Thought for the Day

 

[. . .] to match the great things bestowed on you, you must

remind yourself that the blank page will always outnumber

the ones written. 

[. . .]

 

[. . .] Words weigh nothing, and yet they make

everything occur.

 

[. . .]

 

[. . .] To write is to fight against the erosion

and transformation of meaning always,

for better and for worse.

 

~ Ocean Vuong

________________________________________

 

Quoted from Ocean Vuong, Keynote Speech, 2025 Whiting Awards Ceremony Note: Ocean Vuong's speech can be found at LitHub, June 4, 2025. Some Keynotes are published on the Whiting Foundation site.

 

Ocean Vuong, Vietnamese-American Poet, Novelist, Essayist; Professor; Photographer

 

Ocean Vuong Whiting Award (2016)

 

Whiting Foundation Whiting Awards

 

Thought for the Day

[. . .] When we experience harmful or destructive actions,

we aren't engaging some dangerous outside force; we are

meeting the shadow of our own humanity. [. . .]

~ Sherri Mitchell

_________________________________

 

Quoted from Sherri Mitchell, "Facing Our Collective Shadow" (Week Twenty-Two Summary and Practice, Richard Rohr's Daily Meditations), Center for Action and Contemplation, May 31, 2025 (Online) Note: Mitchell's meditation is excerpted from her book Sacred Instructions: Indigenous Wisdom for Living Spirit-Based Change (North Atlantic Books, 2018), pp 38, 39.

 

Sherri Mitchell (Penobscot), Indigenous Rights Activist, Spiritual Teacher, Transformational Change-Maker, Author; Lawyer; Founding Director, Land Peace Foundation

Thought for the Day

Sharing our stories requires us to believe that we won't be

rejected for them–to believe that when we reveal our whole

selves, including the parts we aren't proud of, we won't be

seen as undeserving of acceptance or love.

~ Suleika Jaouad

______________________________________ 

Quoted from Suleika Jaouad, "Fill the House with Light" in The Isolation Journals with Suleika Jaouad, May 25, 2025

 

Suleika Jaouad, Journalist, Author, Artist, Advocate, and Public Speaker

 

Jaouad's books are The Book of Alchemy:A Creative Practice for an Inspired Life (2025) and the memoir Between Two Kingdoms (2022); she also is the creator of the Isolation Journals newsletter. You can find on her Website some of her other writing, including her column for The New York Times and essays and reporting, as well as the trailer for a documentary, American Symphony, about Jaouad and her husband Jon Batiste.

Thought for the Day

[. . .] Imagination creates shared spaces.

 

That makes the arts very, very dangerous to authoritarians.[. . .]

~ Debra Cash

 

________________________________ 

Quoted from Debra Cash, "Arts Commentary: The Battle for Imagination — Unravelling America's Cultural Infrastructure" in The Arts Fuse, May 21, 2025 (Online)

 

Debra Cash, Founding Contributing Writer and Board Member The Arts Fuse; Arts Professional

 

Debra Cash on FaceBook 

The Arts Fuse

 

The Arts Fuse on Substack

Thought for the Day

You journey with your ancestors. That's why knowing

your roots is important, because whether you know it

or not, they're journeying with you. Wouldn't you want

the help? Wouldn't you want the warnings? Wouldn't you

want the blessings of those who have gone before you?

~ Dr. Barbara Holmes

___________________________________

 

Quoted from Barbara Holmes, "Living in a Crowded Cosmos," CAC's Living School: Essentials of Engaged Contemplation, Center for Action and Contemplation, August 2024; Requoted in Barbara Otero-Lopez, "Healing the Wounds of Exile," Daily Meditations, May 7, 2025 (See The Living School.)

 

Barbara Holmes (1943-2024), Ph.D., Theologian, Spiritual Leader and Contemplative, Visionary, Activist, Scholar and Educator, Professor, Writer, Lawyer, Professional Actor

 

Dr. Barbara Holmes Obituary

 

Barbara C. Otero-Lopez, Director of Programs, Center for Action and Contemplation (See "Loving in a Time of Exile" in ONEING 13, No. 1, 2025. ONEING is the CAC's biannual journal.)

Center for Action and Contemplation

 

CAC Remembrance of Dr. Barbara Holmes

Thought for the Day

You use the past. You do not worship it – you consult

it. And one of the obligations to the poetry . . . you are obliged

 not just to keep it alive, but to change it and contribute to it

 and adapt it and keep it alive by making it new.

