“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

“I am a forest and a night of dark trees.
But he who is not afraid of my darkness,
will find banks full of roses under
my cypresses.”

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 – 1900), born on this day

Painting by Elihu Vedder (1836 – 1923)

“Do not love half lovers
Do not entertain half friends
Do not indulge in works of the half talented
Do not live half a life
and do not die a half death
If you choose silence, then be silent
When you speak, do so until you are finished
Do not silence yourself to say something
And do not speak to be silent
If you accept, then express it bluntly
Do not mask it
If you refuse then be clear about it
for an ambiguous refusal is but a weak acceptance
Do not accept half a solution
Do not believe half truths
Do not dream half a dream
Do not fantasize about half hopes
Half a drink will not quench your thirst
Half a meal will not satiate your hunger
Half the way will get you no where
Half an idea will bear you no results
Your other half is not the one you love
It is you in another time yet in the same space
It is you when you are not
Half a life is a life you didn’t live,
A word you have not said
A smile you postponed
A love you have not had
A friendship you did not know
To reach and not arrive
Work and not work
Attend only to be absent
What makes you a stranger to them closest to you
and they strangers to you
The half is a mere moment of inability
but you are able for you are not half a being
You are a whole that exists to live a life
not half a life.”

Kahlil Gibran (1883 – 1931), writer, poet and visual artist

Illustration from The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran

“Without love, there can be no joy or happiness, no beauty, no harmony in the world.
Even if hundreds of raindrops fall from the cloud, no secret pearls can be found in the sea without the rhythms of love.”

Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi, Persian Sufi poet and scholar (1207 – 1273)

“To adore God through his creation particularly his creatures, to praise him by cheerfully helping to leave creation better than we found it, to believe in him by believing in the triumphant end of all those are made in his image. This is saving faith, this is salvation.”

Ramsay MacDonald (1866 – 1937), British Prime Minister and Unitarian, born on this day