“Today our planet is at perihelion, that point in Earth’s orbit at which it is closest to the sun. It’s not an event you’re likely to notice, but it’s one of the subtle geometries that enfold us every day and make life possible on earth.

When you look up at the stars tonight, think about what their orbits might mean for you. Take note of their patterns and symmetry. Appreciate the beauty and complexity of the universe.”

Brian Nelson

“True education is a kind of never ending story — a matter of continual beginnings, of habitual fresh starts, of persistent newness…

The greatest adventure is what lies ahead.
Today and tomorrow are yet to be said.
The chances, the changes are all yours to make.
The mould of your life is in your hands to break.”

J. R. R. Tolkien, born on this day in 1892

“Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won’t come in…

So the universe is not quite as you thought it was. You’d better rearrange your beliefs, then. Because you certainly can’t rearrange the universe.”

Isaac Asimov, born on this day in 1920

Prayer for the New Year by Carla Grosch-Miller,

“Be gentle with me, God.
Open the way before me.
Provide refreshment:
clear water, fresh breeze.

Still my anxious, striving mind.
Bind my aching, yearning heart.
Focus my straining, hoping energies.
Accomplish within me what You can.

Give to me
perseverance in work,
direction in darkness,
the strength to stand
and the wisdom to walk
with grace,
that I may feel
the weight
and value
of each step.”

“The particular mind of the ocean
Filling the coastline’s longing
With such brief harvest
Of elegant, vanishing waves
Is like the mind of time
Opening the shapes of days.

As this year draws to its end,
We give thanks for the gifts it brought
And how they became inlaid within
Where neither time nor tide can touch them.

The days when the veil lifted
And the soul could see delight;
When a quiver caressed the heart
In the sheer exuberance of being here.

Surprises that came awake
In forgotten corners of old fields
Where expectation seemed to have quenched.

The slow, brooding times
When all was awkward
And the wave in the mind
Pierced every sore with salt.

The darkened days that stopped
The confidence of the dawn.

Days when beloved faces shone brighter
With light from beyond themselves;
And from the granite of some secret sorrow
A stream of buried tears loosened.

We bless this year for all we learned,
For all we loved and lost
And for the quiet way it brought us
Nearer to our invisible destination.”

John O’Donohue

“I learned this wisdom from my fathers: There are two things it is forbidden to worry about; that which it is possible to fix, and that which it is impossible to fix. What is possible to fix – fix it, and why worry? What is impossible to fix – how will worrying help?”

Rabbi Yechiel Michal of Zlotchov

“If you are a true seeker of liberation you’ve got to be willing to stand alone. At the moment of Liberation everything falls away…everything. Suddenly the ground beneath your feet is gone, and you are alone. You are alone because you have directly realized that there is no other, there is no separation. There is only you, only Self, only limitless emptiness, pure consciousness.

To the mind, the ego, this appears terrifying. When the mind looks at limitlessness and infinity, it projects meaninglessness and despair. To the ego Absolute Freedom can look terrifying. But when the mind is let go of, the view changes from meaningless despair and fear to the unending joy and wonder of Liberation.

In Liberation, you stand alone. You stand alone because you need no supports of any kind. You need no supports because you have realized that the very notion of a separate you no longer exists; that there is nothing to support; that the whole ego experience was a flimsy illusion. So you stand alone but never, never lonely because everywhere you look, all you see is That, and You are That.”

Adyashanti

“I know this world is far from perfect.
I am not the type to mistake a streetlight for the moon.
I know our wounds are deep as the Atlantic.
But every ocean has a shoreline
and every shoreline has a tide
that is constantly returning
to wake the songbirds in our hands,
to wake the music in our bones,
to place one fearless kiss on the mouth of that new born river
that has to run through the center of our hearts
to find its way home.”

Andrea Gibson

“Friendship is a precious gift that can’t be bought or sold. Its value is greater than mountains made of gold. If you shall ask God for a gift, be thankful if he sends not diamonds pearls or riches, but the love and trust of friends. It is the friends you can call up at 4 a.m. that matter.”

Marlene Dietrich, born on this day in 1901

“Let no ungenerous thought be in our minds today, no intent that is hurtful to another, no purpose that has harm in it. Touch us, O God, with the sweet simplicity of Christmas joy, and may its gentleness and loving-kindness fill our hearts.”

A. Powell Davies