In our way of life ...

In our way of life, in our government, with every decision we make, we always keep in mind the seventh generation yet to come. It's our job to see that the people coming ahead, the generations still not born have a world no worse than ours - and hopefully better. When we walk upon Mother Earth we always plant our feet carefully because we know the faces of our future generations are looking up at us from beneath the ground. We never forget them. (Oren Lyons, Faith Keeper of the Six Nations)

Navajo Blessing Way Prayer

In beauty may I walk.
All day long may I walk.
Through the returning seasons may I walk.
On the trail marked with pollen may I walk.
With grasshoppers about my feet may I walk.
With dew about my feet may I walk.
With beauty may I walk.
With beauty before me, may I walk.
With beauty behind me, may I walk.
With beauty above me, may I walk.
With beauty below me, may I walk.
With beauty all around me, may I walk.
In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, lively, may I walk.
In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, living again, may I walk.
It is finished in beauty.
It is finished in beauty.

Good at Heart

"In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can't build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death. I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness, I hear the ever-approaching thunder, which will destroy us too. I can feel the suffering of millions, and yet if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right, that this cruelty will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again. In the meantime, I must uphold my ideals, For perhaps the time will come when I shall be able to carry them out." --Anne Frank

Intention and resolution

Uncertainty, when accepted, sheds a bright light on the power of intention. That is what we can count on--not the outcome, but the motivation we bring, the vision we hold, the compass setting we choose to follow. Hence the essential importance and beauty of bodhicitta, the motivation of the bodhisattva. In the Buddha Dharma it is also called adhitthana, which connotes resolve and steadfastness in choice, and also the physical foundation of a building. As we explored together how intention can work in our lives, other images arose: we saw it as a rudder by which we can steer, as a vehicle we can ride, as refuge, the one thing we can be sure about. Resolve can save us from getting lost in grief.
- Joanna Macy -

Grist for the mill

Our Souls do not seek to manage the height of our joy, the depth of our pain, or the flat nature of our boredom. Instead,our Souls grow through our life experiences. The wider and richer our life, the more our Souls are enriched. This actually makes a beautiful kind of sense and may be helpful to caregivers caught in wondering about God's "willingness" to allow suffering in the world. For the personality, hard times, failure, hopelessness may feel like a disaster, for the Soul it may be grist for its strangely joyful mill.