“Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp. But if you will sit down quietly, it may alight on you.”

Nathaniel Hawthorne

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

Maya Angelou, who died on this day in 2014

“I was suddenly made aware of another world of beauty and mystery such as I had never imagined to exist, except in poetry. It was as though I had begun to see and smell and hear for the first time. The world appeared to me as Wordsworth describes with “the glory and freshness of a dream.” The sight of a wild rose growing on a hedge, the scent of lime-tree blossoms caught suddenly as I rode down a hill on a bicycle, came to me like visitations from another world. But it was not only my senses that were awakened. I experienced an overwhelming emotion in the presence of nature, especially at evening. It began to have a kind of sacramental character for me. I approached it with a sense of almost religious awe and, in a hush that comes before sunset, I felt again the presence of an almost unfathomable mystery. The song of the birds, the shape of the trees, the colours of the sunset, were so many signs of the presence, which seemed to be drawing me to itself.”

Bede Griffiths

From Dracula by Bram Stoker, published on this day in 1897,

“Do you not think that there are things which you cannot understand, and yet which are; that some people see things that others cannot? But there are things old and new which must not be contemplate by men´s eyes, because they know -or think they know- some things which other men have told them. Ah, it is the fault of our science that it wants to explain all; and if it explain not, then it says there is nothing to explain.”

“Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson, born on this day in 1803

“How many times
must I hear Buddha say,
“breathe in, breathe out,”
before I can do it myself?
I got tired of being spiritual.
So I came home.
Built a fire.
Made coffee.
Took out my mother’s cup
and ran my fingers over the cracks
of brown in blue.
Came home to hug you.
Fur on fur.
I got tired of being spiritual.
So I came back to Being.”

Fred Lamotte

“Nothing is more important than empathy for another human being’s suffering. Nothing. Not a career, not wealth, not intelligence, certainly not status. We have to feel for one another if we’re going to survive with dignity.”

Audrey Hepburn

Fifth anniversary of Manchester Arena bombing

From Mother of God Similar to Fire by Mirabai Starr,

“Mother of Mercy, ​​​​​​​​
the cries of the world keep me awake at night. ​​​​​​​​
I rise from my bed, but I cannot locate the source of the wailing. ​​​​​​​​
It is everywhere, Mother, coming from all directions, ​​​​​​​​
and my heart is shattered by the sheer intensity of suffering. ​​​​​​​​
You of boundless compassion, ​​​​​​​​
expand my heart so that I can contain the pain. ​​​​​​​​
Focus my mind so that I can arrive at viable solutions, ​​​​​​​​
and energize my body so that I can engage in effective action. ​​​​​​​​
Give me the courage to follow the crumbs of heartbreak ​​​​​​​​
all the way home to the place where I can be of real service. ​​​​​​​​
Let me dip my fingers into the dew of your compassion ​​​​​​​​
and scatter it now over the fevered brow of this world.​​​​​​​​”

Art by Kuzma Petrov Vodkin

“The years of all of us are short, our lives precarious. Our days and nights go hurrying on, and there is scarcely time to do the little that we might. Yet we find time for bitterness, for petty treason and evasion. What can we do to stretch our hearts enough to lose their littleness? Here we are – all of us upon this planet – bound together in a common destiny, living our lives between the briefness of the daylight and the dark. Kindred in this, each lighted by the same precarious, flickering flame of life, how does it happen that we are not kindred in all things else? How strange and foolish are these words of separation that divide us?”

A. Powell Davies (1902 – 1957), Unitarian minister

“Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.”

Utilitarian philosopher John Stuart Mill, author of On Liberty, born on this day in 1806