~ Robert Pinsky

___________________________________

 

Quoted from John O'Rourke, "Robert Pinsky, America's Ambassador for Poetry, Retiring from Teaching After 36 Years at BU, More Than 1,000 Students" in BU Today, April 29, 2025 (Online)

 

Robert Pinsky, Poet, Translator, Nonfiction Writer; U.S. Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to Library of Congress, 1997-2000; William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professor and Director, Creative Writing Program, Boston University (Retired, 2025); Jazz Vocalist of Poetry

Favorite Poem Project, BU Center for the Humanities

Thought for the Day

A freedom which is occupied in denying freedom is itself so
outrageous that the outrageousness of the violence which one
practices against it is almost cancelled out: hatred, indignation,
and anger [. . .] wipe out all scruples. But the oppressor would not
be so strong if he did not have accomplices among

the oppressed themselves; [. . .]
~ Simone de Beauvoir

________________________________

 

Quoted from Simone de Beauvoir, Section 3, "The Antinomies of Action" in Chapter III, "The Positive Aspect of Ambiguity" in The Ethics of Ambiguity, 1947 (Online Text at  Marxists Internet Archive)

 

Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986), French Writer, Feminist Activist, Philosopher (Existentialist), Social Theorist

 

On The Ethics of Ambiguity 

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Thought for the Day

Seek and learn to recognize who and what,

in the midst of the inferno, are not inferno,

then make them endure, give them space. 

~ Italo Calvino's Marco Polo

 _________________________________

 

Quoted from Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities, Illustrated 50th Anniversary Edition (Mariner Books Classics, 2025) 

 

Calvino's Invisible Cities (Le citta invisibili) was published in 1972 by Giulio Einaudi Editore. Harcourt published an English translation in 1974. Mariner Books Classics published a paperback version in 1978.

 

Italo Calvino (1923-1985), Cuban-born Italian Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, and Short Story Writer 

Marco Polo (c. 1254-1324), Venetian Merchant, Explorer, Writer

 

Anthony Doerr, "The Timeless Magic of Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities at 50" in LitHub, March 20, 2025

 

Carrie McBride, "Where to Start With Italo Calvino," New York Public Library, October 11, 2023

Thought for the Day

[. . .] Everybody makes mistakes, but you can't

keep asking people to forgive you again and again.[. . .]

Instead of a quick  apology, take the time and make 

the commitment to practice seeing the roots of your behavior. 

    ~ ThichNhat Hanh 

_______________________________

 

Quoted from Thich Nhat Hanh, How to Love (Parallax Press, 2015), p. 107 

Thich Nhat Hanh a.k.a. Thay (1926-2022), Vietnamese Thien Buddhist Monk, Zen Master;  "Father of Mindfulness"; Peace Activist; Poet, Author, Teacher; Founder, Plum Village

 

Plum Village, First Monastic Community Founded by Thich Nhat Hanh; International Practice Center in Plum Village Tradition in Southwest France

 

A Cloud Never Dies, Biographical Documentary About Thich Nhat Hanh (Available on YouTube)

Thought for the Day

Once upon a time giants sculpted the sand, but now

it is us who are the giants. The question we must ask

now is how we use our power.

~ Boardwalk Notice, 

Parnidis Dune, Curonian Spit

______________________________

 

Quoted from Nick Hunt, "In the Wake of the Sandbound" (Essay) in Emergence Magazine, April 13, 2025; Online (Audio and Text Available). Hunt notes in his essay that the quote appears on a sign near the boardwalk where the sand dunes have been roped off. The Curonian Spit, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is part of two national parks shared by Lithuania and Russia.

 

Nick Hunt, Fiction and Nonfiction Writer, Novelist, Travel Book Author; Journalist; Editor; Mentor; Storyteller; Recipient, Royal Geographical Society Journey of a Lifetime Award; Contributor and Co-Director, Dark Mountain Project

 

Thought for the Day

[. . .] Religions, governments, corporations, and organizations are all

 highly capable of evil while not recognizing it as such, because it

 profits us for them to be immoral. Evil finds its almost perfect

camouflage in the silent agreements of the group

when it appears personally advantageous. [. . .]

~ Fr. Richard Rohr

____________________________________

 

Quoted from Richard Rohr, "Contemplative Nonconformity | Islands of Sanity," Center for Action and Contemplation, Daily Meditations, March 30, 2025; Online

 

Fr. Richard Rohr, Franciscan Friar, Ecumenical Teacher, Internationally Recognized Spiritual Leader; Author; Founder, Center for Action and Contemplation 

Center for Action and Contemplation

Thought for the Day

We cannot love the earth 

without getting blood on our hands.

