Emilie Richards's Blog, page 9

Sunday Inspiration: When You Arise

“When you arise in the morning,
think of what a precious privilege it is
to be alive –
to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.”
-Marcus Aurelius

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Sunday Inspiration: Here it is!

“I don’t know what to tell you.
A statement is easy, and here it is:
Be yourself.
Try to matter.
Be a good friend.
Love freely, even if you are likely, almost guaranteed,
to be hurt, betrayed…
Do what you were created to do.
You’ll know what this is,
because it is what you keep creeping up to,
peering at, dreaming of.
Do it…
Try to matter.
Try to care.
And never be afraid to admit that you just don’t know,
you just don’t know how you’re going to make it.
That’s when the help shows up.”
~Tennessee Williams

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Sunday Inspiration: Life as an Adventure

“Do not stop thinking of life as an adventure.
You have no security unless you can live
bravely, excitingly, imaginatively;
unless you can choose a challenge
instead of competence.”– Eleanor Roosevelt

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Sunday Inspiration: Grief

“Grief is like the wake behind a boat.
It starts out as a huge wave that follows close behind you
and is big enough to swamp and drown you
if you suddenly stop moving forward.
But if you do keep moving,
the big wake will eventually dissipate.
And after a long time,
the waters of your life get calm again,
and that is when the memories of those
who have left begin to shine as bright and as
enduring as the stars above.
– Jimmyy Buffett

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Sunday Inspiration: Choosing Curiosity

“The cycle of degenerating discourse
won’t stop if we insist that people we disagree with
must first behave the way we want them to …
The cycle stops when we recognize our responsibility
to treat each other with the dignity
with which we expect to be met.
It stops when we choose to replace condemnation
with curiosity, invective with inquiry.”

Jenny Martinez, now the provost at Stanford University. (This came up after students threatened and shouted at a conservative judge who was a speaker there.)

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Sunday Inspiration: The Same God

“We all have the same God,
we just serve him differently.
Rivers, lakes, ponds, streams, oceans
all have different names, but they all contain water.
So do religions have different names,
and they all contain truth,
expressed in different ways forms and times.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re a Muslim, a Christian,
or a Jew.
When you believe in God,
you should believe that all people are part of one family.
If you love God, you can’t love only some of his children.”
-Muhammad Ali

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Sunday Inspiration: A Friend

“A friend is one that
knows you as you are,
understands where you
have been, accepts what you have
become, and still,
gently allows you to grow.”
~Unknown (from Charter for Compassion)

I’ve probably told you that we’re moving into a wonderful retirement community in Asheville (home of the Goddesses) in a few weeks. Right now we’re at Chautauqua InstitutionChautauqua Institution where we spend our summers. (For the record, institution seems like an odd designation, but we’re all fairly sane.)

Last week a member of one of our churches left us a note saying that the hosts of the Ecumenical Community house where she had stayed the week were ALSO moving to the same Asheville community. Thrilled we looked them up and wow, are we going to have fun together! They are moving in the very same day. He, too, is a minister.

There’s nothing better than new friends to go with the old ones. We feel sure we’ll have the opportunity to make many. We’ve already started signing up for classes at the local university, and can’t wait to meet more people in our neighborhood.

Along the way, we lose friends. It turns out that I lost one in May, Lynn Ross, who I’d known since the 1970s. We kept in touch through Facebook and she was a constant source of positive energy in my life, reading and loving all my books and always sure to tell me. She chided me once when I pointed out I’d done something stupid. “That’s not a good way to think of yourself,” she said, and now I think of her every time  I repeat something negative about myself. She taught me well. I miss her.

Here’s to old friends, departed friends and new ones. We are so lucky to have them, aren’t we? Do you have a story about one of yours? Would you like to share? We’d like to hear.

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Sunday Inspiration: The Most Beautiful People

“The most beautiful people we have known
are those who have known defeat,
known suffering,
known struggle,
known loss,
and have found their way out of the depths.
These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity,
and an understanding of life
that fills them with compassion, gentleness,
and a deep loving concern.
Beautiful people do not just happen.”
~Elisabeth Kübler Ross

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Sunday Inspiration: Our human compassion

“Our human compassion
binds us the one to the other,
not in pity or patronizingly,
but as human beings
who have learned
how to turn our common suffering
into hope for the future.”
~Nelson Mandela

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Sunday Inspiration: How and Whom You Love

“It matters not who you love,
where you love,
when you love, or
how you love.
It matters only that you love.”
~John Lennon

We had the delightful experience of seeing a Beatles tribute band Rain, this past week in the Chautauqua Institution amphitheater. I was reminded, revisiting the wonderful songs of a band I’ve held dear since they began, how much wisdom they shared with the rest of us. They were young and at times foolish, but they gave us so much of themselves.

”And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.” That one from Paul McCartney.

They were all about love, weren’t they?

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