Author Archives: Laura Dobson

“No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream..” Shirley Jackson (1916 – 1965), horror writer, born on this day

Feast Day of St Lucy ” Knock, and He’ll open the door.Vanish, and He’ll make you shine likethe sun.Fall, and He’ll raise you to the heavens.Become nothing and He’ll turn youinto everything.” Rumi

“Nothing ceases to exist – there is no example of this in nature.. .There is an entire mass of things that cannot rationally explained. There are newborn thoughts that have not yet found form. How foolish to deny the existence of the soul. After all, that a life has begun, that cannot be denied. ItContinue reading “Thought for the day, Thursday 12th December”

International Mountain Day “Well, I have discovered my mountain – its weathers, its airs and lights, its singing burns, its haunted dells, its pinnacles and tarns, its birds and flowers, its snows, its long blue distances. Year by year, I have grown in familiarity with them all. But if the whole truth of them isContinue reading “Thought for the day, Wednesday 11th December”

Human Rights Day “The intellectual, the moral, the religious seem to me all naturally bound up and interlinked together in one great and harmonious whole.” Ada Lovelace (1815 – 1852), mathematician, born on this day

“The mind is its own place, and in itselfCan make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven… “Yet he who reigns within himself, and rulesPassions, desires, and fears, is more a king.” John Milton (1608 – 1674), poet, born on this day

“I put my trust in you, O God, as best as I am able.May I be strong. May I not be afraidMay all who open their heartshear your voice and know your love.Lead me, teach me, help me to trust. You are gracious to us, O GodYou guide us, you forgive our clumsy waysYou helpContinue reading “Thought for the day, Sunday 8th December”

“Celebration is an active state, an act of expressing reverence or appreciation. To be entertained is a passive state – it is to receive pleasure afforded by an amusing act or a spectacle. Entertainment is a diversion, a distraction of the mind from the preoccupations of daily living. Celebration is a confrontation, giving attention toContinue reading “Thought for the day, Saturday 7th December”

“God is in the look of your eyes,In the thought of looking,nearer to you than your self,or things that have happened to you.There’s no need to go outside.Be melting snow.Wash yourself of yourself.A white flower grows in the quietness.Let your tongue become that flower.” Rumi

World Soil Day Gardening is not a rational act. What matters is the immersion of the hands in the earth, that ancient ceremony of which the Pope kissing the tarmac is merely a pallid vestigial remnant… at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.” Margaret Atwood