"Let me keep my mind on what matters
Which is mostly standing still
And learning to be astonished"

~ Mary Oliver ~

Quotes

After a presentation by Meg Wheatley, in which she asked, "What time is it for our world?  Who do we choose to be for this time?" I took down the inspirational quotes that she used in her talk:


Hopi Elders Prophesy
To my fellow swimmers:
Here is a river flowing now very fast.
It is so great and swift,
that there are those who will be afraid,
who will try to hold on to the shore,
    They are being torn apart and will suffer greatly.
Know that the river has its destination.
The elders say we must let go of the shore,
push off into the middle of the river,
and keep our heads above water.
 
And I say see who is there with you and celebrate.
 At this time in history we are to take nothing personally,
least of all ourselves, for the moment we do,
our spiritual growth and journey come to a halt.

The time of the lone wolf is over.
Gather yourselves.
Banish the word struggle from your attitude and vocabulary.
All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.
For we are the ones we have been waiting for.

“TO BE HOPEFUL in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”       Howard Zinn                                                                                                                                                              

From Plenitude: The New Economics of True Wealth (Penguin, 2010) by Juliet Schor.

“There is a way forward, and I call it plenitude.  The word calls attention to the inherent bounty of nature that we need to recover.  It directs us to the chance to be rich in the things that matter to us most, and the wealth that is available in our relations with one another.  Plenitude involves very different ways of living than those encouraged by the maxims that have dominated the discourse for the last twenty-five years.  It puts ecological and social functioning at its core but is not a paradigm of sacrifice.  To the contrary, it involves a way of life that will yield more well-being than sticking to business as usual, which has led both the natural and economic environments into decline…

“Plenitude is also about transition.  Change doesn’t happen overnight.  Creating a sustainable economy will take decades, and this is a strategy for prospering during that shift.  The beauty of the approach is that it is available right now.  It does not require waiting for the clean-tech paradigm to triumph.  It doesn’t require getting government on board immediately.  Anyone can get started, and many are.  It was the right way to go before the economic collapse, in part because it predicted a worsening landscape.  It makes even more sense in a period of slow growth or stagnation.  As individuals take up the principles of plenitude, they are not merely adopting a private response to what is perforce a collective problem.  Rather they are pioneers of the micro (individual-level) activity that is necessary to create the macro (system-wide) equilibrium, to correct an economy that is badly out of balance.”

“Man(Humans) has (have) a responsibility to find himself (themselves) where he is (they are), in his (their) own proper time and place, in the history to which he (they) belongs (belong) and to which he(they) must inevitably contribute either his (their) response or ... evasions, either truth and act, or mere slogan and gesture.”                                                    
Thomas Merton

“We cannot change the way the world is, but by opening ourselves to the world as it is, we may find that gentleness, decency and bravery are available – not only to us but to all human beings.”                                                                                      
Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche

“A craving for a simpler, slower, more centered life, one less consumed by the soul-emptying crush of getting and spending, runs deep within our culture right now.”              
Warner

“Our way forward is in cultivating well-being in communities rather than individual accumulation of more things.”                                                                                    
Ferguson

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"The full and joyful acceptance of the worst in oneself may be the only sure way of transforming it."
~ Henry Miller ~

"To contact the deeper truth of who we are, we must engage in some activity or practice that questions what we assume to be true about ourselves."

~ A. H. Almaas ~



"Honesty and transparency make you vulnerable. Be honest and transparent anyway."

~ Mother Theresa ~



"If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything."

~ Mark Twain ~

 "You got to be who you are when you are."

~ Snoop Dog ~



“Fear isn’t the opposite of courage.  It’s the prerequisite.”
~ Ann-Marie MacDonald from The Way the Crow Flies ~