“When I was young and bold and strong,
Oh, right was right, and wrong was wrong!
My plume on high, my flag unfurled,
I rode away to right the world.
“Come out, you dogs, and fight!” said I,
And wept there was but once to die.
But I am old; and good and bad
Are woven in a crazy plaid.
I sit and stay, “The world is so;
And he is wise who lets it go.
A battle lost, a battle won—
The difference is small, my son.”
Inertia rides and riddles me;
The which is called Philosophy.”

The Veteran by Dorothy Parker, born on this day in 1893

“At a certain point you say to the woods, to the sea, to the mountains, the world, Now I am ready. Now I will stop and be wholly attentive. You empty yourself and wait, listening. After a time you hear it: there is nothing there. There is nothing but those things only, those created objects, discrete, growing or holding, or swaying, being rained on or raining, held, flooding or ebbing, standing, or spread. You feel the world’s word as a tension, a hum, a single chorused note everywhere the same. This is it: this hum is the silence …

The silence is all there is. It is the alpha and the omega. It is God’s brooding over the face of the waters; it is the blended note of the ten thousand things, the whine of wings. You take a step in the right direction to pray to this silence, and even to address the prayer to “World.” Distinctions blur. Quits your tents. Pray without ceasing.”

Annie Dillard

“Earth, in which lie the sea, the river, and other waters,
in which food and cornfields have come to be,
in which lives all that breathes and that moves,
may she confer on us the finest of her yield.

Earth, in which the waters, common to all,
moving on all sides, flow unfailingly, day and night,
may she pour us milk in many streams,
and endow us with lustre.

May those born of thee, O Earth,
be for our welfare, free from sickness and waste.
Wakeful through a long life, we shall become
bearers of tribute to thee.

Earth, my mother, set me securely with bliss
in full accord with heaven
O wise one,
uphold me in grace and splendour.”

Atharva Veda, composed in India in around 1100 BCE

World Humanitarian Day

“I believe that there is a greater power in the world than the evil power of military force, of nuclear bombs — there is the power of good, of morality, of humanitarianism.”

Linus Pauling (1901 – 1994), Unitarian Universalist, winner of Nobel Prizes in Chemistry and Peace, died on this day

“God is not a watchmaker who then periodically tinkers with the creation he long ago established. Instead, God is one with all that exists. The great miracle is the energizing force of the universe itself. One mind is everywhere active, in each ray of the star, in each wavelet of the pool.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 – 1882), Unitarian minister, writer and philosopher, quoted in Fragments of Holiness for Daily Reflection

“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.”

Mae West, born on this day in 1893

“Though human nature has many detractors, and though we fail our own best intentions sometimes, the treasury of the soul reflects its divine origins time and again in our life’s track. True divinity of soul shines out in the most unexpected moments: when we are hard-pressed, when care and support must stretch just a little further than we think we can give, when the moment of danger comes unexpectedly, when a deeper and more farsighted action is required of us. The invisible mantle of the Divine is about our shoulders and can lend us help and strength in daily life. The divine ingredients within our making do not make us into gods, but they do sparkle through our human lives in ways that illumine the universe.”

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

“To understand the world, knowledge is not enough. You must see it, touch it, live in its presence and drink the vital heat of existence in the very heart of reality.”

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881 – 1955), Jesuit priest, paleontologist and theologian

“I quietly gaze into the depths of a forest
and see nothing save beauty and peace.
Birdsong fills my ears.
A gentle breeze brushes against my cheek.
Seeing from inside the seeing,
I drink the dark riches of the woods.

Would it be that every day I could see
my own face so clearly in these still waters,
And meet the emptiness –
which is also my very own heart –
that is carried in the boughs of pines
and the gentle music of crickets.”

Cass Adams

“Every unique thing in nature is related to the whole, and partakes of the perfection of the whole. Each particle is a microcosm, and faithfully renders the likeness of the world. In geometric harmony of the cosmos there are ways that resemble, there are universal patterns, from blood vessels, to winter trees or to a river delta, from nautilus shell to spiral galaxy, from neurons in the brain to the cosmic web. A whole universe of connections is in your mind – a universe within a universe – and one capable of reaching out to the other that gave rise to it. Billions of neurons touching billions of stars – surely spiritual.”

Alejandro Mos Riera