It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to make music in your name, Most High, to proclaim your love in the morning, and you truth in the watches of the night, on 10 string lyre and the lute, with the murmuring sound of the harp.

-The Little Office

Do not let your hearts be troubled.

Trust in God; Trust also in me.

In my father's house are many rooms;

If it were not so, I would have told you.

I am going there to prepare a place for you.

- John 14: 1-3

Without a true and deep inner self-acceptance, our lives can become tangled and complicated.

- Guy Armstrong

You only stand to gain by keeping your ears open, too.

-Cowboy Hãvamãl

Poverty is joy. We must be happy with what we have and be happy with what we don't have.

Poverty for us is a choice, and therefore a joy.

The less we have, the more we can give.

- Mother Teresa

Beware of scholars who like to wear fancy clothes.

- Jesus

Is it not a beautiful and encouraging thought that all the prayers you have ever said in your life, and all the good deeds and kind words for which you have ever been responsible are still with you, and that nothing can take them away?

- Emmet Fox

I treat people I love with love because this may be the last day I can tell you how much I love you.

- Miguel Ruiz

Joy is not contrary to mourning, it is even born from it.

He who weeps for his evil deeds and admits them is in joy.

It is possible to be in mourning for one's own sins and enjoy because of Christ.

-St. John Chrysostom

There is merit in studying the scriptures, in selfless service, austerity, and giving,

but the practice of meditation carries you beyond all these to the supreme abode of the highest Lord.

- Krishna

On a moonless night, a man entered his neighbor's garden and stole the largest melon he could find and brought it home.

He opened it and found it still unripe.

Then behold a marvel!

The man's conscience woke and smote him with remorse;

and he repented, having stolen the melon.

-Kahlil Gibran

We are never encouraged to experience the ebb and flow of our moods,

of our health, of the weather, of outer events- pleasant and unpleasant- in their fullness.

Instead, we stay caught in a fearful, narrow holding pattern of avoiding any pain

and continually seeking comfort.

This is the universal dilemma.

-Pema Chödrön

Sonnet 73

That time of year, though, mayest in me behold

When yellow leaves, as none, do hang

Upon these boughs, which shake against the cold,

bare ruin’d choirs, where late birds sang.

In me thou seest the twilight of such day

As after sunset fadest in the West;

Which by and by black nnight doth take away,

Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.

In me thou seest the glowing of such fire,

Did on the ashes of his youth doth lie,

As the deathbed where on it must expire,

Consumed with that which it was nourished by.

This thou perceivist, which makes thy love more strong,

to love that well which thou must leave here long.

-Shakespeare

Miracles don't cause faith, but rather the kindredness that unites people.

-Rumi

It's a Choice.

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It's a choice to choose light,

to forsake the weight of our scars,

to weave pain into a tapestry of warmth

for crueler days.

The choice is terrifyingly full of promise.

The choice is yours.

You

are light.

-Britton Oakman

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