Tag Archives: Dr Wilda

The 12/10/13 Joy Jar

10 Dec

Some may wonder what happens to moi after the ‘Joy Jar’ exercise ends on Christmas Day. Sonia Choquette wrote in The Meaning of Christmas:

That hidden meaning is that Christmas is the festival of the human heart. It is a time of year when all the universe conspires to raise the vibratory level of consciousness on earth to one of peace and love toward ourselves and one another. This season resonates to the sweet, childlike innocence that resides in all of us. A time when the heavenly forces inspire us to shift our focus away from fear and toward one of joy, and healing.
The Christmas festival emphasizes this shift in two ways; one is the rebirth of the soul and the second is the return of the light to earth. Even before the rebirth of Christ which centers around our modern day Christmas festival, as far back as recorded history, in fact, these two themes of rebirth and light have emerged again and again during this time of year.
It is as if Divine Consciousness moves forward year after year, during the darkest season, to bring us back to light….
http://www.awakeningpath.com/articles/latest_sonia_ch_041128_the_meaning_of_chri9.htm

Today’s deposit into the ‘Joy Jar’ is looking forward to Christmas as the beginning of a period of change and growth for moi.

If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.
Maya Angelou

Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can’t ride you unless your back is bent.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
Reinhold Niebuhr

You must be the change you wish to see in the world.
Mahatma Gandhi

Never believe that a few caring people can’t change the world. For, indeed, that’s all who ever have.
Margaret Mead

When we are no longer able to change a situation – we are challenged to change ourselves.
Viktor E. Frankl

It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.
C. S. Lewis

To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.
Winston Churchill

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.
Leo Tolstoy

If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.
Lao Tzu

If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.
Wayne Dyer

The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.
Alan Watts

If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we aren’t really living.
Gail Sheehy

Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts.
Arnold Bennett

Only the wisest and stupidest of men never change.
Confucius

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

The 12/09/13 Joy Jar

9 Dec

The ‘Joy Jar’ exercise will end on December 25. In many ways it has been like running a race. In this time, this place, and this culture – being a Christian is like running a race. It requires endurance. Jim Eliff of Grace Online Library posted Seven laws for running the Christian race:

1. Run to win: “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize” (1 Corinthians 9:24-25).
2. Observe strict discipline: “Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training… I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified” (1 Corinthians 9:25-27).
3. Don’t look back: “Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14).
4. Get constant encouragement: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us…run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart” (Hebrews 12:1-3).
5. Throw off restraints: “Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us” (Hebrews 12:1).
6. Discount pain: “And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me-the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace” (Acts 20:22-24).
7. Don’t let up until you cross the line: “For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day-and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing” (2 Timothy 4:6-8).
http://www.graceonlinelibrary.org/christian-life/seven-laws-for-running-the-christian-race/

Today’s deposit into the ‘Joy Jar’ is running the race until the Lord calls me Home.

“I continue my pursuit toward the goal, the prize of God’s upward calling, in Christ Jesus. Let us then, who are “perfectly mature” adopt this attitude. And if you have a different attitude, this too God will reveal to you. Only, with regard to what we have attained, continue on the same course”.
Philippians 3: 14-17

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

The 12/08/13 Joy Jar

8 Dec

Moi is winding down the ‘Joy Jar’ exercise. The ‘Joy Jar’ will officially end on Christmas Day. After the Mayan Calendar thingie went up in smoke, moi looked the idea of finding something to be grateful for every day. People who are grateful are hopeful and look forward to the future. Today’s deposit into the ‘Joy Jar’ is looking toward a wonderful future.

