From My Reading – May

Posted on May 4, 2024 by livingasapprentices

“We have to create a contemplative culture in our heart. We must vow to ourselves: I will not play the cynic. I will not break faith with my awakened heart” (James Finley). 

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We grow in generosity as we embrace simplicity. We are able to hold all things lightly and, if need be, let them go—our possessions, our money, our pretensions, even our anger, our prejudices, and our fears” (Margaret Guenther).

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“Because God always dwells in us—in all of us—there is always hope. There is always hope that the scales will fall from our eyes and we will see as God sees” (Archbishop Desmond 
Tutu).

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“Change will not come if we wait for some other person, or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek” (Barack Obama).

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“We take care of the future best by taking care of the present now”(Jon Kabaat-Zinn).

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“We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty” (Maya Angelou).

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“The discipline of gratitude is the explicit effort to acknowledge that all I am and have is given to me as a gift of love, a gift to be celebrated with joy” (Henri Nouwen).

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“Be a lamp or a lifeboat or a ladder. Help someone’s soul heal. Walk out of your house like  a shepherd” (Rumi)

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“Life meanders like a path through the woods. We have seasons when we flourish and seasons when the leaves fall from us, revealing our bare bones. Given time, they grow again” (Katherine May).

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From My Reading – April

Posted on April 11, 2024 by livingasapprentices

“If we are to leave a beautiful world for you and your grandchildren, we have to take  seriously that creation does not belong to us; we are part of creation. We cannot do what we like with earth, water, and other human beings. God expects us to keep the earth in good condition” (Mercy Oduyoye).

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“For centuries, people of color have been invisibly bleeding on the floor of systemic oppression, gasping for breath, dying from the thirst of repression, and starving from the lack of recognition and dignity. They have been the “least of these” of whom Jesus spoke (Matt. 25: 40).  They challenge us all to be aware of their dignity. They demand that we face what we have become” (Patrick Saint-Jean).

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“Where I come from, the words most highly valued are those spoken from the heart, unpremeditated and unrehearsed” (Leslie Marmon Silko).

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“Authenticity is the daily practice of letting go of who we think we are supposed to be and embracing who we are” (Brene’ Brown).

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“It takes bravery to give yourself a break and refuse to let guilt dictate your daily life,” Reshma Saujani.

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“The willingness to consider possibility requires a tolerance of uncertainty.” (Rachel Naomi Remen).

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“Human nature, when seeking power, wants either to play the victim or to create victims of others. Once we start feeling sorry for ourselves, we will soon find someone else to blame, accuse, or attack—and with impunity! “(Richard Rohr). 

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“I teach my sighs to lengthen into songs” (Theodore Roethke).

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“You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith, and hope” (Thomas Merton).

 

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Checking In

Posted on March 29, 2024 by livingasapprentices

It has been a while since I have updated my story on this blog. As you may know, I have been struggling for nearly ten years with an incurable blood cancer, multiple myeloma. I am on my third chemotherapy which so far has been keeping the disease under control. But this one will eventually fail, too, and I will have to decide about whether to go on to the next chemo, which I understand will be harder to take than the rest have been, or just let the disease take its course.

My husband died nearly three years ago. I have often wondered how I would have taken care of him as my own health failed. I no longer drive, so I have sold my car. The only way I have been able to manage life is with the help of my friends and family. One friend takes me to chemo- therapy every week. She sits by my side for hours and we talk about life. Other friends come to visit and we talk about politics or spirituality or our mutual friends. When they leave they often take my garbage or my recycling bag and dispose of them for me. A relative comes to cut my hair regularly.

So far I am able to take care of my apartment on my own. People often comment on how clean everything is. Inside I raise a fist of congratulations. My goal is to stay here on my own and I am determined to prove that I am able to manage that. Once and a while I even take my walker out to the front porch and sweep or shovel. (My son would have a fit if he saw me doing that!)

One joy is that I have so much time to read. A friend gets me books that I have put on hold at the library and returns them for me – or reads them!. I have splurged on some magazines. In my former, more active life, I always felt guilty about reading a lot. No more! I also keep up with politics more than I ever have. I come by that naturally. My grandfather was a senator and lieutenant governor decades ago. I remember as a child listening to election results on the radio. He was also a business man; I still have memories of riding along with him when he went calling on customers or riding my tricycle in state capitol as he chatted or debated with other politicians.

