WE’RE ALL A LITTLE BROKEN,
BUT, LAST TIME I CHECKED,
BROKEN CRAYONS STILL COLOUR THE SAME …
TRENT SHELTON
TIME MACHINE
The music that touches you in your youth is magnified as you get older. Each tune or song can be a virtual time-machine. All you need is to hear a second or two, and you go back to that place and time when you first heard it. It’s a brilliant feeling when music touches you so profoundly and stays with you through time …
ROB HALFORD
SMALL KINDNESSES
I’ve been thinking about the way, when you walk down a crowded aisle, people pull in their legs to let you past.
Or how strangers still say “bless you” when someone sneezes – a leftover from the Bubonic plague. “Don’t die,” we are saying.
And sometimes, when you spill lemons from your grocery bag, someone else will help you pick them up.
Mostly, we don’t want to hurt each other.
We want to be handed our cup of coffee hot, and to say “thank you” to the person handing it. To smile at them and for them to smile back.
For the waitress to call us “honey” when she sets down our bowl of chowder, and for the driver in the red ute to let us pass.
We have so little of each other now. So far from tribe and fire. Only these brief moments of exchange.
What if these are the true dwelling of the holy, these fleeting temples we make together when we say,
“Here, have my seat …”
“Go ahead, you first …”
“I like your hat …”
DANUSHA LAMERIS
WE’RE ALL THE SAME:
Everyone has a story.
Everyone has been through something that has changed them.
So never judge a person by the chapter you walked in on.
ANNA GRACE TAYLOR
PREFERABLE
It’s
better
to
be
KIND
than
to
be
RIGHT.
ANNE LAMOTT
CHOOSE TENDERNESS
The kindest people are not born that way. They are made. They are the souls who have experienced so much at the hands of life … who have dug themselves out of the dark … who have fought to turn every loss into a lesson. The kindest people do not just exist – they choose to soften where circumstance has tried to harden them. They choose to believe in goodness, because they have seen first-hand why compassion is so necessary. They have seen first-hand why tenderness is so important in this world.
BIANCA SPARACINO
TOUCH ME, PLEASE?
Hugging is an effective cure for the blues. Our skin-pores are places for messages of love. FOUR hugs a day are needed for survival … EIGHT hugs a day are needed for maintenance … TWELVE hugs a day are needed for growth. So go on: hug somebody, and watch ‘em grow!
DON’T RUIN IT!
The reality is …
None of us is easy to live with.
We all suffer from something.
We all have attitudes which
are a turn-off to different people …
So if you meet someone
who’s willing to stay committed to
understanding you and
actually wants to grow with
you …
DON’T LET LAME NONSENSE
LIKE PRIDE
RUIN IT …
ALLEY-CAT OF HEAVEN
I did not mean to be a Christian. I have been very clear about that. My first words upon encountering the presence of Jesus for the first time 12 years ago, were, I swear to God, “I would rather die!” I really would have rather died at that point than to have my wonderful brilliant left-wing non-believer friends know that I had begun to love Jesus.
But I never felt like I had much choice; he was relentless. I didn’t experience him so much as the hound of heaven (as the old description has it) as the alley cat of heaven, who seemed to believe that if it just keeps showing up, mewling outside your door, you’d eventually open up and give him a bowl of milk. Of course, as soon as you do … the next thing you know, he’s sleeping on your bed every night, and stepping on your chest at dawn to play a little push-push.
I resisted as long as I could, like Sam-I-Am in ‘Green Eggs and Ham’ –
I would not, could not in a boat!
I could not, would not with a goat!
I do not want to follow Jesus,
I just want expensive cheeses …
Or something.
Anyway, he wore me out! He won! I was tired and vulnerable, and I let him in …
ANNE LAMOTT
SORT IT OUT …
If
you
don’t
heal
what
hurt
you
you’ll bleed on people who
didn’t cut you.
CAN YOU HEAR IT …?
The more faithfully
you listen to
the
voice
within
you,
the better you
hear what is
sounding outside of you.
DAG HAMMARSKJOL
MAKING A DIFFERENCE
I have one life and one chance to make it count for something. My faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can, for as long as I can with whatever I have to try to make a difference.
JIMMY CARTER – 39TH U.S. PRESIDENT
LET THEM THINK YOU’RE CRAZY!
Do something unusual.
Be an experimenter.
Meet new people.
Try new experiences.
Let people think you’re crazy.
Wear a funny hat.
Put your shirt on backwards.
Hug a tree.
Fly a kite.
Wear a button.
Jog in triangles.
Go for a long walk in your bare feet.
Poke some holes in your rigidity.
This is not a time to be timid.
Take a chance – it’s WORTH it!
TIM HANSEL – ‘WHEN I RELAX I FEEL GUILTY’