The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.
Winston Churchill

The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future.
Oscar Wilde

It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.
William Shakespeare

Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.
Steve Jobs

If we open a quarrel between past and present, we shall find that we have lost the future.
Winston Churchill

The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own. You do not blame them on your mother, the ecology, or the president. You realize that you control your own destiny.
Albert Ellis

Every man gotta right to decide his own destiny.
Bob Marley

I do not want to foresee the future. I am concerned with taking care of the present. God has given me no control over the moment following.
Mahatma Gandhi

Let others lead small lives, but not you. Let others argue over small things, but not you. Let others cry over small hurts, but not you. Let others leave their future in someone else’s hands, but not you.
Jim Rohn

Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.
Malcolm X

Stop acting as if life is a rehearsal. Live this day as if it were your last. The past is over and gone. The future is not guaranteed.
Wayne Dyer

The future starts today, not tomorrow.
Pope John Paul II

Study the past, if you would divine the future.
Confucius

Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.
Marcus Aurelius

Tags: , , , , , , ,

The 12/07/13 Joy Jar

8 Dec

The last few days in Seattle have been the coldest that it has been in months. Today was particularly cold. Luckily for moi she is reviewing Heat Holder socks. http://drwildareviews.wordpress.com/2013/12/08/dr-wilda-reviews-heat-holders-socks/ Moi spent the day running around. Today’s deposit in the ‘Joy Jar’ is worm socks.

I’m also a fan of ridiculously coloured and patterned socks.
Daniel Radcliffe

I always saw Michael Gambon wearing madly psychedelic socks, and I always thought that’s it is one of the few areas where men can really express colour and have a bit of a dandyish quality to their outfit.
Daniel Radcliffe

Women speak because they wish to speak, whereas a man speaks only when driven to speak by something outside himself like, for instance, he can’t find any clean socks.
Jean Kerr

I’ll tell you one thing you can’t do: you can’t put your shoes on, then your socks on.
Flavor Flav

You choose your friends by their character and your socks by their color.
Gary Oldman

With everybody having a Facebook and a Twitter, I feel like regular people consider themselves stars. It’s a live, real-time upload of every time we buy a pair of socks, the most telling sign that we’re losing our politeness. When you know everything about somebody, you can talk to them any way you please.
Jeff Ross

I don’t think people need to know what colour socks I’m wearing today; I don’t think people need to know what shower gel I’m using. There’s too much information in the world, and there’s no magic or mystery anymore.
Noel Gallagher

Obviously, people who commit crimes should be punished. Even people who steal socks and ‘Snow White’ videos should probably do time if they have priors, especially serious priors. But the punishment has to fit the crime, and the standard has to be the same for everyone.
Matt Taibbi

I like the light that comes off metal shutters at siesta time in the summer, having a break from driving in the shops at motorway services, the odour of petrol at petrol stations, rolling down little slopes. I hate it when you tread in a puddle and the water soaks your socks.
Audrey Tautou

“One can never have enough socks,” said Dumbledore. “Another Christmas has come and gone and I didn’t get a single pair. People will insist on giving me books.”
J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

“Roland glares at Connor and Connor glares back. Then he says what he always says at moments like this.
“Nice socks.”
Although Roland doesn’t look down right away, it derails him just enough for him to back off. He doesn’t check to see if his socks match until he thinks Connor isn’t looking. And the moment he does, Connor snickers. Small victories are bet­ter than none.”
Neal Shusterman, Unwind

“Granny always said finding justice was as tough as putting socks on a rooster.”
Jessica Maria Tuccelli, Glow

“There was still plenty of water in the basement, and I felt it soaking me from the knees on down. If someone wanted to torture me until I told them a critical piece of information, all they would have to do is get my socks wet. It feels terrible.”
Lemony Snicket, Who Could That Be At This Hour?

“Friendship is like putting butter on your socks before you slide them on. Sure, we all do it occasionally, but most of us would rather eat breakfast bare-handed at least once in a while. 
”
Jarod Kintz, The Merits of Marthaism, and How Being Named Susan Can Benefit You

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The 12/06/13 Joy Jar

6 Dec

Laughter is really and truly the best medicine. No one was as wickedly funny as Groucho Marx. Today’s deposit into the ‘Joy Jar’ is the humor of Groucho Marx.

