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Expect to have hope rekindled.
Expect
your prayers to be answered in wondrous
ways. The dry
seasons in life do not last.
The spring rains will come
again.
Sarah Ban Breathnach
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A
human life has seasons much as the earth has seasons, each time
with its own
particular beauty and power. And gift.
By focusing on
springtime and summer, we
have turned the natural process of
life
into a process of loss rather than a process
of celebration and
appreciation. Life is neither linear nor stagnant. It is movement
from mystery to mystery. Just as a year includes autumn
and winter,
life includes
death, not as an opposite but as
an integral part of the way life is made.
Rachel
Naomi Remen
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If we had no winter, the spring would not
be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would
not be so welcome.
Anne Bradstreet
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Your pain is
the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.
Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart
may stand in the sun, so must you know pain. And could you
keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your
life, your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy;
And you would accept the seasons of your heart, even as you
have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields.
And you would watch with serenity through the winters of
your grief.
Khalil Gibran
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Spring passes and one remembers one's
innocence.
Summer passes and one remembers one's exuberance.
Autumn passes and one remembers one's reverence.
Winter passes and one remembers one's perseverance.
Yoko Ono
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The seasons are what a symphony ought to be:
four perfect movements in harmony with each other.
Artur
Rubenstein
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My
life is fruitful and abundant. Just as the earth has its
cycles and
seasons, so, too, our own lives have times of planting, times of
growth
and times of harvest. So much of my frustration comes from
my refusal
to accept life's seasons as they come to me. . . . Not all
seasons lie
serene in the sun, yet each has its place. As I ask to be
attuned to life's
cycles, I feel my anxiety slipping away. I rest in the
faith that all is
unfolding according to right timing. I am where I should
be when I
should be. I am alert to the good of every moment.
Julia Cameron
Transitions: Prayers and
Declarations for a Changing Life |
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The heart's seasons
seldom coincide
with the calendar. Who among us has
not been made desolate beyond all
words upon some golden day when the
little creatures of the air and meadow
were life incarnate, from sheer joy of
living? Who among us has not come
home, singing, when the streets were
almost impassable with snow, or met
a friend with a happy, smiling face,
in the midst of a pouring rain?
Myrtle Reed
Old Rose and Silver
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In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in
winter enjoy.
William Blake |
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People fight
for a new conception of life and God, as they
fight to plant seeds in the spring: because they know that
is
the only way to harvest. If after harvest there is winter
again,
what does it matter? It is just seasonable.
D.H. Lawrence |
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Like the seeds dreaming beneath the snow your
heart dreams of spring.
Khalil Gibran |
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You have
noticed that everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that
is because the Power of the World always works in circles, and
everything
tries to be round. The Sky is round, and I have heard that
the earth is
round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind, in its
greatest power,
whirls. Birds make their nest in circles, for theirs is the same
religion as
ours. . . .
Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and
always
come back again to where they were. The life of a human is a
circle
from
childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where
power moves.
Black
Elk
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A
person's character and their garden both reflect the
amount of weeding that was done during the growing season.
unattributed |
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Youth
is like spring, an over-praised season more remarkable for
biting winds than genial breezes. Autumn is the mellower season,
and what we lose in flowers we more than gain in fruits.
Samuel Butler |
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Even if today may seem to be a time of total
darkness, it will not last
forever. The dawn will surely come if you advance, ever
forward,
without being defeated. The day will definitely come when
you can
look back fondly and declare, "I am savoring this happiness
because
I struggled back then." It is those who know the
bitterness
of winter that can savor the true joy of spring.
Daisaku Ikeda
Buddhism
Day by Day |
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Live
each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink,
taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each.
Henry David Thoreau |
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The
sun shines in different ways in winter and summer.
We shine in different ways in the seasons of our lives.
Terri Guillemets |
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Every
new season of your life will be an opportunity for you
to learn and grow. Don't celebrate the good without
celebrating the bad because they both work together
to prepare you for the next season of your life.
Theresa Lewis |
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There was an Indian
Chief who had four sons and he wanted his sons to learn
not to judge things too quickly. So he sent them
each on a quest, in turn, to go and look at a pear tree
that was a great distance away.
The first son went in the
winter, the second in the spring, the third in summer
and the youngest son in the autumn.
A year later, when they had all
gone and come back, he called them together to describe
what they had seen.
The first son said that the
pear tree was ugly, bent, and twisted.
The second son said no, the
pear tree was covered with green buds and full of
promise.
The third son disagreed; he
said the pear tree was laden with blossoms that smelled
so sweet and looked so beautiful, it was the most
graceful thing he had ever seen.
The last son disagreed with all
of them; he said the pear tree was ripe and drooping
with fruit, full of life and fulfillment.
The Indian Chief then explained
to his sons that they were all right, because they had
each seen but only one season in the tree's life.
