“He allowed himself to be swayed by his conviction that human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, but that life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves.”

From Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez, who died on this day in 2014

“Walk out on your driveway, or on a pavement around your home and study the concrete closely; it’s starting to break. The earth will only tolerate tarmac for so long. How do those buds make their way through inches, even feet, of solid industrial paving, to send a few gentle sprouts up to the open air?

Build, raze, or pave how you will, manicure your lawns as you choose, dig swimming pools or raise towers, and yet sooner or later, nature will break through. But this is not a cause for despair at how your plans are being confounded – for you are a part of nature as well. Like these April sprouts, keep growing, keep pushing up through the crevices toward the sun.”

Brian Nelson

“Owning up to being an animal, a creature of Earth. Tuning our animal senses to the sensible terrain: blending our skin with the rain-rippled surface of rivers, mingling our ears with the thunder and the thrumming of frogs, and our eyes with the molten gray sky. Feeling the polyrhythmic pulse of this place – this huge windswept body of water and stone. This vexed being in whose flesh we’re entangled. Becoming Earth. Becoming animal. Becoming, in this manner, fully human.”

David Abrams

“One’s life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, indignation and compassion.”

Simone de Beauvoir, feminist writer, who died on this day in 1986

“Constancy, perseverance, and questioning are the three requisites of the spiritual life. Constancy to our self-respect, to our spiritual quest, and to any true teachers whom we meet will encourage and support our progress. Perseverance in prayer, meditation, and the implementation of spiritual practices will maintain our quest; and if certain of those practices are not working for us, perseverance until we find a practice that does will return us to the right path. A questioning tongue and heart are also essential as we seek to stay on that path: regular self-clarification and the self-questioning of our motives, the questioning of teachers and spiritual allies regarding things that concern us, and the questioning of anything within our tradition that is not manifesting the spiritual message will ensure ensure that our path is a clear one, that we are not merely accepting the unclarity of others.”

Caitlin Matthews

“It irritates me to be told how things have always been done. I defy the tyranny of precedent. I cannot afford the luxury of a closed mind… The door that nobody else will go in at, seems always to swing open widely for me.”

Clara Barton, Universalist founder of the American Red Cross, who died on his day in 1922

“Be soft. Do not let the world make you hard. Do not let the pain make you hate. Do not let the bitterness steal your sweetness. Take pride that even though the rest of the world may disagree, you still believe it to be a beautiful place.”

Kurt Vonnegut, Unitarian Universalist writer, who died on this day in 2007

“Let everything happen to you, beauty and terror.
Only press on: no feeling is final.
Don’t let yourself be cut off from me.
Nearby is that country
known as Life.
You will recognise it
by its seriousness.
Give me your hand.”

Rainer Maria Rilke

“This is what the philosopher and the poet share in common: both are concerned with the marvellous. Amazement is the beginning of philosophy. Wonder is a kind of desire in knowing. It is the cause of delight because it carries with it the hope of discovery.”

Thomas Aquinas (1225 – 1274)

“After Jesus is dead his followers do not realize that they are waiting. After all, what else is there to wait for? Everything is over. Perhaps they feel that they are waiting for their own pain to diminish, their own sense of loss and bereavement to become bearable. Only time can do that, but the leaden hours go so slowly to the recently bereaved. Jesus’ followers are sharing that experience with all who have lost loved ones…

Waiting is one of the most difficult tasks we have to face, because it makes us feel so helpless. In most areas of our lives, we are used to being able to make decisions and choices that will make things happen for us. Our day-to-day lives are so full of things to be done, that we imagine it would be lovely to have a period of waiting, where things are taken out of our hands and there is nothing we can do.

But when we are actually presented with a situation where the only thing we can do is wait, we find it intensely difficult. When we or someone we love is ill, there is a lot of waiting – in hospital rooms, waiting for test results, waiting to see if treatment works. This kind of waiting is almost unbearable, because all our choice is taken away. We cannot make things happen by our energy or force of will. This painful waiting is a hard lesson in reality. Facing what cannot be changed is part of the world. Sometimes we wriggle or negotiate things round the way we want them to be, and then to stand and wait is indeed the only service we can give. It is a service to reality and so to ourselves.”

Jane Williams