So we must learn, in this twisted age, that the ultimate therapy is to identify our own pain with the pain of others, and then band together to resist the conditions that create our common malady...As we learn to see our own plight in the lives of our brothers and sisters we will begin to find health. Therapy involves identifying and building communities of concern. Only so can we heal ourselves.
~ from 40 DAY JOURNEY WITH PARKER PALMER, edited by Henry F. French
Blessed are the men and women who are planted on Your earth in Your garden, Who grow as Your trees and flowers grow, who transform their darkness to light. Their roots plunge into darkness; their faces turn toward the light. All those who love You are beautiful; they overflow with Your presence so that they can do nothing but good. There is infinite space in Your garden; all men, all women are welcome here; all they need do is enter.
You ask why I make my home in the mountain forest,
And I smile, and am silent,
And even my soul remains quiet:
It lives in the other world
Which no one owns.
The peach trees blossom.
The water flows.
