Thread of inspiration

[FallingLeaves]

Please add here your favourite quotes etc that may assist and inspire us in our creative pursuits................


"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us, it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." The above speech by Nelson Mandela was orignally written by Marianne Williamson who is the author of other similar material."


May Awen flow strongly through us all......

[rowanwyze]

Folks, I did not write this, and the author is unknown to me. When I know I shall post her name. Tyra
*********************************************************
What We Need

We need truths in their wild state,
insurrectionary beauty
that excites our curiosity,
outrageous goodness
that drives us to perform
heroic acts of lusty compassion,
ingenious love
that endlessly transforms us,
tricky freedom
that is never permanent
but must be reinvented and reclaimed every day,
and a totally-serious-yet-always-laughing justice
that schemes and dreams
about how to diminish the suffering
and increase the joy
of every sentient being.

So I'm radically curious, my fellow creators;
I'm seriously delirious:
Since we are in charge
of making a brand New World,
where do we begin?

What truths in their wild state
are we planning to plant
at the heart of our creation?
What stories will be our reminders?
What questions will be our fuel?

Here's one for you:
In the New World
you will know through and through
that life is crazily in love with you --
life is wildly and innocently in love with you.

In the New World,
you will know beyond a doubt
that thousands of secret helpers are
angling to turn you into
the gorgeous curiosity you were born to be.

But then here's the loaded question.
The love that life eternally floods you with
has not exactly been unrequited,
but there's room for you to be more demonstrative.
If life is wildly and innocently in love with you,
are you prepared to start loving life back
the way it loves you?

In the New World, you will.

In the New World,
you will reject paranoia with all of your smart heart.
Instead, you will embrace Pronoia,
Which is the opposite of paranoia.
Pronoia is the sneaking suspicion
that the whole living world
is conspiring to shower you with rowdy blessings.
Pronoia is the dawning perception
that life is a conspiracy
to liberate you from ignorance,
and fill you with love,
and make you brilliantly soulful.

My fellow creators,
I want you to know
that I am allergic to dogma.
I don't trust any idea
that requires me to believe in it absolutely.
There are very few things
about which I am totally certain.

But I am absolutely certain
that Pronoia describes the way the world actually is.
Pronoia is wetter than water,
truer than the facts,
and stronger than death.
It smells like cedar smoke in spring rain,
and if you close your eyes right now,
you can feel it shimmering
in your soft warm animal body
like the aurora borealis.

The sweet stuff that quenches all of your longing
is not far away in some other time and place.

It's right here and right now.

Earth is crammed with heaven
********************************************

[Arden]

Something that has inspired me of late ...

"Religion is for those who are afraid to goto hell. Spirituality is for those who have already been there."

~Ross V. member of Alcoholics Anonymous

[Amithieng]

Quotes!!!!!! I knew that someday I would find this thread and here it is....*cough* sorry, I love quotes and have a huge collection of them, but I am always looking to see if anyone else has found more. Anyways, enough of my rambling *flips through virtual computer pages* Here are a few that I have always loved...

"First keep peace within yourself, then you can also bring peace to others." ~Thomas a Kempis (1380-1471) (1420)

"I know of nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream." ~Vincent Van Gogh

"Most people want to be the sun that brightens up your life, but I'd rather be the moon that shines down on you in your darkest hours." ~Anonymous (If anyone does know the author of this I would love to know.)

My favorite so far,

"Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair." ~Kahlil Gibran

[Underground River]

Who's this Kahlil Gibran
person? I think Crow quotes him in his signature but it's a different quote.

I don't know where Explorer got this, but his signature inspires me:
You never know, if you never go...
Phoenix

[nearly_all_gone]

My favourite ever quote...

"I do my thing, and you do your thing. I am not in this world to live up to your expectations, and you are not in this world to live up to mine. You are you, and I am I, and if by chance we find each other, it's beautiful."
Frederik E. Perl

And also another one which is very simple, but very inspirational to me at various times in my life..

"My answers unspoken of sweetest emotion
Believe how it feels today
Just believe how it feels today
Oh, I was told by a knight of the sun
That wisdom could set people free
Be content in your questions
And may I just mention
You're only a drop in the sea
Only a drop in the sea"

No, not a renowned poet or author, but Crispian Mills of Kula Shaker

[Mika]

You know, I totally agree with this quote. Besides, it's quite amazing that I was thinking about THAT exactly, yesterday. I was feeling it, t'was "working inside of me" and you just put it its words.
I thought people can only get the healthy spirituality if they knew the "hell" by themselves..

Good quote. I'll note it somewhere in my personal diary

Best,

Mika

Something that has inspired me of late ...

"Religion is for those who are afraid to goto hell. Spirituality is for those who have already been there."

~Ross V. member of Alcoholics Anonymous

[Dair Ciúin]

Greetings,

Here's a selection of quotes which I find inspiring...

"Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true."
- Leon J. Suenes

"The power of imagination makes us infinite."
- John Muir

"Work spares us from three evils: boredom, vice, and need."
- Voltaire

"You cannot plough a field by turning it over in your mind."
- Unknown

"It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed."
- Theodore Roosevelt

[Flidais]

My uncle served in regiment of Grenadier Guards and I think he picked this one up during WW2
"Love many, trust few and always paddle your own canoe!"

[Adam]

Some of my favourites

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us."
Marianne Williamson

“You are not a human being in search of a spiritual experience. You are a spiritual being immersed in a human experience.”
“Our duty, as men and women, is to proceed as if limits to our ability did not exist. We are collaborators in creation.”
“Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.”
“Love is a sacred reserve of energy; it is like the blood of spiritual evolution”
all Teilhard de Chardin


"Quality means never having to say you're sorry."
Lyndon Thomas (dad)


"You can have everything in life that you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want."
Zig Ziglar


"You can count the number of seeds in a tomato but you cannot count the number of tomatoes in a seed"
Anon


"I didn't do it"
Bart Simpson

[Crow]

Nice ones, Trance, and welcome.

[Fox]

I love Roethke's "The Waking"

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go.

We think by feeling. What is there to know?
I hear my being dance from ear to ear.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Of those so close beside me, which are you?
God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there,
And learn by going where I have to go.

Light takes the Tree; but who can tell us how?
The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Great Nature has another thing to do
To you and me, so take the lively air,
And, lovely, learn by going where to go.

This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.
What falls away is always. And is near.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I learn by going where I have to go.

[Alasdair]

"A Great Man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The quieter you become, the more you can hear."
-Baba Ram Dass

Someone asked, "What am I?" Guangfan answered, "There is nothing in the wholte universe that is not you." -Zen mondo

"Love and Compassion are necessities, not luxuries.  Without them humanity cannot survive."
-Dalai Lama

[Moonwolf Equinox]

This poem was taken from a book on yoga.

Look To This Day.

Look to this day
For it is life
The very life of life
In it's brief course lie all
The realities and truths of existence
The joy of growth
The splendour of action
The glory of power
For yesterday is but a dream
And tomorrow is only a vision
But today well lived
Makes every yesterday a memory of happiness
And every tomorrow a vision of hope
Look well therefore to this day.

Kalidasa.

This poem gave me the inspiration to push myself forward after the head injury that nearly took my life. I would love to meet Kalidasa just to say thankyou.


Moonwolf A.

[Skylark]

I love this one - it makes me cry:

Falcon to Falconer - Jonathan Steffen

Unleash me from your hand
And I will lance the light for you
I’ll cut a swordblade on the wind
And pennant it with flight for you
To signal I am yours
If you will free me to be true to you.

Unleash me from your hand
And I will mock the sky for you;
I'll pull the anger from the air
And make the breezes sigh for you
To show that I am yours
If you will free me to be true to you.

Unleash me from your hand
And I will jewel it bright for you;
I'll hunt the treasures of the wind
And pluck them into sight for you
To show that I am yours
If you will free me to be true to you.

O, cast me from your hand
That I may show my love for you,
And throw me to the wind
That I may know my need for you;

All darkness on your hand
I'm hooded, pinned and held by you;
O' give me back my wings
That they may bring me back to you.

Jonathan Steffen

[Fox]

This has always been one of my favorite poems, I really admire Gerard Manley Hopkins's use of language.
A Jesuit priest, his poems come from a deep spiritual place in his soul.

This one is for reading out loud, particularly the last 3 lines.

FELIX RANDAL


Felix Randal the farrier, O he is dead then? my duty all ended,
Who have watched his mould of man, big-boned and hardy-handsome
Pining, pining, till time when reason rambled in it and some
Fatal four disorders, fleshed there, all contended?

Sickness broke him. Impatient he cursed at first, but mended
Being anointed and all; though a heavenlier heart began some
Months earlier, since I had our sweet reprieve and ransom
Tendered to him. Ah well, God rest him all road ever he offended!

This seeing the sick endears them to us, us too it endears.
My tongue had taught thee comfort, touch had quenched thy tears,
Thy tears that touched my heart, child, Felix, poor Felix Randal;

How far from then forethought of, all thy more boisterous years,
When thou at the random grim forge, powerful amidst peers,
Didst fettle for the great grey drayhorse his bright and battering sandal!

[Mey]

For writing inspiration please check http://www.dailywriting.net and make sure you have a pencil and paper ready next to your computer. Please don't forget to bring food and a sleepingbag because you easily get lost in there. That website is HUGE!!!! and the most beautiful I've ever seen!

[Rascal]

Hello Mey

I don't know if you are still looking at this post, but thank you for the link I have just looked at it and it is really interesting and visually beautiful to look at.

I have been looking at lots of different places to get inspiration from quotes and your link really offers something different.

                                                                           

[Taniwha]

As I was walking up the avenue away from the stone circle, I noticed his on the back of the 'Avebury' road sign:




It reads:  "There is no dis-ease in fully conscious beings."

I've been thinking about those words alot...   :0)

[Reynard]

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders Fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders Fields.

- John McCrae