One new joy is reading Immerse. It is a unique Bible study using the New Living Translation that doesn’t look like a Bible study – or even like a Bible. I love the introductions to each of the books and their authors – especially in the Old Testament.  Some of my friends are in Immerse groups in church, but I find it fascinating to read and underline until I my eyes can’t take it anymore.

Well that about all that is new and/or worthy of sharing with you.  Thanks for reading my blog. I am now over 118,000 views.  Totally boggles my mind!  Keep reading and commenting.

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From My Reading – March

Posted on March 16, 2024 by livingasapprentices

“There’s power in love to help and heal when nothing else can. There’s power in love to lift up and liberate when nothing else will. There’s power in love to show us the way to live” (Bishop Michael B. Curry).

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“When I dare to be powerful – to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid” (Andre Lorde).

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“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world” (Anne Frank).

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“The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something. Don’t wait for good things to happen to you. If you go out and make some good things happen, you will fill the world with hope, you will fill yourself with hope” (Barack Obama).

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“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that” (Martin Luther King, Jr.).   

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“The trick with anger is to let it inform us, maybe even to let it warm us if we have become too cold with indifference or apathy, but not to let the fire control or consume us.” (Sara Jolena Wolcott).

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“An action done out of pure intent to bring joy or to relieve suffering is never lost, even if the immediate outcome is not what we want, and even if it’s the opposite” (Kiara Jewel Lingo).

 

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From My Reading – February

Posted on February 12, 2024 by livingasapprentices

“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

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“In Genesis, the nature of God in the first creation story is not God dominating and forcing the world into a certain mold. It is “Let there be light.” It’s a permission-giving power.”
—Brian McLaren

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“The times when we meet or reckon with our contradictions are often turning points, 0pp- ortunities to enter into the deeper mystery of God” —Richard Rohr

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“We are made to tell the world that there are no outsiders.” – Desmond Tutu

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“The more you sense the rareness and value of your own life, the more you realize that how you use it, how you manifest it, is all your responsibility. We face such a big task, so natur- ally we sit down for a while” – Kobun Chino Otogawa Roshi.

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“Each day is a different one, each day brings a miracle of its own. It’s just a matter of pay- ing attention to this miracle” – Paulo Coelho.

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“I pray that joy and laughter are contagious and provide a healing balm to those experien- cing the hard times of life. I pray that laughter will lift some of the weight of the burdens we carry. I pray that we are reminded that joy will come again.” – Yolanda Pierce.

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“Our being Christian today will consist in only two things: in praying and in doing justice among people. All thinking, speaking, and organizing in the things of Christianity must be reborn out of this prayer and this action,” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

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“I’ve found people to be much more receptive to the gospel when they know becoming a Christian doesn’t require becoming a know-it-all. Most people I’ve encountered are not looking for a religion to answer all their questions but for a community of faith in which they can feel safe asking them.” Rachel Held Evans.

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“Where you trust the seeds of the good news to us, Holy Spirit, let us sow them where you say and tend them as you instruct. We pray for your inspiration and wisdom as we labor in the plots you have given us to garden, sustained at your table by the gift of finest wheat. Amen.” – Jane Zwart.

 

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From My Reading – January

Posted on January 6, 2024 by livingasapprentices

“When I speak of wonder, I mean the practice of beholding the beautiful. Beholding the majestic—the snow-capped Himalayas, the sun setting on the sea—but also the perfectly mundane—that soap bubble reflecting your kitchen, the oxidized underbelly of that stainless steel pan. More than the grand beauties of our lives, wonder is about having the presence to pay attention to the commonplace. It could be said that to find beauty in the ordinary is a deeper exercise than climbing to the mountaintop” (Cole Arthur Riley).

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“Our task is to mend the broken world. We do this through every act of loving kindness, every act of chesed. And we do this through every act of tzedakah, which is generosity, hospitality. It’s an offering of ourselves, even when it’s not convenient and not comfortable” (Mirabai Starr).

