“When we practice looking deeply into our body, we discover its nature of interbeing. It’s made of all the elements: earth, water, fire, air, space, and time. And we begin to see the mountains, the rivers, the trees, the flowers, the dew, the stars, the galaxies – everything in our body. The whole cosmos is there in it. And suddenly we see our body as something to bow down to. We discover deep reverence, and we learn to handle our body with respect.”

Thich Nhat Hanh

“The goal of all religion is not to prepare us to enter into the next life; it is a call to live now, to love now, to be now – and in that way to taste what it means to be a part of a life that is eternal, a love that is barrier-free, and the being of a fully self-conscious humanity. That is the doorway into a universal consciousness that is part of what the word ‘God’ now means to me. This then becomes my pathway into the meaning of life that is eternal. It starts when we step beyond our hiding place in religion into thinking, and finally into being. It involves stepping beyond boundaries into wholeness, beyond a limited consciousness into a universal consciousness, beyond a God who is other into a God who is all.”

John Shelby Spong, former Episcopal Bishop of Newark, New Jersey, quoted in Fragments of Holiness for Daily Reflection

“No person is in such darkness as to be completely devoid of divine light. The divine light shines in the darkness and radiates upon all.”

Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225 – 1274), quoted in Christian Mystics by Matthew Fox

“Whether we’re seeking inner peace or global peace or a combination of the two, the way to experience it is to build on the foundation of unconditional openness to all that arises. Peace isn’t an experience free of challenges, free of rough and smooth, it’s an experience that’s expansive enough to include all that arises without feeling threatened…

When we are training in the art of peace, we are not given any promises that, because of our noble intentions, everything will be okay. In fact, there are no promises of fruition at all. Instead, we are encouraged to simply look deeply at joy and sorrow, at laughing and crying, at hoping and fearing, all that lives and dies. We learn that what truly heals is gratitude and tenderness.”

Pema Chödrön

International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade

“We all require and want respect, man or woman, black or white. It’s our basic human right.”

Aretha Franklin (1942 – 2018), born on this day

“Four proximate effects may be ascribed to love: namely, melting, enjoyment, languor and fervour. The freezing or hardening of the heart is a disposition incompatible with love, while melting denotes a softening of the heart, whereby the heart shows itself to be ready for the entrance of the beloved. If, then, the beloved is present and possessed, pleasure or enjoyment ensues. But if the beloved is absent, two passions arise: namely, sadness at is absence, which is denoted by languor; and an intense desire to possess the beloved, which is signified by fervour… Love is the cause of both pleasure and sorrow.”

Thomas Aquinas, quoted in Christian Mystics by Matthew Fox

“Love is a fire. But whether it is going to warm your hearth or burn down your house, you can never tell.”

Joan Crawford (1905 – 1977), born on this day

World Water Day

“The soul of mankind is like water:
From Heaven coming, to Heaven rising,
Again descending— As it must—Earthward, ever circling.
It streams from high on the steep rock wall, a clear, pure stream;
Then lovingly dusts in swelling cloud-waves against smooth rock;
And striking lightly, it surges, veil-wrapped,
In whispers, to the depths below.
Then cascading against cliff towers,
It foams high, raging, unrelenting, to the Abyss.
In sprawling stream-beds it creeps in meadowed valleys,
And in the glassy lake shows the stars mirrored all in its visage.
Wind is the great wave, lovingly cooling,
Stirring the depths up to foaming whitecaps.
O soul of mankind, how like unto water!
O fate of mankind, how like unto wind!”

Song of the Spirits on the Water by Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749 – 1832), born on this day, translated by Adam Sedia

International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

“I dream a world where man
No other man will scorn,
Where love will bless the earth
And peace its paths adorn
I dream a world where all
Will know sweet freedom’s way,
Where greed no longer saps the soul
Nor avarice blights our day.
A world I dream where black or white,
Whatever race you be,
Will share the bounties of the earth
And every man is free,
Where wretchedness will hang its head
And joy, like a pearl,
Attends the needs of all mankind-
Of such I dream, my world!”

I Dream A World by Langston Hughes

Spring Equinox and International Day of Happiness

“Spring! And Earth is like a child
who has learned many poems by heart.
For the trouble of that long learning
she wins the prize.

Her teacher was strict. We loved the white
of the old man’s beard. Now we can ask her
the many names of green, of blue,
and she knows them, she knows them!

Earth, school is out now. You’re free
to play with the children. We’ll catch you,
joyous Earth. The happiest will catch you!

All that the teacher taught her – the many thoughts
pressed now into roots and long
tough stems: she sings! She sings!”

Sonnets to Orpheus I, 21 by Rainer Maria Rilke