International Day of Charity

“Can I see another’s woe,
and not be in sorrow too?
Can I see another’s grief,
and not seek for kind relief?”

William Blake (1757 – 1827), quoted in Fragments of Holiness for Daily Reflection

“”Human beings, vegetables, cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible player.” Albert Einstein, interview

Those who, like Einstein, come daily into contact with the physical laws that order the universe cannot help but catch the strains of that great dance in which we are all whirling. Whether it be in the intricacy of cellular formation, or in the flow of currents, or in the vast patterning of the stellar orbits that illuminate the heavens, scientists are privileged too see into the structure of that dance.

The inapprehensible motion of life escapes our daily awareness, as does the tune of the cosmic dust that orders us all in one great dance of life. We do not hear it playing until we come to a point where our ordinary and subtle senses are aligned together. Then we come into harmony and awareness of both worlds at once, the apparent and the unseen worlds in conscious communion within us. These privileged moments cannot be sought; they come unbidden, surprising us into mystical vision. It may be that when we interrupt a walk on a high place at evening to admire the view, we apprehend the revolution of the earth as a physical motion beneath our feet; it may be that we become aware of a rhythm that weaves about the steady beating of our own heart, as if it were a partner in the dance.

The resonances to which we respond and the relationship between ourselves and the music of life give us the only clues available about the nature of the invisible partner – clues reassuring enough that we can trust the source of our music.

Attune to the cosmic tune and rhythm of life; stand and dance.”

From The Celtic Spirit: Daily Meditations for the Turning Year by Caitlin Matthews

“How significant that the rich, black mud of our dead stream produces the water lily– out of that fertile slime springs this spotless purity! It is remarkable that these flowers which are most emblematical of purity should grow in the mud.”

From Henry David Thoreau’s Journal, 1853

“To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.

What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places-and there are so many-where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.

And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”

Howard Zinn (1922 – 2010), historian, author, professor, playwright, and activist

“O God, to whom we pray for truth, be with us in our trembling lest we find it. We fear its light; our lives are full of shadows: what shall we do for shelter when we stand before the brightness of truth? We do not want the truth that troubles us and seeks to save us; we look for truth that brings us safety, comfort, and repose… We do not want the truth that tells us of a world of human wretchedness, with wrongs to be set right and justice calling us to serve it. For if we see this truth, we must admit our own betrayals: our callousness and cowardice, our evasions and our love of ease. We do not seek the truth of conscience. We want an indulgent God of tenderness and loving kindness who will not trouble our conscience or challenge our complacency. Forgive us our complacency, O God.”

A. Powell Davies (1902 – 1957), Unitarian minister, quoted in Fragments of Holiness for Daily Reflection

International Day for People of African Descent

“i was cold / i was burning up / a child
& endlessly weaving garments for the moon
with my tears
I found god in myself
& i loved her / i loved her fiercely”

Ntozake Shange (1948 – 2018)

“Even broken in spirit as he is, no one can feel more deeply than he does the beauties of nature. The starry sky, the sea, and every sight afforded by these wonderful regions, seems still to have the power of elevating his soul from earth. Such a man has a double existence: he may suffer misery, and be overwhelmed by disappointments; yet, when he has retired into himself, he will be like a celestial spirit that has a halo around him, within whose circle no grief or folly ventures.”

From Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1797 – 1851), born on this day

“There’s really just one thing I can control: my attitude during the journey, which is what keeps me feeling steady and stable, and what keeps me headed in the right direction.”

Chris Hadfield, first Canadian to walk in space, born on this day in 1959

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama .. little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today!
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; “and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.”
This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.
With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day…
From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:
Free at last! Free at last!
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

Martin Luther King Jr., from his speech delivered at the Lincoln memorial in Washington D.C. on this day in 1963

“even on back roads
I find I have velocity
and direction

where
I have come from
I’m not quite sure
where I am going
I don’t much care

the sign says Nirvana
I’m not there though
I only know
I am somewhere south of there
filled with this feeling
and aware of it

strange
how I keep leaving behind
the very thing
I am looking for
but then life is for living
time is a spiral
and every road
the road home”

Ric Masten (1929 – 2008), Unitarian Universalist minister and poet