I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn’t arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I’m going to be happy in it.
Groucho Marx

Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.
Groucho Marx

Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read.
Groucho Marx

I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member.
Groucho Marx

I never forget a face, but in your case I’ll be glad to make an exception.
Groucho Marx

A child of five would understand this. Send someone to fetch a child of five.
Groucho Marx

Anyone who says he can see through women is missing a lot.
Groucho Marx

All people are born alike – except Republicans and Democrats.
Groucho Marx

The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made.
Groucho Marx

A black cat crossing your path signifies that the animal is going somewhere.
Groucho Marx

She got her looks from her father. He’s a plastic surgeon.
Groucho Marx

I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.
Groucho Marx

Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them… well, I have others.
Groucho Marx

Well, Art is Art, isn’t it? Still, on the other hand, water is water. And east is east and west is west and if you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does. Now you tell me what you know.
Groucho Marx

A hospital bed is a parked taxi with the meter running.
Groucho Marx

I have had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn’t it.
Groucho Marx

I read in the newspapers they are going to have 30 minutes of intellectual stuff on television every Monday from 7:30 to 8. to educate America. They couldn’t educate America if they started at 6:30.
Groucho Marx

I must say I find television very educational. The minute somebody turns it on, I go to the library and read a good book.
Groucho Marx

Humor is reason gone mad.
Groucho Marx

I worked my way up from nothing to a state of extreme poverty.
Groucho Marx

My favourite poem is the one that starts ‘Thirty days hath September’ because it actually tells you something.
Groucho Marx

There’s one way to find out if a man is honest – ask him. If he says, ‘Yes,’ you know he is a crook.
Groucho Marx

Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes?
Groucho Marx

I didn’t like the play, but then I saw it under adverse conditions – the curtain was up.
Groucho Marx

Getting older is no problem. You just have to live long enough.
Groucho Marx

Tags: , , , ,

The 12/05/13 Joy Jar

6 Dec

Moi is going to spend tomorrow pampering herself and simply enjoying the day. Today’s deposit into the ‘Joy Jar’ is the occasional act of pampering one’s self.

Appreciate yourself and take the time to deeply love yourself. We all have amazing talents and gifts that no one else has.
Kemmy Nola

The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself.
Anna Quindlen

Healthy Expectations has some great thoughts about self-care:

Our bodies are our gardens to which our wills are gardeners.
William Shakespeare

As we advance in life it becomes more and more difficult, but in fighting the difficulties the inmost strength of the heart is developed.
Vincent van Gogh

Being extremely honest with oneself is a good exercise.
Sigmund Freud

Health is certainly more valuable than money, because it is by health that money is procured.
Samuel Johnson

By your thoughts you are daily, even hourly, building your life; you are carving your destiny.
Ruth Barrick Golden

When men speak ill of thee, live so that nobody will believe them.
Plato

You are unique, and if that is not fulfilled, then something has been lost.
Martha Graham

Happiness is when what you think, what you say and what you do are in harmony.
Mahatma Gandhi

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
Leonardo DaVinci

The aim of education should be to teach us rather how to think, than what to think – rather to improve our minds, so as to enable us to think for ourselves, than to load the memory
with thoughts of other men.
James Beattie

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.
Helen Keller

There is no need to go to India or anywhere else to find peace. You will find that deep place of silence right in your room, your garden or even your bathtub.
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.
Dolly Parton

All that we are is the result of what we have thought.
Buddha

An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.
Benjamin Franklin

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
Aristotle
http://www.healthyexpectations.gmu.edu/old/compass_cd_versions/gmu_compass_2007/QuotesSelfCare.htm

Pampering one’s self is a building block of the foundation of optimism.

Keep your dreams alive. Understand to achieve anything requires faith and belief in yourself, vision, hard work, determination, and dedication. Remember all things are possible for those who believe.
Gail Devers

Tags: , , , , , , ,

The 12/04/13 Joy Jar

5 Dec

Moi was walking through Seattle Center tonight. The City of Seattle describes Seattle Center:

