Poem: Light the Festive Candles

Light the first of eight tonight—
the farthest candle to the right.

Light the first and second, too,
when tomorrow's day is through.

Then light three, and then light four—
every dusk one candle more

Till all eight burn bright and high,
honoring a day gone by

When the Temple was restored,
rescued from the Syrian lord,

And an eight-day feast proclaimed—
The Festival of Lights—well named

To celebrate the joyous day
when we regained the right to pray
to our one God in our own way.

                        Alicia Lucia Fisher 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All we need is love. . .

Love alone is capable of uniting living beings
in such a way as to complete and fulfill them,
for it alone takes them and joins them
by what is deepest in themselves.
All we need is to imagine our ability to love
developing until it embraces the totality of men and the earth.

        Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Phenomenon of Man 

 

 

 

 

One definition

Our word "idiot" comes from the Greek name
        for the man who took no share in public matters.

                Edith Hamilton,The Greek Way to Western Civilization

 

 

 

 

Waiting

 It is said to await certainty is to await eternity.

        Jonas Salk, Patenting the Sun: Polio and the Salk Vaccine 

 

 

 

 

 

To be a voice, to be responsible

There is immense silent agony in the world, and the task of man is to be a voice for the plundered poor, to prevent the desecration of the soul and the violation of our dream of honesty.

The more deeply immersed I became in the thinking of the prophets, the more powerfully it became clear to me what the lives of the Prophets sought to convey: that morally speaking, there is no limit to the concern one must feel for the suffering of human beings, that indifference to evil is worse than evil itself, that in a free society, some are guilty, but all are responsible.

Abraham Joshua Heschel,  The Reasons for My Involvement in the Peace Movement

 

 

 

 

Force of habit

You get used to everything. 

No human force, not even fear, is stronger than habit.

    Michel Houellebecq, The New York Times, November 2015

 

 

 

 

 

Conquering anxiety

If you want to conquer the anxiety of life,
        live in the moment, live in the breath.

                 Amit Ray, OM Chanting and Meditation