Swimming in Grace
“God’s grace is more available than we dare to believe. It’s a bit like the little fish who swam up to its mother and asked, ‘What is the ocean?’ ‘You’re in it’, said the mother. But the little fish swam away disappointed, saying, ‘No, this is just water. I want to know what the ocean is.’”
–Macrina Wiederkehr (Benedictine Catholic Monk, Writer and Spiritual Guide)
“A Tree Full of Angels: Seeing the Holy in the Ordinary” (Macrina Wiederkehr)
The Grass Is Always Greener On the Other Side
“It’s when you are safe at home that you’re having an adventure. When you’re having an adventure you wish you were safe at home.”
–Thornton Niven Wilder (American Novelist and Playwright, 1897-1975)
Commonsense and Good Nature
“Common sense and good nature will do a lot to make the pilgrimage of life not too difficult.”
–W. Somerset Maugham (English Novelist and Playwright, 1874-1965)
The Art of Walking
“The art of walking is at once suggestive of the dignity of man. Progressive motion alone implies power, but in almost every other instance it seems a power gained at the expense of self-possession.”
–Henry Theodore Tuckerman (American Writer, Critic and Essayist, 1813-1871)
Passion and Focus
“If a man is called to be street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the host of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.”
–Martin Luther King, Jr. (American Baptist Minister, Social Activist and, in 1964, Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, 1929-1968)
Synergy and Cooperation
“The ideal social unit is a group small enough to allow intense face to face interaction, one in which members participate voluntarily, and in which each person can contribute to a common goal by doing what he or she does best.”
–Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (Italian-born Hungarian American Psychologist and Author, 1934-)
Thoughtful Leadership
“A leader can’t dash ahead around the bend out of sight.”
–Herman Wouk (American Pulitzer Prize-winning Writer, 1915-)
Remembering Kindness
“Often the only thing a child can remember about an adult in later years, when he or she is grown, is whether or not that person was kind.”
–Billy Graham (American Southern Baptist Minister, Evangelist, and in 1996, Winner of the Congressional Gold Medal, 1918-)
The Pattern of Life
“It was curious how life seemed to weave a pattern that was not in the least haphazard, as it so often seemed to be.”
–R. F. Delderfield (English Novelist and Dramatist, 1912-1972)
Physical Freedom
“From birth, man carries the weight of gravity on his shoulders. He is bolted to earth. But man has only to sink beneath the surface and he is free.”
–Jacques-Yves Cousteau (French Oceanographer, 1910-1997)