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“It’s so much easier to learn to love what you have instead of yearning always for what you’re missing, or what you imagine you’re missing” (Anna Quindlen).

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“It is no use saying that we are born two thousand years too late to give room to Christ. Christ is always with us, always asking for room in our hearts…. And giving shelter or food to anyone who asks for it, or needs it, is giving it to Christ” (Dorothy Day).

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“It is not happiness that makes us grateful. It’s gratefulness that makes us happy” (Dr. David Steindl-Rast).

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“In each generation, we are tested. Will we love our neighbors as ourselves? How do we survive together? How do we resist together? How do we respond to unspeakable brutality and the collective oppression of our neighbors?” (Barbara Holmes).

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From My Reading – November

Posted on November 4, 2023 by livingasapprentices

“It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences” (Audre Lorde).

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“Even in the darkest days, the moon and sun make their ancient, reliable journeys. Birds sing. Some green thing insists on growing in a ravaged land. Our own human life force refuses to give up” (Trebbe Johnson).

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“This is what Jesus did—face his world fully and honestly, not shying away from the suffering or the disquieting demands that it would make on him. We need a faith now that can help us face this world that we have made … and help us find a way through and beyond it” (Margaret Swedish).

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“To love, my brothers and sisters, does not mean we have to agree. But maybe agreeing to love is the greatest agreement. And the only one that ultimately matters, because it makes a future possible” (Bishop Michael B. Curry).

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“Faith, driven by love, enables us to give up our need to understand, allows us to let go, and for Someone else to hold us together. It’s not a giving up as much as it is an opening up and refusing to close back down for the sake of self-sufficiency and mastery. If this is indeed the character of faith for postmodern people, or any people, then I finally know why faith is so rare and why Jesus himself wondered if he would find very much on this earth (Luke 18:8)” ( Richard Rohr).

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“On page after page of the gospels, Jesus doesn’t dominate the other, avoid the other, colonize the other, intimidate the other, demonize the other, or marginalize the other. Instead, he incarnates into the other, joins the other in solidarity, protects the other, listens to the other, serves the other, and even lays down his life for the other” (Brian McLaren).

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“Hope is often misunderstood. People tend to think that it is simply passive wishful thinking: I hope something will happen but I’m not going to do anything about it. This is indeed the opposite of real hope, which requires action and engagement” (Jane Goodall).

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“Love of God and of humanity are not two separate things, as if one could love God but shun humanity. Compassionate action reflects and mirrors the divine image. Love is not an emotion or obligation but is God present in the soul” (Wendy Farley).

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From My Reading – October

Posted on October 7, 2023 by livingasapprentices

“The experience of God’s love is an experience of grace, overwhelming beauty, and unbelievable mercy. It is a gift of forgiveness, approval, and acceptance. To live in that love means to live in grace, to be gracious and merciful to others. It means extending to them forgiveness and approval and acceptance. As Jesus said, it even means loving our enemies. The prophets stood in the heart of that experience” (Richard Rohr).

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“Jesus never once talked about attending church services, but he talked constantly about healing the sick and feeding the hungry. That is what it seems to mean to be a follower of Jesus”  (Richard Rohr).

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“Let us be quicker to praise than to find fault. Let us be quicker to thank others than to complain” (Desmond Tutu).

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“Gratefulness brings joy to my life.  How could I find joy in what I take for granted? The moment I stop ‘taking for granted,’ there is no end to the surprises I find” (Dr. David Steindl-Rast).

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“Gratitude as a discipline involves a conscious choice. I can choose to be grateful even when my emotions  are still steeped in hurt and resentment” (Henri Nouwen).

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“In an age where there is much talk about “being yourself,” I reserve myself the right to forget about being myself, since in any case there is very little of my being anybody else” (Thomas Merton).

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“Perhaps the most important thing we bring to another person is the silence in us, not the sort of silence that is filled with unspoken criticism or hard withdrawal. The sort of silence that is a place of refuge, of rest, of acceptance of someone as they are. We are all hungry for this other silence” (Rachel Naomi Remen).

 

 

 

 

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