“Surely the day will come when color means nothing more than the skin tone, when religion is seen uniquely as a way to speak one’s soul; when birth places have the weight of a throw of the dice and all men are born free, when understanding breeds love and brotherhood.”

Josephine Baker, dancer, singer, actress and civil rights activist, born on this day in 1906

Thought for the day, Friday 2nd June

“The magic of story is everywhere acclaimed as healing and transforming. The power of story to change us and bring us to the brink of self-forgetfulness and wonder is a gift beyond measure. However, if we truly believe in the power of story, it is important that we find appropriate stories for our condition and that they are told at times when we are most receptive to (and therefore most respectful of) their power. We each participate in a greater story than appears in any book, film, or recording: the story that is telling us is more important than the story we are telling. It is unwritten and sometimes unheard by us, but it runs throughout our lives with an authoritative voice that we need to listen for. It is in periods of receptive silence and listening that this story becomes apparent.”

Caitlin Matthews

“A wise girl knows her limits, a smart girl knows that she has none.”

Marilyn Monroe, born on this day in 1926

Thought for the day, Wednesday 31st May

“After you have exhausted what there is in business, politics, conviviality, and so on – have found that none of these finally satisfy, or permanently wear – what remains? Nature remains.”

Walt Whitman, born on this day in 1819

Thought for the day, Tuesday 30th May

“Spirituality is not to be learned by flight from the world, by running away from things, or by turning solitary and going apart from the world. Rather, we must learn an inner solitude wherever or with whomsoever we may be. We must learn to penetrate things and find God there.”

Meister Eckhart (c.1260 – 1328)

La Solitude du Christ by Alphonse Osbert

“Friends are as important as achievement.. Teamwork is the one key to success and selfishness only makes a man small.”

Tenzing Norgay, who, together with Edmund Hillary, was the first man to climb to the summit of Mount Everest, on this day in 1953

Whit Sunday / Pentecost

“Effortlessly,
Love flows from God into humans,
Like a bird
Who rivers the air
Without moving her wings.
Thus we move in His world
One in body and soul,
Though outwardly separate in form.
As the Source strikes the note,
Humanity sings —
The Holy Spirit is our harpist,
And all strings
Which are touched in Love
Must sound.”

Mechthild of Magdeburg

Feast of Saint Melangell, patron saint of hares

“Melangell sails the Irish sea
to the wilds of Wales,
flees a marriage and seeks time
alone among a storm of hawthorn,
feeds on hazelnuts and dandelions,
gathers lady’s mantle each morning
to sip their dew, plunges her hands
in the river, freezing and fresh,
sleeps on moss in the cave-close stone,
delights at birdsong, seeks
the sacred in hunger and rain.
One warm day, her quiet disrupted,
hot breath of men and hounds
approach, jaws wide.
Teeth gleam, foam sputters,
tails swish as they scrabble
for a hare with brown legs
bounding, a great roar of wet fur
and whiskers –
the hare leaps
into the folds of Melangell’s cloak.
Defiant stands the saint,
draws a circle around herself.
Dogs and men can go no further.
Melangell strokes the hare’s ears,
soothes his clanging heart,
whispers “you are safe now”
as howls recede on the wind
and the valley becomes sanctuary.
You can still glimpse it
on sun-sparkled days when bluebells
sway and oak leaves rustle
from squirrel-scurry-scamper
and you take the soft hare
of your life into your arms,
whisper into those long ears
blessings all down her trembling
length and remind her that
she too no longer needs to run.”

Christine Valters-Paintner

“Master of the Universe, grant me the ability to be alone. May it be my custom to go outdoors each day among the trees and grass, among all growing things. And there may I be alone in prayer, to talk with my Creator, to express everything in my heart. And may all the foliage of the field awake at my coming, to send the power of their life into the words of my prayer, so that my prayer and speech are made whole through the spirit of all growing things.”

Rebbe Nachman of Breslov

“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well…

Do not follow where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and make a trail.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson, philosopher, poet, Unitarian minister and Transcendentalist, born on this day in 1803