He then told them that they
cannot judge a tree, or a person, by only one season and
that the essence of who they are and the pleasure, joy
and Love that come from life can only be measured in the
end, when all the seasons are up.
If you give up when it's
winter, you will no doubt miss the promise of your
spring, the beauty of your summer and the fulfillment of
your autumn.
unattributed |
|
|
|
quotations
- contents
-
welcome
page
-
obstacles
our
current e-zine
-
the
people behind the words
-
articles
and excerpts
Daily
Meditations, Year One - Year
Two - Year Three
- Year Four
Sign up
for your free daily spiritual or general quotation ~ ~ Sign
up for your free daily meditation
|
|
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As I accepted the change of the golden hair of my
childhood to the
reddish-brown hair of my youth without regret, so I also accept
my
silver hair -- and I am ready to accept the time when my hair
and the
rest of my clay garment returns to the dust from which it came,
while
my spirit goes on to freer living. It is the season for my hair
to be silver,
and each season has its lessons to teach. Each season of life is
wonderful if you have learned the lessons of the season before.
It is
only when you go on with lessons unlearned that you wish for a
return.
Peace Pilgrim |
|
Thinking
Like A Farmer
Jim Rohn
One of the difficulties we face in our industrialized age
is the fact we've
lost our sense of seasons. Unlike
the farmer, whose priorities change with
the seasons, we
have become impervious to the natural rhythm of
life. As a
result, we have our priorities out of
balance. Let me illustrate what I mean:
For a farmer, springtime is his most active time.
It's then when he must work
around the clock, up before
the sun and still toiling at the stroke of midnight.
He must keep his equipment running at full capacity
because he has but a small
window of time for the planting
of his crop. Eventually winter comes
when there is
less for him to do to keep him busy.
There is a lesson here. Learn to use the seasons of
life. Decide when to
pour it on and when to ease
back, when to take advantage and when to let
things
ride. It's easy to keep going from nine to five year
in and year out
and lose a natural sense of priorities and
cycles. Don't let one year blend
into another in a
seemingly endless parade of tasks and responsibilities.
Keep your eye on your own seasons, lest you lose sight of
value and substance.
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No
one can better bask in summer's balm than those who have
endured winter's bite. Similarly, it is those who have
suffered
through life's darkest hours who are able to truly savor the
bright
dawn of happiness. The person who has transformed the
worst of fate into the best of fortune is life's champion.
Daisaku Ikeda
Buddhism
Day by Day |
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Life
is a thing of many stages and moving parts. What we do
with
ease at one time of life we can hardly manage at another.
What we
could not fathom doing when we were young, we find great joy in
when we are old. Like the seasons through which we move,
life
itself is a never-ending series of harvests, a different fruit
for every time.
Joan
Chittister |
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We
all know that if the seasons were the same, there would be no
growth.
We know that without winter there would be no spring. We
know that
without frosts there would be no bulbs and without the monsoon
there
would be no rice harvest. In the same way, we also know
that without
sorrow there would be no joy. Without pain there would be
no healing.
I think that's precisely where the beauty comes in. It
comes in through the
fruit of the seasons. He has indeed made everything
beautiful in its time.
Naomi Reed
My Seventh Monsoon
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Why
do you fear the autumn of life? Aren’t
the red-brown leaves on
the ground just as beautiful as the blossoms on the tree?
Cyril Conolly
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The
natural world teaches us the power of change. As seasons
shift, I see the purpose and beauty of life's cyclicality.
I see the
promise of spring, the ripening of summer, the bounty of harvest
and that mysterious containment of winter. All seasons
work for
the good. So it is, too, with the changing cycles of my
life. As I
surrender to the wisdom of a higher plan, I discover in all
circumstances the opportunity for growth and expansion.
There
is no season in my life that is without worth. There is no
season
in my life that does not unfold my highest good.
Challenged by
difficult times, I consciously choose to affirm
the goodness of life's timing.
Julia Cameron
Transitions: Prayers and
Declarations for a Changing Life
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Every
season is one of becoming, but not always one of blooming.
Be gracious with your ever-evolving self.
B. Oakman |
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Be aware of what
season you are in and give yourself the grace to be there.
Kristen Dalton |
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From
the spiritual side: |
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The
question, "Which is the happiest season of life?" was
asked of an aged man.
And he replied: "When spring comes, and in the soft air the
buds are breaking
on the trees, and they are covered with blossoms, I think, 'How
beautiful is spring';
and when summer comes and covers the trees with its heavy
foliage, and singing birds
are among the branches, I think, 'How beautiful is
summer.' When autumn loads them
with golden fruit, and their leaves bear the gorgeous tint of
frost, I think, 'How
beautiful is autumn.' And when it is severe winter, and
there is neither foliage nor
fruit, then I look up through the leafless branches as I never
could
until now, and see the stars shine in God's home.
unattributed |
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