Leaves

The human race is a single being

shaktinah — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 15:40:12 -0700

The human race is a single being
Created from one jewel
If one member is struck
All must feel the blow
Only someone who cares for the pain of others
Can truly be called human

- Saadi, circa 1200-1291

My Symphony

shaktinah — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 15:50:22 -0700

To live content with small means.
To seek elegance rather than luxury,
and refinement rather than fashion.
To be worthy not respectable,
and wealthy not rich.
To study hard, think quietly, talk gently,
act frankly, to listen to stars, birds, babes,
and sages with open heart, to bear all cheerfully,
do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never.
In a word, to let the spiritual,
unbidden and unconscious,
grow up through the common.
This is to be my symphony.

Forgive Us

shaktinah — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 06:22:55 -0700

Forgive us that often we forgive ourselves
so easily and others so hardly;
Forgive us that we expect perfrection
from those to whom we show none;
Forgive us for repelling people by the
way we set a good example;
Forgive us the folly of trying to
improve a friend;
Forbid that we should use our little
idea of goodness as a spear to
wound those who are different;
Forbid that we should feel superior
to others when we are only more shielded;
And may we encourage the secret

O God! Refresh and gladden my spirit.

shaktinah — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 20:08:00 -0700

O God! Refresh and gladden my spirit. Purify my heart. Illumine my powers. I lay all my affairs in Thy hand. Thou art my Guide and my Refuge. I will no longer be sorrowful and grieved; I will be a happy and joyful being. O God! I will no longer be full of anxiety, nor will I let trouble harass me. I will not dwell on the unpleasant things of life.

O God! Thou art more friend to me than I am to myself. I
dedicate myself to Thee, O Lord.

- 'Abdu'l-Bahá

Spiritual Window-Shoppers

shaktinah — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 19:55:08 -0700

These spiritual window-shoppers,
who idly ask, 'How much is that?' Oh, I'm just looking.
They handle a hundred items and put them down,
shadows with no capital.

What is spent is love and two eyes wet with weeping.
But these walk into a shop,
and their whole lives pass suddenly in that moment,
in that shop.

Where did you go? "Nowhere."
What did you have to eat? "Nothing much."

i thank You God for most this amazing

shaktinah — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 22:08:50 -0700

i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday;this is the birth
day of life and love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any--lifted from the no
of all nothing--human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

- e e cummings

The American Dream

shaktinah — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 20:31:22 -0700

...All life is interrelated. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality; tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. As long as there is poverty in this world, no man can be totally rich even if he has a billion dollars. As long as diseases are rampant and millions of people cannot expect to live more than twenty or thirty years, no man can be totally healthy, even if he just got a clean bill of health from the finest clinic in America. Strangely enough, I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be.

My Universalism is Fierce.

shaktinah — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 20:28:57 -0700

My Universalism is fierce. It has no patience for the theology of scarcity. We are beloved - like it or not. If we could only believe and accept that, we would not need to oppress, or control, or hoard the resources, because as God's beloved, we belong. Neither life nor death can separate us from that love. When we know that, there is very little else we need.

- Rev. Danielle Di Bona
from Soul Work: Anti-Racist Theologies in Dialogue

The Future

shaktinah — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 07:02:19 -0700

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

- Eleanor Roosevelt

Part of the Universe

shaktinah — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 04:48:00 -0700

A human being is a part of the whole, called by us, "Universe," a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest -- a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.