First built for the 1962 World’s Fair, the 74 acre Seattle Center campus is located just north of downtown Seattle, and offers everyone a fairground, park, and arts and entertainment center all year round.
Journey skyward for a 360 degree view of Puget Sound from the Space Needle, hop on the Monorail for an elevated glide to downtown Seattle, or cavort in the shooting waters of the International Fountain.
Enjoy science and culture at the Pacific Science Center, sports and concerts at KeyArena, ballet and opera at McCaw Hall, world and classic film at SIFF Cinema, and exciting plays and events at the Seattle Repertory Theatre.
Other attractions include the shops and restaurants of the Center House, The Children’s Museum, the Experience Music Project and the Science Fiction Museum, and the Intiman Playhouse. Seattle Center hosts hundreds of festivals each year, including the music festival Bumbershoot, the Northwest Folklife Festival,… https://www.seattle.gov/tour/center.htm

Like most of downtown Seattle, Seattle Center has Christmas lights everywhere and that gives the Center a magical feel. Today’s deposit into the ‘Joy Jar’ are the Christmas lights which herald the Christmas season.

Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.
Norman Vincent Peale

There has been only one Christmas – the rest are anniversaries.
W.J. Cameron

“The whole of Paris was lit up. The tiny dancing flames had bespangled the sea of darkness from end to end of the horizon, and now, like millions of stars, they burned with a steady light in the serene summer night. There was no breath of wind to make them flicker as they hung there in space. They made the unseen city seem as vast as a firmament, reaching out into infinity.”
Émile Zola, Une page d’amour

The sincere friends of this world are as ship lights in the stormiest of nights.
Giotto di Bondone

There are dark shadows on the earth, but its lights are stronger in the contrast.
Charles Dickens

The light of lights looks always on the motive, not the deed, the shadow of shadows on the deed alone.
William Butler Yeats

A great attitude does much more than turn on the lights in our worlds; it seems to magically connect us to all sorts of serendipitous opportunities that were somehow absent before the change.
Earl Nightingale

I love Christmas, not just because of the presents but because of all the decorations and lights and the warmth of the season.
Ashley Tisdale

We say God and the imagination are one… How high that highest candle lights the dark.
Wallace Stevens

Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love!
Hamilton Wright Mabie

Tags: , , , , , ,

The 12/03/13 Joy Jar

2 Dec

The Buddha is not of moi’s faith tradition, but she recognizes him as a great and very wise man.

Education is the best friend. An educated person is respected everywhere. Education beats the beauty and the youth.
Chanakya

Today’s deposit into the ‘Joy Jar’ is a continuing education which comes from observing the world around one.

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.
Buddha

An insincere and evil friend is more to be feared than a wild beast; a wild beast may wound your body, but an evil friend will wound your mind.
Buddha

Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.
Buddha

The way is not in the sky. The way is in the heart.
Buddha

Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.
Buddha

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.
Buddha

The tongue like a sharp knife… Kills without drawing blood.
Buddha

We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.
Buddha

Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.
Buddha

To enjoy good health, to bring true happiness to one’s family, to bring peace to all, one must first discipline and control one’s own mind. If a man can control his mind he can find the way to Enlightenment, and all wisdom and virtue will naturally come to him.
Buddha

You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe deserve your love and affection.
Buddha

However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you if you do not act on upon them?
Buddha

No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.
Buddha

Do not overrate what you have received, nor envy others. He who envies others does not obtain peace of mind.
Buddha

There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting.
Buddha

The mind is everything. What you think you become.
Buddha

To keep the body in good health is a duty… otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear.
Buddha

There is nothing more dreadful than the habit of doubt. Doubt separates people. It is a poison that disintegrates friendships and breaks up pleasant relations. It is a thorn that irritates and hurts; it is a sword that kills.
Buddha

In the sky, there is no distinction of east and west; people create distinctions out of their own minds and then believe them to be true.
Buddha

It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you, not by angels or by demons, heaven or hell.
Buddha

Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, men cannot live without a spiritual life.
Buddha

Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule.
Buddha

To be idle is a short road to death and to be diligent is a way of life; foolish people are idle, wise people are diligent.
Buddha

Better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings peace.
Buddha

In a controversy the instant we feel anger we have already ceased striving for the truth, and have begun striving for ourselves.
Buddha

Tags: , , , , , , ,

The 12/02/13 Joy Jar

1 Dec

Advent began yesterday on Sunday. Share Faith has a great explanation in What is Advent?

