Peace

There can never be peace between nations, until it is first known that true peace is within the souls of men.

-Ogala Souix, Native American

What Is Good

He has told you, O mortal, what is good;

and what does the Lord require of you

but to do justice, and to love kindness,

and to walk humbly with your God?

Micah 6:8

Enemies of Compassion

"Pity, moral outrage and fear are the enemies of compassion."

-Joan Halifax

Joan Halifax: Compassion and the true meaning of empathy | Video on TED.com

Joan Halifax: Compassion and the true meaning of empathy | Video on TED.com

Moment

It is a warm, sunny day in the South of Brazil. Following months of cold and rain, we are in in that moment between winter and spring when all of Creation is filled with possibility and potential. The tips of tree branches are washed with bright green and fresh grasses are pushing their way through winter mud in the parks. Flowers buds are turning their heads toward the sun. Runners are shirtless, and winter stoney faces are turning into smiles.

Little Gidding

Reflecting on change, and reading T. S. Eliot, again. An excerpt from `Little Gidding'.

What we call the beginning is often the end
And to make and end is to make a beginning,
The end is where we start from. And every phrase
And sentence that is right (Where every word is at home,
Taking its place to support the others,
The word neither diffident or ostentatious,
An easy commerce of the old and the new,
The common word exact without vulgarity,
The formal word precise but not pedantic,
The complete consort dancing together)
Every phrase and every sentence is an end and a beginning,
Every poem an epitaph. And any action
Is a step to the block, to the fire, down the sea's throat
Or to an illegible stone: and that is where we start.

--T.S. Eliot
Excerpted from
No. 4 of `Four Quartets'

it's Pentecost