Reflections Archive

Edison failed 10,000 times before he made the electric light. Do not be discouraged if you fail a few times.
Napoleon Hill

This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. ...Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.
Jelaluddin Rumi

"As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same."
- Marianne Williamson

The Difference between TRY and TRIUMPH is just a little... ...UMPH
Reverend Run 2010

“How you see is what you get. How you see determines your reality and determines where you go. When we change the way we see the world…we change the world.”
— Warren MacDonald as quoted at the Covenant Health Spring Leaders Retreat

He didn't tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it.
Clarence Budington Kelland

Let the rain come and wash away the ancient grudges, the bitter hatreds held and nurtured over generations. Let the rain wash away the memory of the hurt, the neglect. Then let the Sun come out and fill the sky with rainbows. Let the warmth of the Sun heal us wherever we are broken. Let it burn away the fog so that we can see beyond labels, beyond accents, gender, or skin color. (view pdf for more)
Source: Center of Concern, www.coc.org

Ring the bells that still can ring Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack in everything…That's how the light gets in.
From 'Anthem' by Leonard Cohen

All great achievements require time.
Maya Angelou

With realization of one's own potential and self-confidence in one's ability, one can build a better world.
Dalai Lama

Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass - it's about learning to dance in the rain.
~Anonymous

To the world you might just be one person, but to one person you might just be the world.

We are here to do, And through doing to learn; And through learning to know; And through knowing to experience wonder; And through wonder to attain wisdom; And through wisdom to find simplicity; And through simplicity to give attention; And through attention, To see what needs to be done…
Ben Hei Hei

A handful of pine-seed will cover mountains with the green majesty of a forest. I, too, will set my face to the wind and throw my handful of seed on high.
Fiona MacLeod

May your work never weary you. May it release within you wellsprings of refreshment, inspiration, and excitement. May the day never burden. May dawn find you awake and alert, approaching your new day with dreams, possibilities, and promises. May evening find you gracious and fulfilled. May you go into the night blessed, sheltered, and protected.
John O'Donahue, Anam Cara

If spring came but once a century instead of once a year, or burst forth with the sound of an earthquake and not in silence, what wonder and expectation there would be in all hearts to behold the miraculous change.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Love doesn't just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; re-made all the time, made new.
Ursula K. Le Guin

Easter is not the celebration of a past event. The alleluia is not for what was; Easter proclaims a beginning which has already decided the remotest future. The Resurrection means that the beginning of glory has already started.
Karl Rahner, Everyday Faith

"There is a reason they call God a presence - because God is right here, right now. In the present is the only place to find Him, and now is the only time."
— Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love)

For without words, in friendship, all thoughts, all desires, all expectations are born and shared, with joy that is unacclaimed.
~ Khalil Gibran

. . . Something has happened To my understanding of existence That makes my heart always full of wonder and kindness. . .
~ Hafiz, Sufi poet

No one can uproot the tree which God has planted.
African Proverb

By perseverance the snail reached the ark.
Charles H. Spurgeon

I have found the paradox that if I love until it hurts, then there is no hurt, but only more love.
Mother Teresa

When you make peace with yourself, you make peace with the world.
Maha Ghosananda

Life is just a chance To grow a soul.
A. Powell Davies

Who so loves, believes the impossible.
Elizabeth Barret Browning

He (God) comforts us whenever we suffer. That is why whenever other people suffer, we are able to comfort them by using the same comfort we have received from God.
2 Corinthians 1:24

Aging The great thing about getting older is that you don’t lose all the other ages you’ve been.
Madeleine L'Engle

Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius and power and magic in it.
Goethe

Love is what is in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.
unknown (attributed to a 7 year old boy named Bobby)

Hope… … is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul - and sings the tunes without the words - and never stops at all.
Emily Dickinson

Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith. They keep it awake and moving.
Frederick Buechner

Our Calling The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.
Frederick Buechner

Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.
Rachel Carson

Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.
Ambrose Redmoon

wisdom True wisdom lies in gathering the precious things out of each day as it goes by.
E.S. Bouton

Behold the turtle. He makes progress only when he sticks his neck out.
James B. Conant

And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter and the sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.
~ Kahlil Gibran

Thanksgiving Each day comes bearing its own gifts. Untie the ribbons.
~ Ruth Ann Schabacker

I absolutely believe that every organization has a soul… It is that mysterious spirit that you feel but perhaps cannot measure. It is the light in the eyes of those who work there. It is the fire in the belly… It is knowing that together you are fulfilling a higher calling, helping creation come to fulfillment.
~ Ian Percy, Covenant Health Annual Community Meeting keynote speaker

