Joy too has a potent effect. It’s contagious. If one person can break free of the world’s shackles and lay hold of joy, a powerful invitation is issued to everyone else.
— Mike Mason, Champagne for the Soul, p. 72
[Photo, Bull Run Regional Park, Virginia, April 24, 2015]
I’ve learned that the secret, ironically, to finding your passion is to start bringing passion to everything you do. And I do mean everything. So no matter what task is in front of you, bring as much enthusiasm and energy to it as you possibly can. Whether you’re making the bed, brushing your teeth, or cleaning the cat box, do it like you really want to do it. This one habit can change everything, because we humans are creatures of habit. You can’t be complainy and miserable ninety percent of your day and expect to feel passionate the other ten percent.
— Marie Forleo, quoted in The Wisdom of Sundays, by Oprah Winfrey, p. 166.
[Photo: South Riding, Virginia, June 1, 2013]
Richard Rohr says that the people who’ve truly experienced grace — meaning they’re not worthy of it and they still get it — are no longer in a position of being able to decide who “the deserving poor” are. When you realize that no one’s worthy and yet everyone receives (the practice of the church that illuminates this idea is the open table at the Eucharist), where’s the moral high ground that you stand on anymore? The only ground you get to stand on is the ground at the foot of the cross, with all the rest of us sinners. But it’s holy ground. It’s a position of standing in and among, and in solidarity with everyone, and singing praise to God. It’s a very different way of seeing Christianity, I think.
— Nadia Bolz-Weber, Accidental Saints, p. 211
[Photo: Glenveagh, Ireland, July 2001]
God loves not sorrow, yet rejoices to see a man sorrowful, for in his sorrow man leaves his heavenward door on the latch, and God can enter to help him.
— George MacDonald, The Hope of the Gospel, p. 98
[Photo: Loch Ness, Scotland, July 10, 2003]
Story makes us more alive, more human, more courageous, more loving. Why does anybody tell a story? It does indeed have something to do with faith, faith that the universe has meaning, that our little human lives are not irrelevant, that what we choose or say or do matters, matters cosmically.
— Madeleine L’Engle, The Rock That Is Higher, quoted in Madeleine L’Engle, Herself, compiled by Carole F. Chase
[Photo: Oregon Coast, August 6, 2014]
Although we have an innate drive to create value, we have to make choices of who and what to value. A sunset has value if, and only if, you give it value — you invest energy and effort to fully perceive it, thus allowing you to appreciate it. While it does nothing for the sunset if you value it, valuing it does wonders for you. The moment of value creation makes you feel more vital, engaged, interested, appreciative — in short, more alive. Life means more to you at the instant you create value, just as it means less to you when you are not creating value. Most positive emotion, passion, meaning, purpose, and conviction come from creating value, and most emptiness, aggression, and depression result from failure to create value.
— Steven Stosny, Living and Loving After Betrayal, p. 57-58
[Photo: Waterside Inn, Chincoteague, Virginia, November 2017]
We all have to show our vulnerabilities. We all have to learn that it is okay to be vulnerable and that no one is perfect. Friendships are often the best place to show this vulnerability. The next time you are with your friends, observe who is allowing their true selves to show, warts and all, and who is keeping the barriers up, presenting themselves and their lives as perfect. It may be you.
— Lorna Byrne, Love from Heaven, p. 56
Today, take time to realize that you are in a perfect place for the lessons that you are learning, for the healing that you are doing, and for the growth that you are ready to make at this point in your life.
— Chuck Spezzano, If It Hurts, It Isn’t Love, p. 317
[Photo: Above Gundersweiler, Germany, July 1998]
This should not put us off. A world full of people who read and pray the Sermon on the Mount, or even a world with only a few such people in it, will always be a better place than a world without such people. Church history reminds us of the radical difference that can be made, that has been made, and that please God will be made. But the point is that once the revolution was launched on Good Friday, the vital work was already done. We do not have to win that essential victory all over again. What we have to do is to respond to the love poured out on the cross with love of our own: love for the one who died, yes, but also love for those around us, especially those in particular need. And part of the challenge of putting that into practice is that the powers, in whatever form, will be angry. They want to keep the world in their own grip. They will fight back.
N. T. Wright, The Day the Revolution Began, p. 365-366
[Photo: Hug Point, Oregon, November 10, 2015]
Honoring the worth of our emotions — no matter what they are or how little we or others understand them — is a skill that changes the entire tenor of our lives.
— Ken Page, Deeper Dating, p. 192
[Photo: Hug Point, Oregon, November 10, 2015]