AN INVITATION FOR REFLECTION. . .

Each day there are times, planned and spontaneous, when I stop, step-back and reflect.  I have no goal, other than to reflect.  Sometimes I take notes as stuff emerges into my consciousness.  Sometimes questions emerge and sometimes I engage them and sometimes I just ‘hold them.’  What ‘triggers’ a ‘spontaneous’ reflection?  Sometimes it is an experience, sometimes it is a passage I am reading, sometimes it is a poem or a line in a poem, sometimes it is a quotation.  I have found that, for me, it is crucial that I remain open to the possibility that a ‘seed’ for reflection will be offered to me at any time.  I have choice, of course, and so I also seek to be intentional and purposeful as to which ‘seeds’ I will sow, and nurture into a reflective experience.

As I was preparing for my posting this morning I found some quotations that might well provide me a reflective seed or two.  As I sat with these I decided to share some of them with you, gentle reader.  One or more of these might give you pause.  One or more of these might also be reflective seeds for you.  One or more of these might move you to pause for reflection.  One or two might remind you of quotations that speak to you or you might be moved to seek out a variety of quotations and seek within them a ‘reflective seed.’  So, without further ado, here are a few quotes to note:

We cannot teach people anything; we can only help them discover it within themselves. – Galileo

And so, wandering off the beaten path of life I opened the door and found the sage, sitting quietly, smiling at me. –Dan Millman

Be humble for you are made of earth.  Be noble for you are made of stars. –Serbian Proverb

Some think it’s holding on that makes one strong; sometimes, it’s letting go. –Richard W Smith

I am not bound to win I am bound to be true.  I am not bound to succeed but I am bound to live up to what light I have. –Abraham Lincoln

If the doors of my heart ever close, I am as good as dead. –Mary Oliver

That I feed the hungry, forgive an insult, or love my enemy – these are great virtues.  But what if I should discover that the poorest of the beggars and most impudent of offenders are all within me, and that I stand in need of the alms of my own kindness; that I myself am the enemy who must be loved – what then? –C.G. Jung

We want to know what are we?  How did we get to be what we are? Where did we come from?  How did we come from there?  Who did we leave behind/  Where was it that we left them behind and what are they doing over where we used to be? –Malcolm X

Somewhere along the line of development, we discover what we really are and then we make our real decision for which we are responsible…the influence you have is through your own life and what you become yourself. –Eleanor Roosevelt
How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. –Annie Dillard

The rain cloud of adversity is spreading over their heads.  Calamity is showing itself…From left and right is coming the cry; ‘Who were you yesterday, and what have you become today!  Just now you were awake, and now you have gone to sleep! –Hali (Muslim poet, 1879)