Every time I arrange fresh flowers, I choose the blossoms from my garden and the vase from my shelf so that color and form complement each other. Four days later, I see the vermilion rose is developing a silver sheen that would be enhanced in pewter. I choose a new vase; I honor the aging; I create a new form. Just as order and beauty are crucial to a floral arrangement, so order and beauty are necessary for the well-being of my soul. They mirror each other.
~ Marion Woodman in HANDBOOK OF THE SOUL by R. Carlson and B. Shield
A true artist directs readers back to themselves, helps them to discover within their inexhaustible riches. No one can be saved or cured other than through their own efforts. The remedy is Faith.
Once there was a great bombing, and I had my baby sister with me. I had Maria on my back and I was running back home, but I could not breathe, I could not swallow. I could not say anything. When I came home, mamika embraced me. She said, "Why are you so frightened?" That was such a balm to me. Her words still live inside me. She said, "All of us will meet anyway, even if they kill you. "There was such a strength for me in those moments. Through my mother's calm, unshakeable faith, God came to comfort me.
The enlightened one of God is characterized by profound faith. This faith is a created sharing in divine light, an inward gift of knowledge, the "eye of love," which enables one to apprehend, believe in, and respond to the highest of values. Through faith, the enlightened individual finds the universe friendly with a power, a wisdom, a love that broods at the heart of things and overcomes all evil.
We live by faith, and if from time to time the veil is parted briefly, it is to encourage us for a specific task or to sustain us through a period we couldn't otherwise endure. But it is faith that we stand most in need of. Why did I let faith die? Faith is the great teacher and molder of hearts, the temperer of souls, as gold is tested in fire. When our other strengths fail, there at the base of our empty souls is a mysterious silent wealth. There at the bottom of the barrel is the real strength, not power or resources, not worldly wisdom or a solid defense system, but rather the will to continue to love and to live in faith by the truth.
"Is there enough Silence for the Word to be heard?"
Spring greetings, dear friends!May the March winds blow many blessings into your lives! LISTEN in the Silence to a new world Awakening. With so much negativity seeming to cover our Earth home, it's all too easy for us to become discouraged or apathetic. We may not notice millions of our sisters and brothers around the globe who are in harmony with our aspirations and intentions to "peace the world" together. Light workers are networking ... peace and prayer groups are extending love, forgiveness, and hope ... and, notwithstanding the myriad outward news in the media, signs of Awakening and movement toward a just and more viable life for all are growing. As we focus our spiritual eyes and ears on this, as we listen to our heart's inner Voice of Love, we are blessed, we are peace-keepers. For, Love speaks in the hearts of those who become silent in order to LISTEN.
The more faithfully you listen to the voice within you, the better you will hear what is sounding outside. And only those who listen can speak authentically.
A listening heart is always open, sensitive to the joy and pain of others, offering a space within itself for the other to enter. It gives each person what is so badly needed – an affirmation of their place in this world.