Prior to the Nativity Celebration of Christmas Day, Advent refers to the holy season of the Christian church which celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. It begins on the Fourth Sunday before Christmas and ends on the 25th of December. As the commencement of the Christian year, the Advent Season holds a special place in the Christian tradition.
The History of Advent
The word “advent” comes from the Latin term for “coming,” and refers to the first and second Comings of Jesus Christ, in the senses of Savior and Judge, respectively. The first authoritative mention of Advent appears in the Synod of Lerida (AD 524), and the season has been recognized since as the beginning of the western ecclesiastical (church) year. The celebration originally began as a period of fasting, similar to Lent. Although the practice of abstention was later relaxed, Advent retains the spirit of atonement and penitence.
Advent Wreaths and Calendars
In western cultures, the four Sundays of Advent are often celebrated with Advent wreaths decorated with four candles. Made from evergreens, the circular wreaths symbolize eternal life and the endless nature of God’s love. Three of the candles are purple or blue while the fourth is typically rose-colored or pink.
One candle is lit each Sunday of the season. The rose-colored candle is lit on the third Sunday, which is considered to be a more festive day than the others. On Christmas Day, a fifth candle (known as the “Christ Candle” and often white in color) is lit in the center of the wreath, or may replace it altogether.
Advent calendars are also popular during the season. About 25 small compartments are created, often through the use of multiple sheets of cardboard or through sewn pockets. These are filled with seasonal messages, religious pictures, small chocolates, stories, or toys, depending upon the particular calendar.
Advent Traditions and Customs around the World
There are many ways Advent is celebrated. In English history, poor women would carry “Advent images” — two dolls dressed as Christ and the Virgin Mary. Upon showing these images to passersby, the women would be gifted with small amounts of money or trinkets. Failing to donate was considered bad luck.
In Normandy, children under 12 were sent through farmers’ fields with torches, setting fire to straw to drive off vermin. Italy supported the tradition of bagpipe players entering into Rome during the last days of the season. They played music before shrines of the Blessed Virgin, just as shepherds played pipes at the manger to honor the Messiah’s coming.
The Season of Advent remains one of the most important times of the Christian year. It celebrates the blessing of the birth of Christ, and reminds the faithful of his eventual return.
“A prison cell, in which one waits, hopes – and is completely dependent on the fact that the door of freedom has to be opened from the outside, is not a bad picture of Advent”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer quotes (German Lutheran Pastor and Theologian. His involvement in a plot to overthrow Adolf Hitler led to his imprisonment and execution. 1906-1945) http://www.sharefaith.com/guide/Christian-Holidays/advent_season.html

Today’s deposit into the ‘Joy Jar’ is the Advent Season.

Healthy Spirituality has some great insights about Advent:

“Advent, like its cousin Lent, is a season for prayer and reformation of our hearts. Since it comes at winter time, fire is a fitting sign to help us celebrate Advent…If Christ is to come more fully into our lives this Christmas, if God is to become really incarnate for us, then fire will have to be present in our prayer. Our worship and devotion will have to stoke the kind of fire in our souls that can truly change our hearts. Ours is a great responsibility not to waste this Advent time.”
Edward Hays, A Pilgrim’s Almanac

“The season of Advent means there is something on the horizon the likes of which we have never seen before… .What is possible is to not see it, to miss it, to turn just as it brushes past you. And you begin to grasp what it was you missed, like Moses in the cleft of the rock, watching God’s [back] fade in the distance. So stay. Sit. Linger. Tarry. Ponder. Wait. Behold. Wonder. There will be time enough for running. For rushing. For worrying. For pushing. For now, stay. Wait. Something is on the horizon.”
Jan L. Richardson, Night Visions: Searching the Shadows of Advent and Christmas

“You keep us waiting. You, the God of all time, Want us to wait. For the right time in which to discover Who we are, where we are to go, Who will be with us, and what we must do. So thank you … for the waiting time.”
John Bell, quoted in The Westminster Collection of Christian Prayers, compiled by Dorothy M. Stewart