~ Danusha Lameris

 

_________________________________

Quoted from Danusha Lameris, "The Cows of Love Creek" in Blade by Blade (Copper Canyon Press, 2024), p. 22

 

Danusha Lameris, American Poet; Faculty Member, Pacific University Low-Residency M.F.A. Program

Thought for the Day

At the edge of not knowing

is the beginning of the extraordinary. 

~ Victoria Labalme

________________________________

 

Quoted from Victoria Labalme, Risk Forward: Embrace the Unknown and Unlock Your Hidden Genius, 2nd Ed. (Hay House Business, 2023) 

Victoria Labalme, Author, Workshop Leader, Performance Strategist, C-Suite Consultant

Thought for the Day

Then they came for me —

and there was no one left to speak for me.

~ Martin Niemoller 

__________________________________________

 

Quoted from Martin Niemoller's "First they came for . . ." (The famous quotation, of which only the last line is given here, is on display permanently at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.)

 

Friedrich Gustav Emil Martin Niemoller (January 1892 - March 6, 1984), German Theologian and Lutheran Pastor

 

Niemoller, though strongly nationalist and an early Nazi supporter, subsequently found himself in conflict with Hitler and the National Socialist Party when he began openly opposing the party political ideology and laws and otherwise preaching against the Nazi government and its interference with church governance. Repeatedly arrested by the Gestapo, Niemoller ultimately spent more than seven years, much of it in solitary confinement or "protective detention," imprisoned in, first, Sachsenhausen and, later, Dachau concentration camps. In the mid-1950s he became a pacifist and worked for international peace. By the time of his death he was a global public figure.

 

Quotation's Origin

Thought for the Day

My belief is that tears, although they look like a mere emotive

reaction, are much more: a deeply free action that many do not

enjoy. They proceed from deep inside, where we are most truly

ourselves. Tears reveal the depths at which and from which we care.

~ Fr. Richard Rohr

______________________________________

 

Quoted from Fr. Richard Rohr, "Daily Meditations, The Tears of Things: Universal Sadness," March 5, 2025; Adapted from Richard Rohr, The Tears of Things: Prophetic Wisdom for an Age of Outrage (Convergent, 2025), pp 96-98

 

Fr. Richard Rohr, Franciscan Friar and Ecumenical Teacher; Author; Founder, Center for Action and Contemplation

 

Thought for the Day

[. . .] I don't expect the light / to save me, but I do believe /

in the ritual. [. . .]

~ Linda Gregg 

_____________________________

 

Quoted from Linda Gregg, "The Light Continues" in In the Middle Distance: Poems by Linda Gregg (Graywolf Press, 2006) 

Linda Gregg (1942- 2019), American Poet

 

The New York Times Obituary for Linda Gregg

Thought for the Day

[. . .] The system that is not benefitting the poor

is not benefitting us either. [. . .]

~ Rev. Dr. Alexia Salvatierra and Dr. Peter Heltzel

_________________________________________

 

Quoted from Rev. Dr. Alexia Salvatierra and Dr. Peter Heltzel, "Practicing Solidarity" (Online) (This excerpt was published in the Center for Action and Contemplation's Weekly Summary of "Loving Other Stories," February 22, 2025.) See Joerg Rieger's Occupy Religion: Theology of the Multitude (Rowman and Littlefield, 2012) and Alexia Salvatierra and Peter Heltzel, Faith-Rooted Organizing: Mobilizing the Church in Service to the World (InterVarsity Press 2013), p. 55.

 

Rev. Dr. Alexia Salvatierra, Lutheran Pastor; Academic Dean, Centro Latino, Fuller Theological Seminary, and Assistant Professor of Integral Mission and Global Transformation; Public Educator, Speaker, Trainer  (Website)

 

Dr. Peter Heltzel, Associate Professor, Systematic Theology; Director, Micah Institute, New York Theological Seminary; Writer, Editor, Author

 

Center for Action and Contemplation Website

 

Another Ash Wednesday (Poem)

Another Ash Wednesday

Thumb dipped deep

in the ashes of the palm

 

branches burned to black,

the priest stains our foreheads

 

on this day of prayer and penance,

abstinence and fasting.

 

Re-marked with the shape

of the cross we are called to

 

remember the two thousand

years of deaths and resurrections —

 

ashes to ashes, dust to dust —

to wait through the next forty days

 

for the darkness to lift,

our wounds to heal. 

