“The earth is mother,
she is mother of all that is natural,
mother of all that is human…
The earth should not be injured.
The earth should not be destroyed…
All nature is at the disposal of humankind.
We are to work with it.
Without it we can not survive…
With nature’s help,
humankind can set into creation
all that is necessary and life-sustaining.”

Hildegard von Bingen (1098 – 1179), abbess, composer, healer, mystic, preacher, and visionary, who died on this day

“I’m trying to get people to see that we are our brother’s keeper. Red, white, black, brown or yellow, rich or poor, we all have the blues.”

Riley B. King (better known as B. B. King), born on this day in 1925

INTERNATIONAL DAY OF DEMOCRACY

“Peace cannot exist without justice, justice cannot exist without fairness, fairness cannot exist without development, development cannot exist without democracy, democracy cannot exist without respect for the identity and worth of cultures and peoples.”

Rigoberta Menchú Tum, K’iche’ Guatemalan human rights activist, feminist, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

“The leaves are turning and change is in the air… As the palette of nature changes and the fall colors grow more intense, embrace your own changes. That which does not change is not fully alive. As humans in chaos, we sometimes long for stability, but flux and ongoing evolution bring us to our fullest selves. In the words of Carl Jung, “Only that which changes remains true.””

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

“Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature.”

Michael Faraday, who discovered the ‘Faraday effect’, the influence of a magnetic field on polarized light, on this day in 1845

“It was early,
which has always been my hour
to begin looking
at the world

and of course,
even in the darkness,
to begin
listening into it,

especially
under the pines
where the owl lives
and sometimes calls out

as I walk by,
as he did
on this morning.
So many gifts!

What do they mean?
In the marshes
where the pink light
was just arriving

the mink
with his bristle tail
was stalking
the soft-eared mice,

and in the pines
the cones were heavy,
each one
ordained to open.

Sometimes I need
only to stand
wherever I am
to be blessed.

Little mink, let me watch you.
Little mice, run and run.
Dear pine cone, let me hold you
as you open.”

Mary Oliver

“We ought to dance with rapture that we should be alive and in the flesh, and part of the living, incarnate cosmos. I am part of the sun as my eye is part of me. That I am part of the earth my feet know perfectly, and my blood is part of the sea. My soul knows that I am part of the human race, my soul is an organic part of the great human soul.. There is nothing of me that is alone and absolute except my mind, and we shall find that the mind has no existence by itself, it is only the glitter of the sun on the surface of the waters.”

David Herbert (D.H.) Lawrence, born on this day in 1885

This Day We Say Grateful: A Sending Blessing by Jan Richardson

“It is a strange thing to be so bound and so released all in the same moment,
to feel the heart open wide and wider still even as it turns to take its leave.
On this day, let us say this is simply the way love moves in its ceaseless spiralling,
turning us toward one another, then sending us into what waits for us
with arms open wide to us in welcome and in hope.
On this day, in this place where you have poured yourself out,
where you have been emptied and filled and emptied again,
may you be aware more than ever of what your heart has opened to here,
what it has tended and welcomed here,
where it has broken in love and in grief,
where it has given and received blessing
in the unfathomable mystery that moves us, undoes us,
and remakes us finally for joy.
This day may you know this joy in full measure.
This day may you know this blessing that gathers you in and sends you forth
but will not forget you.
O hear us as this day we say grace;
this day we say grateful;
this day we say blessing;
this day we release you in God’s keeping and hold you in gladness and love.”

“How to unmask a blessing in disguise:
Stare it in the face and say, “I know you are not just a lousy day or bad luck. I know you are a good friend—even if for the life of me I cannot determine how. I know there is only one Source of All Things, and nothing can convince me that evil descends from Above. Evil descends from the constraints of my perception. You are no more than a blessing in disguise.”
This blessing, if truly a great one, will not surrender its cover easily. You will need a composure that demonstrates you meant every word you said. You will need to hold your ground like a mountain against the sea. You will need to surprise yourself with your own resolve.
And then you can turn over a world. A world that once distorted every blessing that squeezed through its gates will now open those gates wide. And the blessings that have already entered will sigh a breath of relief as one by one they discard their scary costumes.”

Rabbi Tzvi Freeman

INTERNATIONAL LITERACY DAY

“Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.”

Frederick Douglass

“Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope. It is a tool for daily life in modern society. It is a bulwark against poverty, and a building block of development… For everyone, everywhere, literacy is, along with education in general, a basic human right…. Literacy is the means through which every man, woman and child can realize his or her full potential.”

Kofi Annan