“In my travels I spent time with a great yogi. Once he said to me, ‘Become so still you hear the blood flowing through your veins.’ One night as I sat in quiet, I seemed on the verge of entering a world inside so vast I know it is the source of all of us.”

Mirabai (also known as Meera), Indian Bhakti saint, c. 1498 – 1546

“Beneath the ground, the seeds are slumbering. During these months, seeds are like time bombs, filled with explosive energy that they will only release at the proper moment.

You yourself may be one of these seeds. Perhaps you need a period of rest before you can capitalize on all the power inside you. Or perhaps that dormancy is already ending, and it’s time for you to burst forth. Like any seed, make sure that you get all the light and the nutrients you need. Prepare the ground around you, and take steps to distract any creatures that would feed upon you before you’ve reached your full potential. Then start blossoming.”

Brian Nelson

“Time and tide will wait for no man, saith the adage. But all men have to wait for time and tide.”

Charles Dickens, born on this day in 1812

Time and Tide by Alfred Bricher

“The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.”

Bob Marley, born on this day in 1945

“We travel together, passengers on a little spaceship, dependent on its vulnerable reserves of air and soil, all committed, for our safety, to its security and peace. Preserved from annihilation only by the care, the work and the love we give our fragile craft.”

Adlai E. Stevenson, born on this day in 1900

“It takes more than one person to bring about peace – it takes all of us.”

Rosa Parks, born on this day in 1913

“Dance when you’re broken open.
Dance when you’ve torn the bandage off.
Dance in the middle of fighting.
Dance in your blood.
Dance when you’re perfectly free.
Struck, the dancer hears a tambourine inside her,
like a wave that crests into foam at the very top,
Begins.
Maybe you don’t hear that tambourine,
or the tree leaves clapping time.
Close the ears on your head,
that listen mostly to lies and cynical jokes.
There are other things to see, and hear.
Music. Dance.
A brilliant city inside your Soul!”

Rumi

Feast of Candlemas

Let the growing sunlight of each new day touch your soul.
May it reach the parts you that have felt unloved, unseen.
The dark places between your bones, the cave around your heart, the space between each breath.
Let it stir the dreams in you, the seeds of medicine sown into your making, activating their shape shifting ways.
All of you is worthy of this light; your flesh, your skin, your womb, your heart.
Let it’s magic call you home, let your wildness reply with its own slow and gentle awakening.

Brigit Anna McNeill

Imbolc / St Brigid’s Day

“I will rest now at the bottom of Bridget’s well
I will follow the crow’s way
Footprint by footprint
In the mud down here
I won’t come up
Until I am calmed down
And the earth dries beneath me
And I have paced the caked ground
Until smooth all over
It can echo a deeper voice
Mirror a longer shadow
Then the fire may come again
Beneath me, this time
Rising beyond me
No narcissus-flinted spark
Behind closed eyes
But a burning bush
A fire that always burns away
But never is burnt out”

Richard Kearney

“Only when peace lives within each of us, will it live outside of us. We must be the wombs for a new harmony. When it is small, peace is fragile. Like a baby, it needs nurturing attention. We must protect peace from violence and perversion if it is to grow. We must be strong to do this. But force, even in the name of honour, is always tragic. Instead, we must use the strength of wisdom and conscience. Only that power can nurture peace in this difficult time.”

Deng Ming-Dao