“Why do you run around looking for the truth? Be still, and there it is—in the mountain, in the pine, in yourself.” ~ Lao Tzu, Conscious Arrival
When does it happen? When will it happen?
“It can only be after we stop hating ourselves that we have the opportunity to stop hating (and love) others.” ~ cjzurcher
‘Learn to mourn your actions without blame, without guilt’
“Learn to look behind your judgments to the need at the root of them. Learn from your limitations without losing self-respect. Learn to mourn your actions without blame, without guilt.” ~ Marshall B. Rosenberg
La clairvoyance “clear vision” is Camus’ word for lucidity
“On the whole, men are more good than bad; that, however, isn’t the real point. But they are more or less ignorant, and it is this that we call vice or virtue; the most incorrigible vice being that of an ignorance that fancies it knows everything and therefore claims for itself the right to kill. The soul of the murderer is blind; and there can be no true goodness nor true love without the utmost clear-sightedness.” (sans toute la clairvoyance possible) ~ Albert Camus from one of the more memorable passages of The Plague, in which he addresses the volunteer sanitary groups put together by citizens to clean the town’s overloaded hospitals.
John Lewis: Together, You Can Redeem the Soul of Our Nation | NYT
John Lewis wrote this article in the New York Times as he was dying.
Though I am gone, I urge you to answer the highest calling of your heart and stand up for what you truly believe.
Read the rest here: Opinion | John Lewis: Together, You Can Redeem the Soul of Our Nation – The New York Times
The masks we wear, inside and out
I started writing something about the masks we wear and this quotation from James Baldwin popped up in my email today:
“Love takes off the masks we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.” ~ James Baldwin
And what if we spoke of peace but did not act to bring it about?
“The use of atomic energy for purposes of war is immoral. We will be judged on this. Future generations will rise to condemn our failure if we spoke of peace but did not act to bring it about among the peoples of the earth.”
— Pope Francis, speaking in Hiroshima on November 24, 2019.