‘Autumn stands as an epiphany to the truth that all things are passing and even in the passing there is beauty…… This is a decaying season, but the rotting ritual that surrounds us has another face. Compost and mulch are food for the soil. There is life in the dying….. As we face the painful reality that nothing lasts forever, autumn teaches us humility. We learn to honor the dying. Everything is moving, flowing on to something new.’ Macrina Wiederkehr and Joyce Rupp
Thought for September
‘What is beginner’s mind? It is dropping our expectations and preconceived ideas about something, and seeing things with an open mind, fresh eyes, just like a beginner.’ Leo Babuta
Thought for August
‘……peace lies not in the avoidance of conflict but in avoiding internalising and acting out conflict, or colluding with the powers and dynamics of conflict within the systems by which we order our societies. It begins with our small, insignificant selves saying no to every thought, word and attitude that is an aggressive approach to the other and living a daily yes to all that lives…..’ Gemma Simmonds
Thought for July
‘People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don’t even recognise: a blue sky, white clouds, curious eyes of a child – our own two eyes. All is a miracle. Thich Nhat Hanh
Thought for June
‘Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.’ Howard Thurman
Thought for May
‘Instead of allowing ourselves to be led and trapped by out feelings, we should let them disappear as soon as they form, like letters drawn on water with a finger.’ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
Thought for April
True compassion arises from a healthy sense of self, from an awareness of who we are that honours our own capacities and fears, our own feelings and integrity, along with those of others. Jack Kornfield
Thought for March
‘Hope means hoping when things are hopeless, or it is no virtue at all……as long as matters are really hopeful, hope is mere flattery or platitude – it is only when everything is hopeless that hope begins to be a strength.’ G K Chesterton
Thought for December
‘Sufficiency isn’t two steps up from poverty or one step short of abundance. It isn’t a measure of barely enough or more than enough. Sufficiency isn’t an amount at all. It is an experience, a context we generate, a declaration, a knowing that there is enough, and that we are enough.’ Brené Brown, from ‘The Gifts of Imperfection’
Thought for November
‘Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it.’ Eckhart Tolle
