’t a creed, there isn’t a dogma. There’s an understanding but nothing as formal as a dogma or creed and this idea that you developContinue reading “Thought for the day, Tuesday 15th July”

“I have hoped as many hopes and dreamed so many dreams, seen them swept aside by weather, and blown away by men, washed away in my own mistakes, that — I use to wonder if it wouldn’t be better just to haul off and quit hoping. Just protect my own inner brain, my own mindContinue reading “Thought for the day, Monday 14th July”

“Willa Cather’s poem, “I Sought the Wood in Summer,” tells of its protagonist despairing during the hot months. The trees tremble beautifully in the light, the daffodils glisten, yet every breath Beauty “gives the vagrant summer but swifter woos her death.” It’s not until the poet returns to the wood in winter that she seesContinue reading “Thought for the day, Sunday 13th July”

“We need the tonic of wildness…At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature.” Henry David Thoreau (1817 – 1862),Continue reading “Thought for the day, Saturday 12th July”