31 May - Quotidian Quotations

"(I)f we want to save our lives, we cannot cling to them but must spend them with abandon.When we are obsessed with bottom lines and productivity, with efficiency of time and motion, with the rational relation of means and ends, with projecting reasonable goals and making a beeline toward them, it seems unlikely that our work will ever bear full fruit, unlikely that we will ever know the fullness of spring in our lives."

- Parker J. Palmer

30 May - Quotidian Quotations

"In the theater of man's life, it is reserved only for gods and angels to be lookers-on."

- Pythagoras, philosopher & mathematician

Note from Julie: I'm glad our God is not a mere looker-on, but an active participant in the world and in our lives.

May 29 - Quotidian Quotations

"(E)ach time a door closes, the rest of the world opens up. All we need to do is stop pounding on the door that just closed, turn around - which puts the door behind us - and welcome the largeness of life that now lies open to our souls. The door that closed kept us from entering a room, but what now lies before us is the rest of reality."

- Parker J. Palmer

This reminds me of something from the Bible, when we close our door to self and open the door to God:

"By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us—set us right with him, make us fit for him—we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus. And that's not all: We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide open spaces of God's grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise."

- Romans 5, The Message version
Amen!

May 28 - Quotidian Quotations

A quote on travel today, as we await guests' arrival from afar:

"Travel has a way of stretching the mind. The stretch comes not from travel's immediate rewards, the inevitable myriad new sights, smells and sounds, but with experiencing firsthand how others do differently what we believed to be the right and only way."

- Ralph Crawshaw, writer

May 26 - Quotidian Quotations

Welcome back to Quotidian Quotations! We're back from our travels and resuming our quotes with one from the book of Hebrews (anonymous author) in the Bible:

"Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,
'Never will I leave you;
never will I forsake you.'"