Thought for the Day

I think attention might be so closely bound up with love

as to be almost indistinguishable. And I think it might be

the thing we owe the world most. [. . .]

~ Katherine Rundell

__________________________________

 

Quoted from "VCS Creative Conversation: Ben Quash with Katherine Rundell," The Visual Commentary on Scripture, 2024 (This interview and conversation can be found on The VCS YouTube channel.)

 

Katherine Rundell, English Author and Academic; Fellow, All Souls College, Oxford; Hay30 Writer and Thinker; Recipient, Costa Children's Book Award (The Explorer), Waterstones Children's Book Prize, Blue Peter Book Award, British Book Awards Author of the Year

 

Katherine Rundell on Instagram

 

Ben Quash, Theologian; Director, The Visual Commentary on Scripture 

Thought for the Day

[. . .] New growth must come from a vision

beyond the embers, a belief in resilience,

and a recognition that the fate of forests

and all other life is intertwined.

~ Lauren E. Oakes

______________________________

Quoted from Lauren E. Oakes, "Beginning with Seeds: Restoration in the Wake of Wildfires" (Op-Ed), Emergence Magazine, February 5, 2025

Lauren E. Oakes, Environmental Scientist, Writer, Author of In Search of the Canary Tree and Treekeepers: The Race for a Forested Future

Thought for the Day

[. . .] The courage to be brave when it matters most

requires a lifetime of small decisions that set us on

a path of self-awareness, attentiveness, and willingness

to risk failure for what we believe is right.

~ Right Rev. Mariann Budde

_________________________________

Quoted from Right Rev. Mariann Budde, How We Learn to Be Brave: Decisive Moments in Life and Faith (Avery, 2023)

Right Rev. Mariann Budde, Episcopal Bishop of Washington, D.C. (Washington's First Female Diocesan Bishop);  Spiritual Leader; Writer and Author

Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde Website

Thought for the Day

[. . .] Your love for someone else can only grow in relation

to the extent to which you commit to that love. Love cannot

increase without sacrifice and commitment. [. . .]

~ Zachary Bortot

_________________________

Quoted from "Two Become One: Marriage a Great Mystery," Center for Christianity Culture & the Arts, Biola University Advent Project 2024,  December 30, 2024 (Online)

Zachary Bortot, M.F.A., Associate Professor of Theatre, Theatre Arts Division Director, Collinsworth School of Performing Arts, California Baptist University at Riverside (See "About" at the first link above for additional information about Bortot.)

Thought for the Day

. . . [Y]ou come to poetry not out of what you know
but out of what you wonder. [. . .]
~ Lucille Clifton

_____________________________________

Quoted from "Lucille Clifton on What Poetry Is," Poetry Breaks Video Series, March 30, 2017

Lucille Clifton (1936-2010), American Poet, Writer, Educator

Thought for the Day

Searching is hard work. The intensity of it can make us

frantic – [. . .] The loss can paralyze us. [. . .]

To find something lost, we must change our minds.

We must believe it is there to be found. [. . .]

~ Michael A. Longinow

______________________________

Quoted from "Go and Search Carefully," Center for Christianity Culture & the Arts, Biola University Advent Project 2024, December 25, 2024 (Online)

Dr. Michael A. Longinow, Chair, Department of Digital Journalism and Media, School of Fine Arts and Communication, Biola University; Advisor, Print Journalism, and Advisor, The Chimes (Newspaper); Co-Adviser, Media Narrative Projects, School of Fine Arts and Communication, Biola University (See About at the first link above for additional information about Dr. Longinow.)

Thought for the Day

[. . . ] What does it mean to live in a place haunted

by the loss of water; can we hold the stories, memories,

and pain of those who've known it; and how do we learn 

to embrace what emerges in its wake?

~ Emergence Magazine

____________________________________________

Quoted from Introductory Remarks to Aralkum, Emergence Magazine Newsletter, January 12, 2025

This short film (watch it here or here), which premiered online on January 12, 2025, on Emergence, shows us the landscape that was once the Aral Sea, and how, since 1960, it has been transformed from our Earth's fourth largest body of inland water into what is called Aralkum, the world's youngest desert. It re-imagines the sea's existence as an elderly fisherman seeks to set sail again.

The 2022 film is the creation of documentary filmmakers Daniel Asadi Faezi and Mila Zhluktenko.

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

__________________________________

 

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

________________________________

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.)