In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.
Albert Einstein

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

The applause is a celebration not only of the actors but also of the audience. It constitutes a shared moment of delight.
John Charles Polanyi

Change always comes bearing gifts.
Price Pritchett

If you have made mistakes, there is always another chance for you. You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call "failure" is not the falling down, but the staying down.
—Mary Pickford

Faith is a bird that feels dawn breaking and sings while it is still dark.
- Rabindranath Tagore

What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.
— Pericles

It takes a long time to become young.
- Pablo Picasso

One isn't necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.
Maya Angelou

Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Peace begins with a smile
Mother Teresa

You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.
Henry David Thoreau

Find out how much God has given you and from it take what you need. The remainder is needed by others.
St. Augustine

Pleasures and sensations are like ripples on our surface; happiness and knowledge are like the undercurrents in our inner waters; joy and wisdom are sunken treasures at the very bottom.
Peter J Kreeft

The hero is the one who kindles a great light in the world, who sets up blazing torches in the dark streets of life for men to see by. The saint is the man who walks through the dark paths of the world, himself a light.
Felix Adler

If facts are the seeds that later produce knowledge and wisdom, then the emotions and the impressions of the senses are the fertile soil in which the seeds must grow.
Rachel Carson

If I have been of service, if I have glimpsed more of the nature and essence of ultimate good, if I am inspired to reach wider horizons of thought and action, if I am at peace with myself, it has been a successful day.
Alex Noble

If you keep a green bough in your heart, surely the singing bird will come.
Chinese proverb

Close the language-door and open the love-window. The moon won’t use the door, only the window.
~ Rumi (13th century)

what you give Certain actions free your heart of its maladies. The generosity of giving frees you from greed. The gift you can make of yourself each moment frees you from yourself. All that remains, my friend, is what you give.
~ Faouzi Skali

Mothers are there to grasp the inexplicable. We are there to light up the darkness. We are there to love without beginning or end.
Mariama Ba, Senegalese novelist

May your soul be happy; journey joyfully.
~ Rumi (13th century)

As a bee seeks nectar from all kinds of flowers, seek teachings everywhere.
Dzogchen Tantra

The fragrance always remains in the hand that gives the rose.
Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.”
John 11:25-26

I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote down some blues.
Duke Ellington

Every evening I turn my worries over to God. He's going to be up all night anyway.
Mary C. Crowley

Believe in your heart that you are destined to do great things.
Joe Paterno

The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches, but reveal to them their own.
Benjamin Disraeli

If you want to build a ship, don't herd people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.
Antoine De Saint-Exupery

Not to hurt our humble brethren is our first duty to them, but to stop there is not enough. We have a higher mission—to be of service to them wherever they require it.
St. Francis of Assisi

Success is peace of mind, which is the direct result of knowing you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.
John Wooden

Families are the compass that guide us. They are the inspiration to reach great heights, and our comfort when we occasionally falter.
Brad Henry

Compassionate and healing God, help us to see Your face in the faces of our sisters and brothers who are sick or injured. Guide us to reach out to them with hearts of compassion and hands which serve their needs. Help us as caregivers to always turn to You as the Source of our own strength and compassion as we seek to serve the needs of those who are sick and vulnerable.
Sister Jane McConnnell, OSF, BCC

You are the light of the world A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others... Matthew 5


Covenant Health Missioning Celebration
Monday, February 9, 2009 4:30 pm
St. Joseph's Basilica Edmonton

The life I touch for good or ill will touch another life, and that in turn another, until who knows where the trembling stops or in what far place my touch will be felt.
Frederick Beuchner

Dreams are renewable. No matter what our age or condition, there are still untapped possibilities within us and new beauty waiting to be born.
Dale E. Turner

This very moment is the perfect teacher, and, lucky for us, it’s with us wherever we go.
Pema Chodron

There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
Anais Nin

There is no moment like the present. The man who will not execute his resolutions when they are fresh upon him can have no hope from them afterwards: they will be dissipated, lost, and perish in the hurry and scurry of the world, or sunk in the slough of indolence.
Maria Edgeworth

The earth has grown old with its burden of care
But at Christmas it always is young,
The heart of the jewel burns lustrous and fair
And its soul full of music breaks the air,
When the song of angels is sung.
Phillips Brooks

"When I let my inner light shine, I bless my world."
Kate Nowak

Courage does not always roar. Sometimes it is a quiet voice at the end of the day, saying... "I will try again tomorrow."
Unknown

There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning.
Louis L'Amour, Author