"You asked what I came into the world to do.
I came to live out loud."
Emile Zola

May the witnesses to your life be fill

Life's a Great Balancing Act, says Dr. Suess in 'Oh, the Places You'll Go'.
I agree.

"You'll get mixed up, of course,
as you already know.
You'll get mixed up
with many strange birds as you go.
So be sure when you step.
Step with care and great tact
and remember Life's a Great Balancing Act.
Just never forget to be dextrous and deft
And never mix your right foot with your left."

May your balancing pole gift you blessings and grace.

"Our attitude toward life determines life's attitude towards us."
Earl Nightingale

May your attitude toward life bless you abundantly.

There comes a time when we must define (or re-define) our image of God,
and perhaps our relationship with the divine.
Jan Phillips suggests,

"God is the creative force behind all things.
It's invisible, but you are the manifestation of it.  
The Sistine Chapel should have been a mirror.
You are the eyes, the hands, the feet of that creative force.
That energy is in you.
It's called your breath.
Don't think there's some man out there pulling strings.
Grow up!
This civilization-if you can call it that-is YOUR creation.
This earth, it is not a bunch of resources to be exploited.
It is not to be owned.
It is your mother, the womb that you sprang from.
You are its consciousness, its neural cells.
The whole earth is the organism that you belong to.
You did not come down to earth, you came up from earth.
Its well-being is in your hands.
Can you be proud of what you're doing?
Are you going to be the ones who kill it off, after all that talk about pro-life?
We're like the physical form of the same energy.
The ice cube version of water or steam. Same elements, different form. The sea and the iceberg. You're all icebergs in the Sea of God.
But the problem is you don't realize that underneath it all, you're all connected.
There's just one big iceberg with a lot of tips.
The truth is, you're Creation continuing the co-creation of Itself."

May we be filled with grace as we re-define and re-image God.

"Every individual matters.
Every individual has a role to play.
Every individual makes a difference."
Jane Goodall

Let's be grateful for all that we are.
Let's be grateful for all that we have.
Let's be grateful for all that we can do.
Let's share it with others.

Let us bless others from the foundation of our gratitude.

"People don't step forward in order to support greed or egotists,
or to benefit faceless entities, such as shareholders.
Meaning is the most powerful motivator of human behaviour.
People gain energy and resolve if they understand
how their work contributes to something beyond themselves."
Margaret Wheatley

May we be blessed as we contribute to our world.

I agree with Karen Armstrong when she writes,

"The spiritual life cannot begin until
people allow themselves to be invaded
by the reality of suffering,
and how fully it permeates our whole experience,
and feel the pain of other beings,
even those to whom we do not feel congenial."

In his poem, 'Clouds', Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote;

"I silently laugh at my own cenotaph,
And out  of the caverns of rain
Like  a child from the womb, like a ghost from the tomb,
I arise and unbuild it again."

He is speaking of rebirth;
of the cycle of building and unbuilding;
of creation and destruction;
of vitality and mortality;
of hope.

We participate in this cycle whether we choose to or not.
Even the simple act of sleeping is a time of unbuilding and rebuilding.

Let us enter into this process with gratitude as a cornerstone. We will be richly blessed.

"No matter how thin you slice it,
there are always two sides."

It is very humbling to try and look carefully, appreciatively, attentively,
at both sides of an issue. We get a privileged opportunity to walk in another's shoes.
Sacred ground.

Let us walk on sacred ground today ... we will be richly blessed.

An African proverb says,
"The blessing lies next to the wound."

Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish between them.
Sometimes one overpowers the other.
But we must name each wound and each blessing.
We need to welcome them, talk with them.
And we must thank them for being a part of our life.
And we must let them hurt; let them

Walk, today, with the daughters of life: wound and blessing.