“Do stuff. be clenched, curious. Not waiting for inspiration’s shove or society’s kiss on your forehead. Pay attention. It’s all about paying attention. Attention is vitality. It connects you with others. It makes you eager. stay eager.”

Susan Sontag, born on this day in 1933

“If you can’t be a pine at the top of the hill,
be a shrub in the valley – but be
The best little shrub on the side of the hill,
Be a bush if you can’t be a tree.
If you can’t be a highway, just be a trail
If you can’t be a sun, be a star;
For it isn’t by size that you win or fail –
Be the best of whatever you are.”

Dr Martin Luther King Jr, born on this day in 1929

“The purpose of human life is to serve, and to show compassion and the will to help others.

Wherever you turn, you can find someone who needs you. Even if it is a little thing, do something for which there is no pay but the privilege of doing it.

The only thing of importance, when we depart, will be the traces of love we have left behind.”

Albert Schweitzer, born on this day in 1875

“The stars speak through the stones. Light shines in the densest matter. Heaven and Earth are one. Our physical beings and our heavenly souls are united in the Mystery of Being.”

Philip Carr-Gomm

“Tasting dark chocolate,
A ripe apricot,
A luscious elixir –
Savour the expanding joy in your body.
Nature is offering herself to you.
How astonishing
To realize this world can taste so good.

When sipping some ambrosia,
Raise your glass,
Close your eyes,
Toast the universe.
The Sun and Moon and Earth
Danced together
To bring you this delight.
Receive the nectar on your tongue
As a kiss of the divine.”

From The Radiance Sutras by Lorin Roche, a contemporary interpretation of the Vijnana Bhairava Tantra

“Everyone has oceans to fly, if they have the heart to do it. Is it reckless? Maybe. But what do dreams know of boundaries?

No kind action ever stops with itself. One kind action leads to another. Good example is followed. A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees. The greatest work that kindness does to others is that it makes them kind themselves.”

Amelia Earhart, the first woman to fly solo across the Pacific Ocean, on this day in 1935

“On this day in 1969, the photograph Earthrise was published in Life magazine. The picture was taken by William Anders, an astronaut on the Apollo 8 mission, who writes about that moment in A View from Space: “We’d come 240,000 miles to see the moon, and it was the Earth that was really worth looking at.”

As people around the world saw the planet from a distance for the first time, a fundamental shift in human consciousness began. Certainly we knew that Earth was not the center of the universe from a scientific perspective, but to actually see our globe hanging there in space had a startling effect on Life’s readers. Quickly the term Spaceship Earth became popular, as we recognized both the beauty and fragility of our true place in the cosmos.

Every time you see a photograph of the earth, remind yourself that we are all in the picture.”

Brian Nelson

“To be free is not to have the power to do anything you like; it is to be able to surpass the given toward an open future.”

Simone de Beauvoir

“Expect Life!
Do not live too far in the past or the future; live now.
In each moment, expect a miracle: ten kinds of birds at the feeder, and the tracks of a fox in the snow.
Pick up a magnifying glass and scrutinize that crocus. See the pollen at the center of the daffodil, life’s dust, death-defying life. Be astonished at the flower, arrested by its beauty.
Run naked through the garden early in the morning and hope the wild geese fly by.
Get silly and laugh loudly with your grandchildren, or your grandparents. Refuse to leave the dead behind, but bring their memory to all your chores and games and corners of quiet warm tears.
Know always that joy and sorrow are woven together; one cannot be without the other. If you love, know that sometimes your love will bring you tears; if you grieve, know it is because at some time you were willing to love.
Do not be afraid to die today. But expect life!”

Elizabeth Tarbox

“Helping, fixing, and serving represent three different ways of seeing life. When you help, you see life as weak. When you fix, you see life as broken. When you serve, you see life as whole. Fixing and helping may be the work of the ego, and service the work of the soul.”

Rachel Naomi Remen