windshepherd

Fate whispered to the warrior, “You cannot withstand the storm.” The warrior whispered back, “I am the storm!”

–– posted at the employee entrance to the 4E COVID unit

“The doors of hell are locked on the inside.”
–– C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain

“The role of the ally is not to lead or to fix. The ally holds the story and amplifies the voice of the storyteller.”
– Rev. Traci Blackmon, United Church of Christ, Executive Minister of Justice and Witness Ministries

Once to every man and nation, comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of truth with falsehood, for the good or evil side;
Some great cause, some great decision, offering each the bloom or blight,
And the choice goes by forever, ’twixt that darkness and that light…

Though the cause of evil prosper, yet the truth alone is strong;
Though her portion be the scaffold, and upon the throne be wrong;
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above His own.

– “Once to Every Man and Nation,” James Russell Lowell, 1845, sung at the memorial service of Rev. Dr. Don Orander

“People were created to be loved. Things were created to be used. The reason why the world is in chaos is because things are being loved and people are being used.”
– The Dalai Lama

“Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils.”
– Louis Hector Berlioz, French composer, conductor and music critic (1803 – 1869)

“He was a maker of life, and death does not suit him.”
– Jansheed Akrami commenting on the death of his friend, the Iranian film-maker Abbas Kiarostami, on BBC World News

“The general knowledge of time on the island depends, curiously enough, on the direction of the wind.”
– Edmund John Millington Synge (1871–1909), The Aran Islands, 1907

“Every man is a musical instrument, and his life is a melody, a happy or mournful melody.”
– attributed to the Rebbe of Nemirov, from “Who Acquires His Servants in Judgement,” a Chassidic tale

“Remember, when God wanted us to know that we were loved, God gave us the gift of being incarnate – really being here, in the flesh … showing up matters.”
– Rev. Sue Foster of East Woodstock Congregational Church, quoted at newsacred.org on January 29, 2016