“Christmas is fast approaching. And now that Christ has aroused our seasonal expectations, he’ll soon fulfill them all!”
St. Augustine, Sermon 51

“God is coming! God is coming! All the element we swim in, this existence, Echoes ahead the advent. God is coming! Can’t you feel it?”
Walter Wangerin, Jr., from “The Signs of the Times,” in The Manger Is Empty

“How can God stoop lower than to come and dwell with a poor humble soul? Which is more than if he had said, such a one should dwell with him; for a beggar to live at court is not so much as the king to dwell with him in his cottage.”
William Gurnall

“Advent: the time to listen for footsteps – you can’t hear footsteps when
you’re running yourself.”
Bill McKibben

“This Advent we look to the Wise Men to teach us where to focus our attention. We set our sights on things above, where God is. We draw closer to Jesus… When our Advent journey ends, and we reach the place where Jesus resides in Bethlehem, may we, like the Wise Men, fall on our knees and adore him as our true and only King.”
Mark Zimmermann in Our Advent Journey

“One of the essential paradoxes of Advent: that while we wait for God, we are with God all along ,that while we need to be reassured of God’s arrival, or the arrival of our homecoming, we are already at home. While we wait, we have to trust, to have faith, but it is God’s grace that gives us that faith. As with all spiritual knowledge, two things are true, and equally true, at once. The mind can’t grasp paradox; it is the knowledge of the soul.”
Michelle Blake, The Tentmaker

“Christmas has lost its meaning for us because we have lost the spirit of expectancy. We cannot prepare for an observance. We must prepare for an experience.”
Handel Brown

http://www.healthyspirituality.org/2009/12/advent-15-inspirational-quotes-about.html

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

The 12/01/13 Joy Jar

30 Nov

Today is the first day of December. December is a transition month. The shortest day of the year occurs in December, Christmas is in December, the last day of the calendar year is in December and the ‘Joy Jar’ ends on December 25th . Today’s deposit into the ‘Joy Jar’ is the month of December which represents transitions and new beginnings.

How did it get so late so soon? Its night before its afternoon. December is here before its June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?
Dr. Seuss

God gave us memory so that we might have roses in December.
James M. Barrie

“October. This is one of the peculiarly dangerous months to speculate in stocks in. The others are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August, and February.”
Mark Twain

“From December to March, there are for many of us three gardens –
the garden outdoors,
the garden of pots and bowls in the house,
and the garden of the mind’s eye.”
Katherine S. White

“O cruel cloudless space,
And pale bare ground where the poor infant lies!
Why do we feel restored
As in a sacramental place?
Here Mystery is artifice,
And here a vision of such peace is stored,
Healing flows from it through our eyes.”
May Sarton, Nativity

“I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December
A magical thing
And sweet to remember.

‘We are nearer to Spring
Than we were in September,’
I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December.”
Oliver Herford, I Heard a Bird Sing

“Come, come thou bleak December wind,
And blow the dry leaves from the tree!
Flash, like a Love-thought, thro’me, Death
And take a Life that wearies me.”
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1772-1834, Fragment 3

“That’s no December sky!
Surely ’tis June
Holds now her state on high
Queen of the noon.

Only the tree-tops bare
Crowning the hill,
Clear-cut in perfect air,
Warn us that still

Winter, the aged chief,
Mighty in power,
Exiles the tender leaf,
Exiles the flower.”
Robert Fuller Murray (1863-1894), A December Day

“In drear-nighted December,
Too happy, happy tree,
Thy branches ne’er remember
Their green felicity:
The north cannot undo them
With a sleety whistle through them;
Nor frozen thawings glue them
From budding at the prime.

In drear-nighted December,
Too happy, happy brook,
Thy bubblings ne’er remember
Apollo’s summer look;
But with a sweet forgetting,
They stay their crystal fretting,
Never, never petting
About the frozen time.

Ah! would ’twere so with many
A gentle girl and boy!
But were there ever any
Writhed not at passed joy?
The feel of not to feel it,
When there is none to heal it
Nor numbed sense to steel it,
Was never said in rhyme.”
John Keats, In Drear-Nighted December

Tags: , , , ,

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →