Walk by Yourself ~ Boris Pasternak

“Everything had changed suddenly--the tone, the moral climate; you didn't know what to think, whom to listen to. As if all your life you had been led by the hand like a small child and suddenly you were on your own, you had to learn to walk by yourself. There was no one around, neither family nor people whose judgment you respected. At such a time you felt the need of committing yourself to something absolute--life or truth or beauty--of being ruled by it in place of the man-made rules that had been discarded. You needed to surrender to some such ultimate purpose more fully, more unreservedly than you had ever done in the old familiar, peaceful days, in the old life that was now abolished and gone for good.”

―  Boris Pasternak

More at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_Pasternak

Artwork by Edvard Munch http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edvard_Munch

“She’s Quaker” ~ Veronica Nicholson

"Around sixth or seventh grade I remember discussing religion with a friend. We were in the backseat of her car and her mother, who was driving, politely asked me if I attended any type of Christian services. Before I could answer, my friend’s sister, sitting in the front seat, casually interjected, “She’s Quaker,” before continuing to suck up the remnants of her Slurpee. I shifted uncomfortably in my seat and tried my best to hide a frown of irritation. Why would she be so quick to answer such a personal question for me? More importantly, who told her? I assume it had been her younger sister, my friend, but it reinforced an existing feeling that I was a walking anachronism."

~ Veronica Nicholson

Read more at http://www.nassauweekly.com/growing-up-quaker/

Artwork by Roy Lichtenstein http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Lichtenstein

Anything that Needs Walls ~ Marcus Aurelius

"Think nothing profitable to you which compels you to break a promise, to lose your self respect, to hate any person, to suspect, to curse, to act the hypocrite, to desire anything that needs walls and curtains about it."

~Marcus Aurelius

More at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Aurelius

Artwork Lindsay Knight Lynch http://lindsayknightlynch.weebly.com/index.html

What One Is ~ Albert E. Day

"When one begins to practice simplicity, the ego is deprived of the very strategy by which it sustains itself. Nothing will deflate the ego more effectively than to be recognized for what it is.  It lives by pretension. It dies when the mask is torn away and the stark reality is exposed to the gaze of others.  Simplicity also avails in braking the tyranny of things. Ostentation, artificiality, ornamentation, pretentious style, luxury--all require things.  One requires few things to be one's self, one's age, and one's moral, intellectual, or spiritual stature.  What one is does not depend on what one has.

Albert E. Day

More at  http://dochr.org/about-us/our-founder/

Artwork by Laura Lee Cundiff  http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/laura-lee-cundiff.html

Where Truth Abides ~ Robert Browning

"Truth is within ourselves; it takes no rise
From outward things, whate’er you may believe.
There is an inmost centre in us all,
Where truth abides in fullness; and around,
Wall upon wall, the gross flesh hems it in,  
This perfect, clear perception—which is truth.
A baffling and perverting carnal mesh
Binds it, and makes all error: and, to know,
Rather consists in opening out a way
Whence the imprisoned splendour may escape,
Than in effecting entry for a light
Supposed to be without."

~ Robert Browning

More at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Browning

Artwork Salvador Dali http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvador_Dal%C3%AD

Composting Spirituality ~ Craig Barnett

"It is one of the strange aspects of our industrial civilisation that we tend to see scientific knowledge as opposed to spirituality (a point of view shared by religious fundamentalism and militant atheists alike). A society and culture that is capable of living within ecological limits, that encourages and enables the flourishing of humans and other species, will surely need to teach its children to understand scientific processes, but also to reflect with awe and imagination on their significance and ethical consequences.

When we collect kitchen scraps for compost we are teaching our children about a biological process of decomposition and nutrient cycling, but also participating in a 'spiritual practice'; renewing the fertility of the soil in the same process through which we will one day be recycled into the flow of nutrients to become part of the atmosphere, the seas, and the living world."

~  Craig Barnett

More at
http://transitionquaker.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/spirituality-of-compost.html

Artwork from Cari Vander Yacht
https://carivanderyacht.com/

Purpose Becomes Meaning ~ Geoffrey Durham

"I don’t know about you, but I have had experiences in Quaker worship that have been electrifying. And they have almost always been the result of a realization that, in that moment, meaning and purpose have become the same thing. At the time that I was talking to those colleagues, I thought I was going to Quaker meetings to understand myself better, to achieve religious insights for myself, to give myself meaning. I was looking for a sort of spiritual cushion. And I found it, I suppose, because I kept coming, but what I didn't know was that the cushion would turn out also, at exactly the same time, to be a springboard. It is a ridiculous image, I know, but it is true for me, because as a result of some unnameable spiritual process, what happens to me in worship is that I discover that the meaning I've been looking for is to be found in getting out of the meeting house and doing something with and for someone else. So meaning becomes purpose and purpose becomes meaning, and I can’t tell the difference between the two, and it doesn't matter. Because what love requires of me is that I simply go where I’m pushed. We sometimes call it faith in action. I think of it as worship in action."

~ Geoffrey Durham

More at http://www.nayler.org/?p=565

A Simple Lifestyle ~ Baltimore Yearly Meeting

"Simplicity flows from well-ordered living. It is less a matter of doing without, than a spiritual quality that simplifies our lives by putting first things first. A simple way of life, freely chosen, is a source of strength, joy, and comfort. Friends are advised to strive for simplicity in the use of our earnings and property, and in our style of living, choosing that which is simple and useful. This does not mean that life is to be poor and bare, destitute of joy and beauty. Each must determine, by the Light that is given, what promotes and what hinders the compelling search for inner peace that enables us to listen deeply to God."

~ Baltimore Yearly Meeting

More at ‎http://www.bym-rsf.org/publications/fandp/home.html

Artwork from Helen Brown ~http://www.helensprints.co.uk/galleries