Wonderful and Awful

New creation

noreply@blogger.com (Marcia) — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 19:21:00 +0000

Just when we in New Jersey thought Spring would never come, the skies cleared yesterday, and all of creation rejoiced. I stopped by a friend’s farm and photographed a baby bull. The next door neighbor’s sheep was nursing newborn lambs. God is good!

Holy Week

noreply@blogger.com (Marcia) — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 10:44:00 +0000

Penitents take part in a procession of the 'Cristo de la buena muerte' brotherhood during Holy Week in Zamora, Spain, on March 30. Hundreds of processions and festivals take place throughout Spain during the Easter Holy Week.

Daniel Ochoa de Olza/AP

Passover

noreply@blogger.com (Marcia) — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 21:10:00 +0000

Ultraorthodox Jewish men crowd around a spring as they collect water to make Matzoh, a traditional handmade Passover unleavened bread, near the West Bank Jewish settlement of Beit Horon, on March 28. Passover began at sundown on Monday.

Oded Balilty/AP

The Web of Life

noreply@blogger.com (Marcia) — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 07:27:00 +0000

There is a living web that runs through us
To all the universe
Linking us each with each and through all life
On to the distant stars.
Each knows a little corner of the world, and lives
As if this were his all.
We no more see the farther reaches of the threads
Than we see of the future, yet they’re there.
Touch but one thread, no matter which;
The thoughtful eye may trace to distant lands
Its firm continuing strand, yet lose its filaments as they reach out,
But find at last it coming back to him from whom it led.
We move as in a fog, aware of self
But only dimly conscious of the rest
As they are close to us in sight or feeling.
New objects loom up for a time, fade in and out;
Then, sometimes, as we look on unawares, the fog lifts
And then there’s the web in shimmering beauty,
Reaching past all horizons. We catch our breath;
Stretch out our eager hands, and then
In comes the fog again, and we go on,
Feeling a little foolish, doubting what we had seen.
The hands were right. The web is real.
Our folly is that we so soon forget.

"Day of Promise: Collected Meditations, vol. 1" edited by Kathleen Montgomery (Skinner House, 2001)
photo: ©marciakrausebilyk2010

Jesus enters Jerusalem

noreply@blogger.com (Marcia) — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 07:30:00 +0000

I wish I had been there.

photo: ©marciakrausebilyk2010

Peace

noreply@blogger.com (Marcia) — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 08:30:00 +0000

When a Flickr friend saw this image, she posted a song from her Girl Scout days:

Peace I ask of thee, oh river

Peace, peace, peace
When I learn to live serenely
Cares will cease

From the hills I gather courage
Visions of the days to be
Strength to lead and faith to follow
All are given unto me.

Peace I ask of thee, oh river
Peace, peace, peace

photo: ©marciakrausebilyk2010

Change

noreply@blogger.com (Marcia) — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 18:19:00 +0000

It's an erratic spring. Four days ago we hiked with the dogs in mid-seventies weather. Today I'm wearing layered sweaters. My husband tells me that the temperature is going to drop into the mid-teens tonight. What will happen to the delicate blossoms I photographed yesterday?

I am once again reminded that it's not possible to protect the ones I love from change.

photo: ©marciakrausebilyk2010

Guilt

noreply@blogger.com (Marcia) — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 10:36:00 +0000

When personal guilt in relation to a past event becomes a continuous cloud over your life, then you are locked in a mental prison. You have become your own jailer...It is such a great moment of liberation when you learn to forgive yourself, let the burden go and walk out into a new path of promise and possibility. Self-compassion is a wonderful gift to give yourself...Your soul is more immense than any one moment or event in your past. When you allow guilt to fester and reduce you like this, it has little to do with guilt. The guilt is only an uncomfortable but convenient excuse for your fear of growth.

- from eternal echoes by John O'Donohue

Commitment

noreply@blogger.com (Marcia) — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 08:34:00 +0000

Sri Rosyati (R) and Sri Irianingsih (L), walk to the school they have run in a Jakarta slum area since 1996. The twins, from a typical middle-class background, have been the driving force behind the free education of more than 2,000 poor children. They have purchased the uniforms, textbooks, school equipment and everything else needed to teach the children. The twins have also helped open similar schools in 64 areas of the country.

