“If ten lamps are present in one place,
each differs in form from another;
Yet you can’t distinguish
whose radiance is whose
when you focus on the light.
In the field of spirit there is no division;
no individuals exist.
Sweet is the oneness
of the Friend with His friends.
Catch
hold of spirit.
Help this headstrong
self disintegrate;
That beneath it
you may discover unity,
Like a
buried treasure.”

Jalaluddin Muhammad Rumi (1207 – 1273)

“Realize that we were taught
to fear the dark.

Consider the seed that splits and unfurls
unseen within the Earth …
Consider the inside of the egg;
consider the place where
the Big Bang exploded …

Unknown and generative,
darkness is unpredictable:
limitless possibility.
We are in the habit
of learning to fear our potential,
but imagine embracing rest and dreams …

We learned early to believe in
the whiteness of certain magic and light
And blackness of certain arts and hearts;
confronted with the sky and its stars, I must reject this entire premise.

Remind me, siblings
to unlearn these bad habits
and accept the gifts I’ve been given.
Darkness is free and abundant;

There is joy in unfurling
from the shadows we were made in.
We need only close our eyes to go home.”

In Darkness, All Things Are Possible, from Incantations for Rest by Atena O. Danner, Unitarian-Universalist minister

Closed Eyes by Odilon Redon, 1894

“Leaves are falling, falling as if from afar,
as if, far off in the heavens, gardens were wilting.
And as they fall, their gestures say “it’s over.”

In the night the heavy Earth is falling
from out of all the stars into loneliness.

We all are falling. This hand here is falling.
Just look: it is in all of us.

Yet there is one who holds this falling
with infinite tenderness in her hands.”

From Book of Images by Rainer Maria Rilke

“If we want to allow creativity its freedom, we have to allow our ideational lives to be let loose, to stream letting anything come, initially censoring nothing. That is creative life. It is made up of divine paradox. To create one must be willing to be stone stupid, to sit upon a throne on top of a jackass and spill rubies from one’s mouth. Then the river will flow, then we can stand in the stream of its raining down. We can put out our skirts to catch as much as we can carry.”

Clarissa Pinkola Estes, quoted in Christian Mystics by Matthew Fox

“The happiness of life is made up of minute fractions — the little soon-forgotten charities of a kiss, a smile, a kind look, a heartfelt compliment in the disguise of playful raillery, and the countless other infinitesimals of pleasurable thought and genial feeling.”

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772 – 1834), Romantic poet and (briefly) Unitarian minister, born on this day

“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”

From The Return of the King by J. R. R. Tolkien, published on this day in 1955

“Before it’s gone remind me
Show me where the wildflowers grow
Teach me our stories from long ago
Who made the sunrise, where does the moon go?

Walk me back to the land that owns me,
Through the trees that know my name
The animals, plants and birds, we are but the same
On the dust of our earth lay me down.

I am home again.”

Pass it on by Michele ‘Mickey’ Hetherington, New South Wales Aboriginal poet

“Fireflies. Angler fish. Trilobites. Many creatures emit their own light. And the more these beings dwell in darkness, the more they evolve to illuminate their surroundings.

Do you give off light yourself? Give yourself credit. You may have a glow that doesn’t register on the visible spectrum, but one that makes a difference nonetheless.

Train your eye to take in the radiance that everyone gives forth. Train yourself to recognize the ways in which you yourself light up the landscape.”

From Earth Bound: Daily Meditations For All Seasons by Brian Nelson

International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

“The only way to end poverty is to address its root causes: inequality, discrimination, and lack of access to education and opportunity.”

Michelle Obama

World Food Day

“How generously the pecan trees shower us with food, literally giving of themselves so that we can live. But in the giving, their lives are also ensured. Living by the precepts of the Honorable Harvest — to take only what is given, to use it well, to be grateful for the gift, and to reciprocate the gift — is easy in a pecan grove. We reciprocate the gift by taking care of the grove, protecting it from harm, planting seeds so that new groves will shade the prairie and feed the squirrels. All flourishing is mutual.”

From Council of the Pecans by Robin Wall Kimmerer