Emilie Richards's Blog, page 2

Sunday Inspiration: May I Suggest

This moving song was performed during last week’s UU worship service here at Chautauqua Institution, and I wanted to share it with you. The YouTube video is the singer-songwriter herself singing it at the Philly Folk Festival.

You “may” have a short commercial before you get to the song. Skip it as soon as you can to listen. Then tell us what you think. I certainly found it “Sunday Inspirational.”

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Sunday Inspiration: Speak Up!

“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves;
Ensure justice for those being crushed.
Yes, speak up for the poor and helpless,
And see that they get justice.”
-Proverbs 31, 8-9

Now more than ever. 

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Sunday Inspiration: A person of good intelligence

“A person of good intelligence and sensitivity
cannot exist in this society very long
without having some anger about the inequality
– and it’s not just a bleeding-heart, knee-jerk, liberal kind of a thing –
it is just a normal human reaction
to a nonsensical set of values
where we have cinnamon flavored dental floss
and there are people sleeping in the street.”

― George Carlin

As many of you know, I spend the summers at Chautauqua Institution in Western New York. Each week we have a different theme, and comedy week begins today. We’ll have some outstanding talent speaking (and performing) for us, and I’ve been looking forward to this all  year. Also just a short drive away in Jamestown, NY, we have the Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz Museum (a hoot) and The National Comedy Museum, which is one of my favorite places to spend a day each year. George Carlin is well documented and represented there.

Of course comedians feel the world deeply, even the ones who make you wince and cover your ears. How can you make fun of something you don’t feel in your very gut? From the above quote, Carlin makes his musings clear. In this difficult world we’re living in, can we at least agree on this much? That gross inequality, in a world that has so much to offer everyone, should make us feel deeply, too? And isn’t that where change begins?

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Sunday Inspiration: The great gift

“The great gift of human beings
is that we have the power of empathy,
we can all sense a mysterious connection to each other.”
​
– Meryl Streep

Have you ever felt deeply connected to someone you’ve just met? Or how about a person very different from you? That instant moment of “I know him or her and have known them forever,” is truly mysterious, as are the many slower growing connections we experience as we live our lives, day by day. Who are you most connected to? What do those connections mean to you? I love thinking about my connections and what they’ve given me. I hope you feel the same way.

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Sunday Inspiration: Leaves of Grass

“This is what you shall do; Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.”                             Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

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Sunday Inspiration: Life is not a solo act

“Life is not a solo act.
It’s a big, messy, delightful ensemble piece,
especially when you are with your people.
life is better when we leap together.”-Kermit the Frog,
Commencement Speech at University of Maryland

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Sunday Inspiration: Stepping stones

Everything you have experienced has been purposeful.
It has brought you to where you are now.
You have a collection of experiences
to use as stepping stones
to take you where you want to go.”
​
– Iyanla Vanzant

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Sunday Inspiration: Happy Mother’s Day

To the mother with an anxious heart, I wish you hope.
To the mother running on empty, I wish you rest.
To the mother with a broken heart, I wish you peace.
To the mother aching to have a child, I wish you gentleness.
To every mother, no matter how you got that title, I wish for you to know how preciously loved and valuable you are.

-Project Forgive

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Sunday Inspiration: May the 4th Be With You

“Fear is the path to the dark side.
Fear leads to anger.
Anger leads to hate.
Hate leads to suffering.”
— Yoda

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Sunday Inspiration: Do all the good you can

“Do all the good you can,
by all the means you can,
in all the ways you can,
in all the places you can,
to all the people you can,
as long as ever you can.”
~John Wesley

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