March Twenty-Seventeen

March Twenty-Seventeen

For The Future

Planting trees early in spring,  we make a place for birds to sing  in time to come. How do we know?  They are singing here now.  There is no other guarantee  that singing will ever be. 

-Wendell Berry

Will you meet us in the ashes, will you meet us in the ache

and show your face within our sorrow and offer us your word of grace:

that you are life within the dying, that you abide within the dust,

that you are what survives the burning, that you arise to make us new.

And in our aching, you are breathing; and in our weeping, you are here

within your hands that bear the blessing enfolding us within your love. 

-Jan Richardson Circle of Grace

The Moments That Matter 

You will find as you look back upon your life that the moments that stand out, the moments when you have really lived, are the moments when you have done things in a spirit of love. 

-Henry Drummond, The Greatest Thing in the World

Happiness is not a finish line…If we can’t feel content here, today, now, on our journeys amidst the mess and the striving that we all inhabit…then we might never feel it.

–Ben Saunders, Polar Explorer 

 The leap of faith always means loving without expecting to be loved in return, giving without wanting to receive, inviting without hoping to be invited, holding without asking to be held. And every time I make a little leap, I catch a glimpse of the One who runs out to me and invites me into his joy, the joy in which I can find not only myself, but also my brothers and sisters. Thus the disciplines of trust and gratitude reveal the God who searches for me, burning with desire to take away all my resentments and complaints and to let me sit at his side at the heavenly banquet.

-Henri Nouwen Return of the Prodigal Son

We are most alive when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.

-Thornton Wilder

Let us all be Noticers today.  Let us notice our children’s gifts rather than their flaws.  

Let us notice what our spouse does right not what he or she did wrong.  

Let us notice the sacrifices our parents made, rather than all the times they messed up.  

Let us notice how hard people are working, not how quickly they are providing service.  

Let us notice where our love and kindness is needed,

rather than spew criticism and scrutiny where it is not needed.  

Let us be Noticers. Love others right where they are. Love others just as they are.

Someone is just waiting for us to notice what’s blooming or wilting inside

that could use a little undivided attention.  

― Rachel Macy Stafford, Hands Free Life

Cherishing every moment until my child leaves home is not possible. After all, there are jobs to do, bills to pay, and deadlines to meet. There are school assignments, extracurricular activities, home duties, and volunteer duties. But there are moments in between life’s obligations when we are in the presence of our loved ones that can be made sacred.

― Rachel Macy Stafford, Hands Free Life

We are God’s idea. We are His….

Look deeply into the face of every human being on earth,

and you will see his likeness.

–Max Lucado

When we take time to notice the simple things in life, we never lack for encouragement. We discover we are surrounded by a limitless hope that’s just wearing everyday clothes.

 -Wendy Moore

We must take up the practice- the privilege and responsibility- of noticing, savoring, reveling, so that, to use Annie Dillard’s phrase, “creation need not play to an empty house.” -– Tish Harrison Warren Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life  

Spring Magic

The world is very old;

But year by year

It groweth new again

When buds appear.

The world is very old,

And sometimes sad;

But when the daisies come

The World is glad.

The World is very old,

But every Spring

It groweth young again;

And fairies sing.

-- Cicely Mary Barker

Flower Fairies of the Spring (1923)

There are moments when our hearts nearly burst within us for the sheer joy of being alive. The first sight of our newborn babies, the warmth of love in another’s eyes, the fresh scent of rain on a hot summer’s ever—moments like these renew in us a deep appreciation for life. –Gwen Ellis