Renewal: December 30, 2007

Living Spirits of Earth

Mother and father of us all

You who hold us to Your breath

You who bathe us in Your waters

Who feed us with Your fruits

Guardian of where we are going

of who we are becoming

Cradle our days and coffin our nights

You who carry us folded in Your arms

Sailing silently among the stars

Hear our Prayers –

The Terma Collective

Write it on your heart
that every day is the best day in the year.
He is rich who owns the day,

and no one owns the day
who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety.

Finish every day and be done with it.
You have done what you could.
Some blunders and absurdities, no doubt crept in.
Forget them as soon as you can, tomorrow is a new day;
begin it well and serenely, with too high a spirit
to be cumbered with your old nonsense.

This new day is too dear,
with its hopes and invitations,
to waste a moment on the yesterdays.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Everything -- absolutely everything -- that happens in our lives has a
spiritual cause. Mental, emotional and physical events are only effects.
When we are struggling with any challenge, whether it be ill health, a
lack of money, a lost job, relationships, an accident, whatever -- we
need to look for the spiritual learning. We can ask ourselves, "What
quality does my soul want me to live more fully?"
"I went to the root of things, and found nothing but Him alone." – Mira Bai

Empower me

to be a bold participant,

rather than a timid saint in waiting,

in the difficult ordinariness of now;

to exercise the authority of honesty,

rather than defer to power,

or deceive to get it;

to influence someone for justice,

rather than impress anyone for gain;

and, by grace, to find treasures

of joy, of friendship, of peace

hidden in the fields of the daily

you give me to plow.

Ted Loder

To expect to have faith before embarking on the disciplines of the spiritual life is like putting the cart before the horse. In all the great traditions, prophets, sages, and mystics spend very little time telling their disciples what they ought to believe.

…

All the great teachers of spirituality in all the major traditions have … insisted that before you can have faith, you must life a compassionate life, transcending the demands of the clamorous ego and recognizing the sacred in others; you must perform rituals … that make even the most mundane detail of our lives an encounter with the Ultimate; all traditions insist that you must also pray. Prayer is thus not born of belief and intellectual conviction; it is a practice that creates faith. Karen Armstrong

I Am the New Year. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bible Illustrator

I am the new year. I am an unspoiled page in your book of time.

I am your next chance at the art of living. I am your opportunity to practice what you have learned about life during the last twelve months.

All that you sought and didn’t find is hidden in me, waiting for you to search it but with more determination.

All the good that you tried for and didn’t achieve is mine to grant when you have fewer conflicting desires.

All that you dreamed but didn’t dare to do, all that you hoped but did not will, all the faith that you claimed but did not have—these slumber lightly, waiting to be awakened by the touch of a strong purpose.

I am your opportunity to renew your allegiance to Him who said, "Behold, I make all things new."

Going deeper, releasing more.

Having less, feeling more.

Watching, waiting, feeling strength grow within me.

I challenge the old, the painful, the regrets.

I welcome the newborn, green shoots of awareness.

I open my center to light and love.

I let go in order to have.

No one can tell me where I must go, what I must do.

I follow the path of my opening heart to a place

where only joy and light are present.

Where peace and acceptance are constant.

Here it is never dark or cold.

Harsh words have no power.

The sun is always rising,

and every pore of my body opens to let it in. Copyright 2001 Ahna Cleveland

In the Beginning darkness covered the face of the deep

Then the rushing breath of life hovered over the waters.

Let us breathe together.

Let us catch our breaths from the need to make, to do

Let us become conscious of the breath of life.

We breathe out what the trees breathe in.

We breathe in what the trees breathe out.

Together we breathe each other into life.

Blessed is the One with the many.

Blessed are the many who make one.

Arthur Waskow