Thought for the Day

To go in the dark with a light is to know the light.

To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight,

and find that the dark, too, blooms and sings,

and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings.

~ Wendell Berry

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Quoted from Wendell Berry, "To Know the Dark" in Soul Food: Nourishing Poems for Starved Minds (Bloodaxe Books, 2007), Sec. 1

Wendell Berry, American Novelist, Poet, Essayist, Environmental Activist, Cultural Critic, Farmer

The Berry Center

Thought for the Day

[. . .] you will never love art until you love

what it mirrors better."

~ John Ruskin

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Quoted from John Ruskin, The Eagle's Nest: Ten Lectures on the Relation of Natural Science to Art, Given Before the University of Oxford in Lent Term | The Works of John Ruskin, Vol. 4 (Smith, Elder & Co., 1874), p 45

John Ruskin (1819 - 1900), English Polymath (Writer, Lecturer, Art Historian, Art Critic, Draughtsman, Philanthropist, Geologist, and more)

Ruskin Museum

National Gallery of Art (U.S.)

National Gallery of London (U.K.)

Thought for the Day

 Much protest is naive; it expects quick, visible improvement

and despairs and gives up when such improvement does

not come. If protest depended on success, there would be

little protest of any durability or significance. History simply

affords too little evidence that anyone's individual protest

is of any use. Protest that endures, I think, is moved by a hope

far more modest than that of public success: namely, the hope

of preserving qualities in one's own heart and spirit that

would be destroyed by acquiescence.

    ~ Wendell Berry

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Quoted from Wendell Berry, "A Poem of Difficult Hope" in What Are People For: Essays (Counterpoint Press. 2010)

 

Wendell Berry, Poet, Fiction Writer, Essayist, Author; Environmental Activist; Cultural Critic; Farmer

The Berry Center

Thought for the Day

[. . .] I went in search of truth and found love at the heart

of all things. I have come to realize that all knowledge is

true knowledge – whether in the sciences or in the

humanities – if it moves one to fall more deeply in love.

~ Ilia Delio

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Quoted from "Love is the Source of All," Daily Meditations on Contemplation and Science, Center for Action and Contemplation, December 5, 2024

 

 Ilia Delio, Scientist and Theologian; Author, Birth of a Dancing Star (Orbis Books, 2019), pp. 195, 196, 200

Thought for the Day

What separates privilege from entitlement

is gratitude.

~ Brene Brown

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Quoted from Brene Brown, What Separates Privilege from Entitlement is Gratitude: Gratitude Journal for Women (Morium Great Press, 2021)

Thought for the Day

The only true life we live in this world is the life we consent to

live in relationship, messy and entangled though it might be.

The only fruit worth sharing with the world is the fruit

we'll produce together.

~ Debie Thomas

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Quoted from Debie Thomas, "Bearing Fruit Together" (Daily Meditation) at Center for Action and Contemplation, November 13, 2024 (Online)

Debie Thomas, Author, A Faith of Many Rooms and Into the Mess and Other Jesus Stories; Columnist; Contributing Editor, The Christian Century; Speaker

Center for Action and Contemplation

Thought for the Day

What I am interested in is unexpected gatherings of people

who manage to tolerate working together to make surprising

things emerge from their unexpected coalitions. [. . .] Surprise

is an old human emotion. When employed for the purposes of 

creating ⏤ not destroying ⏤ it can elicit energy, ideas and work.

~ Padraig O' Tuama

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Quoted from Padraig O' Tuama, "Art and coalition | The survival of surprise," Poetry Unbound Newsletter (Substack), November 10, 2024 (Online)

Padraig O' Tuama, Poet, Theologian, Mediator

Thought for the Day

[. . .] it does seem to me that attention is kind of the entrance

gate to anything and everything. [. .] Nothing in this world

can be done well if you're not paying attention. If you're 

distracted, if you haven't learned how to bring yourself in an

immediate and wholehearted way into whatever it is you are

doing, in a way, you don't have your life. [. . .]

~ Jane Hirshfield

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Quoted from "On Time, Mystery, and Kinship: An Interview with Jane Hirshfield" in Emergence Magazine, October 24, 2024 (Online) The conversation was conducted by Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee and is available as audio at the link.

Jane Hirshfield, Poet, Essayist, Translator; Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Thought for the Day

This is precisely the time when artists to to work.

There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity,

no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak,

we write [. . .] That is how civilizations heal.

~ Toni Morrison

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Quoted from Toni Morrison, "No Place for Self-Pity, No Room for Fear" in The Nation (150th Anniversary Issue), April 6, 2015 (Online)

Toni Morrison (1931 - 2019), American Novelist, Editor; Recipient, Nobel Prize in Literature

New York Times Obituary for Toni Morrison

Thought for the Day

Both emptiness and form are saturated with love.

And our love for each other and for the Earth is

the most natural expression of this one quality.

~ Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

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Quoted from Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, "Unborn and Undying" (Essay) in Emergence Magazine, November 3, 2024 (Online) An audio presentation by Vaughan-Lee also is available at the link.

Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, Sufi Teacher, Author, Editor, Lecturer