Author: ppadmin

It is freeing to become aware that we do not have to be victims of our past and can learn new ways of responding. But there is a step beyond this recognition. . . . It is the step of forgiveness. Forgiveness is love practiced among people who love poorly. It sets us free without wanting anything in return. — Henri Nouwen

Without being forgiven, released from the consequences of what we have done, our capacity to act would, as it were, be confined to a single deed from which we could never recover; we would remain the victims of its consequences forever, not unlike the sorcerer’s apprentice who lacked the magic formula to break the spell. — Hannah Arendt

Alexander Dubcek, the government official turned hero of the Prague Spring uprising of 1968, once said, “You can crush the flowers, but you can’t stop the spring.” As for me, the grounds of my hope have always been that history is wilder than our imagination of it and that the unexpected shows up far more regularly than we ever dream. — Rebecca Solnit

Each human being is at the same time both riddled with divine sparks and in desperate need of repair. Each person is the whole world. And every human action therefore plays a role in the final restitution. Whatever we do is related to this ultimate task: to return all things to their original place in God. Everything a person does affects the process. — Lawrence Kushner

Obfuscation: When words hide the truth What they said: “The demands of industrialization took a heavy toll on the river.” What they mean: The river got screwed. — Public Broadcasting Service story about the history of the Haw River in North Carolina

Sacrifice is absolutely essential for human growth; yet the abiding disposition of sacrifice is rarely established without some experience of suffering. Of course suffering itself does not make one holy and can even lead to despair. Despair is suffering that fails to teach. — Thomas Keating

As Vicki Divoll, a former CIA lawyer who now teaches at the U.S. Naval Academy, observed, "People are a lot more comfortable with a Predator strike that kills many people than with a throat-slitting that kills one." — Jonathan Tran

Those who will not slip beneath the still surface on the well of grief, turning downward through its black water to the place we cannot breathe, will never know the source from which we drink the secret water, cold and clear, nor find in the darkness glimmering the small round coins thrown by those who wished for something else. — David Whyte

Yes, as through this world I've wandered, I've seen lots of funny men. Some will rob you with a six-gun, And some with a fountain pen. And as through your life your travel, Yes, as through your life your roam, You won't never see an outlaw Drive a family from their home. — Woody Guthrie

I mined in your mines, and I gathered in your corn. I been working, mister, since the day I was born. Now I worry all the time like I never did before, 'Cause I ain't got no home in this world anymore. Now as I look around, it's mighty plain to see, This world is such a great and a funny place to be. Oh, the gamblin' man is rich, an' the workin' man is poor, And I ain't got no home in this world anymore. — Woody Guthrie