Sunday Sustenance

“Affection is responsible for nine-tenths of whatever solid and durable happiness there is in our lives.”

- C.S. Lewis

Sunday Sustenance

“The most wonderful of all things in life is the discovery of another human being with whom one’s relationship has a growing depth, beauty and joy as the years increase. This inner progressiveness of love between two human beings is a most marvelous thing; it cannot be found by looking for it or by passionately wishing for it. It is a sort of divine accident, and the most wonderful of all things in life.”

- Sir Hugh Walpole

Sunday Sustenance

“Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less.”

- C.S. Lewis

Sunday Sustenance

"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

Sunday Sustenance

"What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only consequence is what we do."

- John Ruskin

Sunday Sustenance

"Every single person has at least one secret that would break your heart. If we could just remember this, I think there would be a lot more compassion and tolerance in the world."

- Frank Warren

 

 

Sunday Sustenance

"Charity is, perhaps, in many ways a misunderstood word. We often equate charity with visiting the sick, taking in casseroles to those in need, or sharing our excess with those who are less fortunate. But really, true charity is much, much more.

Real charity is not something you give away; it is something that you acquire and make a part of yourself. And when the virtue of charity becomes implanted in your heart, you are never the same again. It makes the thought of being a basher repulsive.

Perhaps the greatest charity comes when we are kind to each other, when we don’t judge or categorize someone else, when we simply give each other the benefit of the doubt or remain quiet. Charity is accepting someone’s differences, weaknesses, and shortcomings; having patience with someone who has let us down; or resisting the impulse to become offended when someone doesn’t handle something the way we might have hoped. Charity is refusing to take advantage of another’s weakness and being willing to forgive someone who has hurt us. Charity is expecting the best of each other."

- Marvin J. Ashton

 

 

Sunday Sustenance

“Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. That is just being ‘in love’ which any of us can convince ourselves we are.

Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Your mother and I had it, we had roots that grew towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossom had fallen from our branches we found that we were one tree and not two.”

- Louis De Bernieres

Sunday Sustenance

“This is what you shall do: love the earth and sun, and animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence towards the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown, or to any man or number of men; go freely with the powerful uneducated persons, and with the young, and mothers, of families: read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life: re-examine all you have been told at school or church, or in any books, and dismiss whatever insults your soul.”

- Walt Whitman

Sunday Sustenance

“It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new.  But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful.  There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power.”

- Alan Cohen

 

Sunday Sustenance

“Sometimes we strive so much to be who we want to be that we miss who we are.”

- Traci Paxton Johnson

 

 

Sunday Sustenance

“May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you’re wonderful, and don’t forget to make some art — write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.”

- Neil Gaiman

 

 

Sunday Sustenance

 

“Things that matter most must never be at the mercy of things that matter least.”

- Goethe

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 

Sunday Sustenance

"Of all the things for which I feel grateful, one stands [above all the others]. That is a living testimony of Jesus Christ, the Son of the Almighty God, the Prince of Peace, the Holy One...

Jesus is my friend. He is my exemplar. He is my teacher. He is my healer. He is my leader. He is my Savior and my Redeemer. He is my God and my King.

Gratefully, and with love, I bear witness of these things."

- Gordon B. Hinckley

Merry Christmas!

Sunday Sustenance

"We all enjoy giving and receiving presents.  But there is a difference between presents and gifts.  The true gifts may be part of ourselves - giving of the riches of the heart and mind - and therefore more enduring and of far greater worth than presents bought at the store."

- James E. Faust

Sunday Sustenance

"Learn to enjoy every minute of your life.  Be happy now.  Don’t wait for something outside of yourself to make you happy in the future.  Think how really precious is the time you have to spend, whether it’s at work or with your family."

- Earl Nightingale

 

Sunday Sustenance

“One of the things I learned the hard way was that it doesn’t pay to get discouraged.  Keeping busy and making optimism a way of life can restore your faith in yourself.”

- Lucille Ball

 

Sunday Sustenance

"Gratitude is the memory of the heart."

- Jean Massieu

Happy Thanksgiving!

One of my ancestors, Thomas Rogers, was among those who traveled here on the Mayflower.

An excerpt from the Thomas Rogers Society site:

“Governor Bradford says in his history of the Plymouth settlement that on board the Mayflower were ‘Thomas Rogers and Joseph his son; his other children came afterwards......Thomas Rogers died in the first sickness but his son Joseph is still living (1650) and is married and hath six children. The rest of Thomas Rogers' [children] came over and are married and have many children.’ Therefore we know that Thomas and his son Joseph arrived at Cape Cod aboard the ship Mayflower and on 11 November 1620 according to their calendar, or 21 November on ours, Thomas was one of forty-one signers of the Mayflower Compact. Thomas did not live through the rigorous winter which carried off half the group but young Joseph, like so many of the children, did survive.”

I’m so grateful for Thomas Rogers’s convictions…  for being brave enough to leave everything behind to seek the freedom to worship as he pleased.

I’m also grateful for and humbled by the many blessings that I enjoy – family, faith, shelter, food, health, friends, freedom… the list is never-ending.  I am unbelievably fortunate and blessed.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sunday Sustenance

"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them."

- John F. Kennedy