One-Liner Wednesday: power

“What I believe is always true about power is that power always reveals.”
~~ Robert Caro

Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesday! Find out how here:  http://lindaghill.com/2016/02/03/one-liner-wednesday-you-know-that-feeling/

 

What Is Truly Jihad?

Many people think that the word jihad means terrorism, violence, and killing, but that is a not its true meaning to Islam. Please read this excellent post from Amra Ismail to discover what jihad means and how it is lived daily by Muslims around the world.

Poems Anagram

I know a number of friends will love this!

Saint Francis Prayer

Because I have been (somewhat uncharacteristically) posting every day this month as part of Linda’s Just Jot It January, I have been more proactive than usual in planning my posts. I had a topic picked out for today and had written most of the post in my head.

Then, today happened.

My mom asked me this morning if I could send her a copy of the Prayer of Saint Francis, which a friend who recently passed away had chosen for her prayer card. I wrote a note to remind myself to do it and set out on a day of errands, a meeting, and an appointment.

I wasn’t expecting it, but it became a day when human needs for peace, love, compassion, healing, strength, and joy were placed before me again and again.

The best that I can hope to offer is to share the words of the Saint Francis Peace Prayer, which, while it is a Christian prayer, can also speak in large measure to people regardless of their belief system.

Prayer of Saint Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,
Grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled, as to console;
To be understood, as to understand;
To be loved, as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Shared for my mom, for Wilhelmina, and for all those in need of any of the gifts that Francis calls for in this prayer.

In peace,
Joanne
*****
To join Just Jot It January, visit here:   http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/28/just-jot-it-january-28th-serendipity/

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here.

One-Liner(ish) Wednesday: outsider

“The ability to respect the outsider is probably the litmus test of true seeing.”
~ Richard Rohr

During this time of tensions, if not outright hostility, between some individuals and groups that they deem as “outsiders” due to differences of race, ethnicity, religion, ideology, gender expression, etc., this quote is especially meaningful. It reminds me to show respect for everyone, even when disagreeing on fact or principle with their viewpoint.
~ JC

Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesday! Find out how here:  http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/27/one-liner-wednesday-it-really-sucks/

This is also part of Linda’s Just Jot It January. Visit here:  http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/27/just-jot-it-january-27th-mendaciloquent/

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here.

SoCS: an even keel

It’s hard to be on an even keel when the water is choppy and there are rocks and storms and all manner of unexpected happenings.

There is an old saying/blessing/curse, “May you live in interesting times.”

Times in both the public and private sphere are definitely interesting.

Is it odd to wish that, at least once in a while, things were on an even keel instead?
*****
Join us for Linda’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday! This week’s prompt was odd and/or even. Find out more here: http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/22/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-jan-2316/

It is also part of Linda’s Just Jot It January! Visit here to find out more:  http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/23/just-jot-it-january-23rd-oddeven-socs/

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here and join in today.

One-Liner(ish) Wednesday: Mary Oliver on poetry

“Poetry is a life-cherishing force, for poems are not words, after all, but fires for the coal, ropes let down to the lost, something as necessary as bread for the hungry.”
— Mary Oliver

I love this quote on poetry. One of the greatest compliments I have received as a poet was being told that one of my poems reminded someone of Mary Oliver.

Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out how here:  http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/20/one-liner-wednesday-its-not-what-you-think-2/

I am double-dipping this week with Linda’s Just Jot It January, hence, the uncharacteristic commentary on the one-liner quote. Find out more here:  http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/20/just-jot-it-january-20th-surreptitiously/

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here and join in today.

One-Liner Wednesday: criticism

The best criticism of the bad is the practice of the better.
— Richard Rohr

Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out how here:  http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/06/one-liner-wednesday-enough-said/

This post is also part of #JusJoJan. http://lindaghill.com/2016/01/06/just-jot-it-january-6th-cloud/  I know that the majority of JusJoJan participants this year are doing the daily prompts, but I have been opting to do my own thing, which is the general operating procedure at Top of JC’s Mind, so I decided to follow the original plan which was to count One-Liner Wednesday as my daily JusJoJan post.

 

One-Liner Wednesday: Writing

“Life is what makes it possible for you to write at all.”
— Patricia Skarda, professor emerita of English language and literature at Smith College, recalled by alumna Sarah Collins Honenberger ’74, when she complained to Pat that life was getting in the way of her writing (Smith Alumnae Quarterly, Volume 101, #3)

Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out how here:  http://lindaghill.com/2015/12/30/one-liner-wednesday-this-is-irony/.