INTERNATIONAL DAY OF CLEAN AIR FOR BLUE SKIES

“When fire breaks out in a ten-story building, the person living on the first floor cries out for help. The person living on the tenth floor says that it is not his problem. But it soon will become his problem too. He does not realize that. Amma always says that there is harmony in the universe. Everything in the universe is interconnected. The universe is a net held by each of us. When there is movement in the corner of a net held by four people, it will reflect everywhere. All actions we perform knowingly or unknowingly, alone or as a group is being reflected in the corners of the universe. It will not work if we wait for others to change. Even if they do not change, we should be willing to change. We should see what we can do.”

Mātā Amritanandamayī Devi

KRISHNA JANMASHTAMI

“I remember how my mother would hold me.
I would look up at her sometimes and see her weep.
I understand now what was happening.
Love so strong a force it broke the cage,
and she disappeared from everything for a blessed moment.
All actions have evolved from the taste of flight;
the hope of freedom moves our cells and limbs.
Unable to live on the earth,
Mira ventured out alone in the sky –
I write of that journey of becoming as free as God.
Don’t forget love;
it will bring all the madness you need
to unfurl yourself across the universe.”

Mirabai (also known as Meera), 16th century devotee of Krishna

“What actions are most excellent?
To gladden the heart of a human being.
To feed the hungry.
To help the afflicted.
To lighten the sorrow of the sorrowful.
To remove the wrongs of the injured.
That person is most beloved of God who does most good to God’s creatures.”

Saying of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him)

“To flower out in the sunshine and air,
a seed falls into the loam,
where the dead gather
like old old friends
to compost their pain into beauty.
I am a seed.
To sing, I fall into silence.
To radiate golden joy, I fall into darkness.
To know wisdom, I leave the dry land of thinking
and fall into the ocean of bewilderment.
Are you poor in spirit?
Do you desire true wealth?
Be a seed.
Vanish into your opposite.
Give thanks
for a blade of grass,
the stillness of the swallowtail on a weed,
the rise and fall of this breath.”

Fred Lamotte

“The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is smeared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wear’s man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now; nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs –
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.”

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844 – 1889), Jesuit priest and poet

“”One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.” William Shakespeare, As You Like It

As we walk through the countryside at this time of year, it is easy to feel our symbiotic connection with nature. The rich profusion of colours and the abundant seeding and fruiting of the land in preparation for autumn all beckon us into a wider family circle. We return home after such a walk, perhaps to the city, brimming with a sense of belonging, but this feeling fades sooner or later as we are immersed once more in the daily running of our lives.

We place reminders of nature’s beauty about our home. Driven by the recognition that our kinship with nature is slipping, we surround ourselves with “natural” or “organic” things. While such things may remind us of our wider relationship, they do not truly connect us, since kinship must pass beyond strictly visual reminders if it is to be authentic.

It is in the touch of nature that connection is most strongly made, for it is at the most physical levels that recognition of kinship is triggered. We engage with our kindred when we are in physical contact: whether we tend our garden, groom our dog, or receive the kiss of rain upon our skin. These moments of precious contact are opportunities for loving thankfulness, in recognition of the fact that we are wholly akin to a greater family. When we live our lives open to such moments, we enter a wider embrace that includes us all.”

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

“The canvas is my playground, where dreams and reality dance together…
My brush dances with the rhythm of life, painting a symphony of emotions on the canvas…
In every stroke, I weave the stories of my land, capturing the essence of Brazil…
Through art, I aim to awake the dormant colours of the world and ignite the imagination…
May my art inspire you to see the world through new lenses, embracing the magic of creativity…
Art is a language of the soul, speaking volumes through colours and shapes…
Art is a powerful reflection of society, challenging norms and sparking conversations…
Art is a bridge that connects hearts, transcending borders and embracing diversity.”

Tarsila do Amaral (1886 – 1973), Brazilian artist, born on this day

“”To return to the root is repose.” These are the principles which underlie the wisdom of the East, which the West has to discover and the East to recover if the world is to find its balance…

There is an activity of the mind which is grasping, achieving, dominating, but there is also an activity which is receptive, attentive, open to others. This is what we have to learn. The classical expression of this intuitive wisdom is to be found in the Tao Te Ching, which speaks of the Spirit of the Valley and the Mystic Female…

Intuition cannot be produced. It has to be allowed to happen. But that is just what the rational mind cannot endure. It wants to control everything. It is not prepared to be silent, to be still, to allow things to happen. Of course, there is a passivity of inertia, but this is an “active passivity.” It is what the Chinese call wu wei, action in inaction. It is a state of receptivity.”

Bede Griffiths (1906 – 1993), Benedictine monk and yogi

“Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void, but out of chaos; the materials must, in the first place, be afforded: it can give form to dark, shapeless substances, but cannot bring into being the substance itself… Invention consists in the capacity of seizing on the capabilities of a subject, and in the power of moulding and fashioning ideas suggested to it.”

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

“Spirit of beauty, whose revelations come to us in sun and rain, dawn and dusk,
In all flowing, circling, shining and living things,
And in the quiet at the heart of all motion,
Be within us this day as the wonder and welcome of the living soul.
Awake our senses and quicken our minds
That we may partake, and be inwardly fed and renewed.
May we give our hearts to beauty,
As the harp gives itself to the hand.
May we turn towards the true and the good,
As buds and flowers are uplifted to the sun.”

Jacob Trapp (1899 – 1992), Unitarian Universalist minister, quoted in Fragments of Holiness for Daily Reflection