Reflections Archive

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex... It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.
Albert Einstein

Christmas Eve Prayer Give us, O God, the vision which can see Your love in the world in spite of human failure. Give us the faith to trust Your goodness in spite of our ignorance and weakness. Give us the knowledge that we may continue to pray with understanding hearts. And show us what each one of us can do to set forward the coming of the day of universal peace.
Frank Borman Apollo 8 space mission 1968

When you forgive, you in no way change the past—but you sure do change the future.
Bernard Meltzer

Some of us think holding on makes us strong; but sometimes it is letting go.
Hermann Hesse

My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.
Maya Angelou

God has not called us to see through each other, but to see each other through.
Author Unknown

You know that if you get in the water and have nothing to hold on to, but try to behave as you would on dry land, you will drown. But if, on the other hand, you trust yourself to the water and let go, you will float. And this is exactly the situation of faith.
Alan Watts

Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Begin challenging your own assumptions. Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in awhile, or the light won't come in.
Alan Alda

Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives.
William A. Foster

The call comes from the person standing in front of you, who asks, "Will you honour me? Be kind to me?" Honour the little calls. They prepare you for the big ones.
David Spangler, The Call

Healing is a process, a movement, a transition toward balance, connectedness, meaning and wholeness. Healing is a movement, not an outcome.
~ Richard Katz, Sacred Stories

I thank God for this most amazing day; for the leaping greenly spirits of trees and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes.
e. e. cummings

As Covenant Health, our name speaks to the promise of God’s abiding love that sustains us and guides our work.

Those who are willing to be vulnerable move among mysteries.
Theodore Roethke

It only took two of James Lind's sailors sucking on limes to produce the breakthrough which cured scurvy.
Adam Smith, "Powers of the Mind"

In the final analysis, no nation, no race, no individual has a monopoly of intelligence or virtue. If we are to pursue the ideal of meritocracy in human endeavour, then its most perfect form will grow out of a respect for human pluralism, so that we can harness the very best contributions from whomever and wherever they may come.
—His Highness the Aga Khan, University of Alberta ConvocationAddress•June2009

Work joyfully and peacefully, knowing that right thoughts and right efforts will inevitably bring about right results.
James Allen

The Soul of the World is nourished by people's happiness.
Pablo Coelho

Beauty, like happiness, occurs frequently. Not a day goes by in which we don’t, for an instant, live in paradise.
—Jorge Luis Borges

When your heart beats to bursting, when your eyes cry every tear, when your soul sings the essence of your soul, you are reconciled with the world, you gently take root.
— Amazonian oral tradition

Light winks at me. I respond by winking at it with my shadow.
— Roberto Juarroz

Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow them.
LOUISA MAY ALCOTT

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