Creative Resolution ~ Mary Lou Leavitt

"Living out a witness to peace has to do with everyday choices about the work we do, the relationships we build, what part we take in politics, what we buy, how we raise our children. It is a matter of fostering relationships and structures—from personal to international—which are strong and healthy enough to contain conflict when it arises and allow its creative resolution. "

Mary Lou Leavitt

More at  http://hayquaker1.blogspot.com/2010/11/weapons-that-heal-mary-lou-leavitt.html

Storms Endured ~ Hermann Hesse

"For me, trees have always been the most penetrating preachers. I revere them when they live in tribes and families, in forests and groves. And even more I revere them when they stand alone. They are like lonely persons. Not like hermits who have stolen away out of some weakness, but like great, solitary men, like Beethoven and Nietzsche. In their highest boughs the world rustles, their roots rest in infinity; but they do not lose themselves there, they struggle with all the force of their lives for one thing only: to fulfil themselves according to their own laws, to build up their own form, to represent themselves. Nothing is holier, nothing is more exemplary than a beautiful, strong tree. When a tree is cut down and reveals its naked death-wound to the sun, one can read its whole history in the luminous, inscribed disk of its trunk: in the rings of its years, its scars, all the struggle, all the suffering, all the sickness, all the happiness and prosperity stand truly written, the narrow years and the luxurious years, the attacks withstood, the storms endured. And every young farmboy knows that the hardest and noblest wood has the narrowest rings, that high on the mountains and in continuing danger the most indestructible, the strongest, the ideal trees grow. 


 Hermann Hesse

Read more at http://earthmamasweb.wordpress.com/2007/02/25/trees-an-excerpt-from-wanderings-by-herman-hesse/

Increase our Hope ~ John Calvin

"We should ask God to increase our hope when it is small, awaken it when it is dormant, confirm it when it is wavering, strengthen it when it is weak, and raise it up when it is overthrown." 

— John Calvin

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

Things We Can Do ~ Hermann Hesse

"To hold our tongues when everyone is gossiping, to smile without hostility at people and institutions, to compensate for the shortage of love in the world with more love in small, private matters; to be more faithful in our work, to show greater patience, to forgo the cheap revenge obtainable from mockery and criticism: all these are things we can do. "

~Hermann Hesse

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

Artwork from Joseph Edward Southall
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Southall

Dark Moments— Nelson Mandela

"I am fundamentally an optimist. Whether that comes from nature or nurture, I cannot say. Part of being optimistic is keeping one's head pointed toward the sun, one's feet moving forward. There were many dark moments when my faith in humanity was sorely tested, but I would not and could not give myself up to despair. That way lays defeat and death." 

— Nelson Mandela

More at  http://www.nelsonmandela.org/index.php

We are all Various ~ Elias Hicks

"And the law of God is written in every heart, and it is there that he manifests himself; And in infinite love, according to our necessities, states, conditions. And as we are all various and different from one another, more or less, so the law by the immediate operation of divine grace in the soul, is suited to every individual according to his condition."  - Elias Hicks

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

The Wrong Names ~ William Penn

"We are inclined to call things by the wrong names. We call prosperity 'happiness', and adversity 'misery' eventhough adversity is the school of wisdom and often the way to eternal happiness."  - William Penn

More at  http://xroads.virginia.edu/~cap/penn/pnintro.html