“Grant us to walk in beauty, seeing the uncommon in the common, aware of the great stream of wonder in which we and all things move. Give us to see more deeply into the great things of our heritage, and the simple but sublime truths hidden in every leaf and every rock. May our hands treat with respect the things which You have created. May we walk with other creatures as sharers with them in the one life that flows from You.”

Jacob Trapp (1899 – 1992), Unitarian minister

“I am the breath of the Most High, blanketing the earth like mist, filling the sky with towering clouds.
I encompass distant galaxies, and walk in the innermost abyss.
Over crest and trough, over sea and land, over every people and nation I hold sway…
Before time, at the beginning of beginnings, God created Me. And I shall remain forever…
I grew tall like a cedar in Lebanon, and like a cypress on the heights of Hermon.
I grew tall like a palm tree in En-gaddi, and as a rose plant in Jericho, as a fair olive tree in a pleasant field, and grew up as a plane tree by the water.
I gave a sweet smell like cinnamon and camel’s thorn, and I yielded a pleasant odour like the best myrrh, like galbanum, onyx, and storax, and like the fragrance of frankincense in the tabernacle.
Like a terebinth I spread out my branches, and my branches are glorious and graceful.
Like a vine I caused loveliness to bud, and my blossoms became glorious and abundant fruit.
I am the Mother of true love, wonder, knowledge, and holy hope.
Beyond time, I am yet given to time, a gift to all My children: to all that He has named.
Come to me, you who desire me, and eat your fill of my produce.
For the remembrance of me is sweeter than honey, and my inheritance sweeter than the honeycomb.
Those who eat me will hunger for more, and those who drink me will thirst for more…
At first I was like a narrow stream from a river, and as a shallow brook into a garden.
I said, I will water my best garden, I will moisten my finest beds,
Then my brook became a river, and my river became a sea.
I make instruction shine forth like the dawn, its shimmering seen from afar.
I pour out teaching like prophecy, and leave it for future generations.
Know this: I do not labour for myself alone, but for all you who seek Wisdom.”

From The Wisdom of Jesus Ben Sirach (also known as Ecclesiasticus), chapter 24

“There is a bird on this body tree
That dances in the ecstasy of life.
No one knows where it is,
And who could ever know
What its music means?
It nests where branches cast deep shadow;
It comes in the dusk and flies away at dawn
And never says a word of what it intends.

No one can tell me anything
About this bird that sings in my blood.
It isn’t coloured or colourless;
It doesn’t have a form, or outline;
It sits always in the shadow of love.
It lives within the Unreachable, the Boundless, the Eternal
And no one can tell when it comes or when it goes.

Kabir says, “Fellow seeker,
The mystery of this bird
Is marvellous and profound.
Be wise; struggle to know
Where this bird comes to rest.”

Kabir (15th century India)

“Nothing is absolute. Everything changes, everything moves, everything revolves, everything flies and goes away.”

Frida Kahlo, born on this day in 1907

“Truth is ever to be found in the simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.”

Isaac Newton, whose Principia, outlining his laws of motion and universal gravitation, was published the by Royal Society on this day in 1687

“We have become used to the possession of certain inalienable rights: life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, among others, in our modern world. These are rights that we take for granted, that are enshrined in constitutions and maintained by the law of the land; and yet even within civilized societies there are many who do not enjoy these rights. The poor, the disadvantaged, and others who live on the margins of society need the actions and voices of those who honour the commitment to the alienable rights that we should all enjoy.”

Caitlin Matthews

“We commune too much with what defeats us. We brood over our failures until failure takes possession of us. May we see the good we have done and be encouraged by it. May we see the good we might have done and be drawn towards it.”

Adapted from a prayer by A. Powell Davies (1902 – 1957), Unitarian minister

“How long, O God, how long?
How long must I wait to see your face,
to feel your presence?
How long until I figure things out,
heal from my wounds, feel whole again?
How long must I live with these longings,
with no more than hints and guesses to go on?
Look on me and give me answers! Light up my eyes!

I put my trust in your love. I know
that you hold me in the arms of life
whether I feel it or not.
If trust and longing are all that I have,
then that is enough, and I will sing.”

Psalm 13 reimagined by Christine Robinson

International Day of Co-operatives

“The entire cosmos is a cooperative. The sun, the moon, and the stars live together as a cooperative. The same is true for humans and animals, trees and soil. Our bodily parts function as a cooperative. When we realize that the world is a mutual, interdependent, cooperative enterprise, that human beings are all mutual friends in the process of birth, old age, suffering, and death, than we an build a noble, even heavenly environment. If our lives are not based in this truth, the we shall perish.”

Buddhadasa Bhikku

International Asteroid Day

“Like the cosmic dust following after a great Perseid meteor, we are the living remnants of time and all that has come to pass in its wake—briefly shining lights on the way to eternity. We are only visible to the naked eye for an instant. Take this moment to shine like the star dust you are. May the light of our time on earth shine to bless the world and each other. Shine. Shine. Shine.”

Mary Edes