REUTERS/Beawiharta

Mercy

noreply@blogger.com (Marcia) — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 08:29:00 +0000

Sudanese children in a refugee camp in Chad.

Every time we think we have touched a place of poverty, we will discover greater poverty beyond that place. Beyond physical poverty, there is mental poverty, beyond mental poverty, there is spiritual poverty, and beyond that there is nothing, nothing but mercy. - Henry Nouwen

Philippe Huguen/AFP/Getty

Love

noreply@blogger.com (Marcia) — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 06:40:00 +0000

Come, Lord Jesus, come. Do not just come to our understanding, but enter our hearts -- our passions, emotions, and feelings -- and reveal your presence to us in our inmost being. Otherwise, we will keep clinging to people, things or events to find some warmth, some sense of belonging.

Compassion

noreply@blogger.com (Marcia) — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 08:31:00 +0000

There is much hidden suffering in the world: the suffering of a man who dwells with others in a room of metal cages; the suffering of a teenager who does not feel secure; the suffering of countless people who lack caring friends, satisfying work, a peaceful home, a safe neighborhood, clean water, adequate food; the suffering of millions who feel lonely and wonder if life is worth living.

Once we look downward - instead of upward - on the ladder of life, we see the pain of people wherever we go, and we hear the call of compassion wherever we are.

adapted from Henri Nouwen

Joy

noreply@blogger.com (Marcia) — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 18:07:00 +0000

Joy is the experience of knowing that you are unconditionally loved and that nothing - sickness, failure, emotional distress, oppression, war, or even death - can take that love away.

Patterns

noreply@blogger.com (Marcia) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 08:12:00 +0000

Laundry hanging outside a student dormitory in Wuhan, China.

Reuters

Giving = Happiness = Giving

noreply@blogger.com (Marcia) — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 08:27:00 +0000

A survey of 30,000 American households found that those who gave to charity were 43 percent more likely to say they were "very happy" about their lives than those who did not give. The survey doesn't show whether giving made people happy, or happy people were more likely to give, but the anecdotal evidence is strong that many people find that when they begin to give, they free themselves from the acquisitive treadmill and find new meaning and fulfillment in their lives.

Peter Singer, Newsweek, 3/09/09

Prayer

noreply@blogger.com (Marcia) — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 09:13:00 +0000

A young Buddhist monk participates in a prayer for peace, prosperity and long life, Kathmandu, Nepal.

Manish Swarup/AP

Patterns

noreply@blogger.com (Marcia) — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 08:02:00 +0000

Workers on tractors harvest soybeans in the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil.

Maurilio Cheli/AP

Justice

noreply@blogger.com (Marcia) — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 08:00:00 +0000

Children of sex workers take part in a rally ahead of International Sex Workers Day, Kolkata, India.

Parth Sanyal/Reuters

Poverty

noreply@blogger.com (Marcia) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 08:00:00 +0000

A man burns incense while sitting in a small cage in Hong Kong's Tai Kok Tsui district.

REUTERS/Victor Fraile

Community

noreply@blogger.com (Marcia) — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 05:03:00 +0000

Buddhist monks take part in religious exercises at a monastery near Tongren, in China’s Qinghai province, on the eve of the traditional Tibetan new year.

Reinhard Krause/Reuters

Patterns

noreply@blogger.com (Marcia) — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 08:56:00 +0000

Job seekers holding umbrellas flock into a job fair in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province.

Ritual

noreply@blogger.com (Marcia) — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 08:53:00 +0000

An ascetic Buddhist monk runs through flames during the Nagatoro (Japan) fire festival, to celebrate the coming of spring.

Toru Hanai/Reuters

Patterns

noreply@blogger.com (Marcia) — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 08:01:00 +0000

A drawer of antique glass eyes is displayed at the Science Museum's Object Store in London.

Macdiarmid/Getty

Patterns

noreply@blogger.com (Marcia) — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 09:00:00 +0000

Men walk their bikes on a bridge during an annual 'car free' day in Bogota, Columbia.

Luis Ramirez/AFP/Getty Images

Beauty

noreply@blogger.com (Marcia) — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 08:19:00 +0000

A jellyfish is irradiated with coloured light at the Blue Zoo in Beijing, a joint venture between China and New Zealand.

Diego Azubel/EPA