Inspirational verse and art

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove:

O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark,

That looks upon tempests and is never shaken.

Shakespeare Sonnet CXVI

“When you have come to the edge

of all light that you know

And are about to drop off

into the darkness of the unknown,

Faith is knowing one of two things will happen:

There will be something solid to stand on

Or you will be taught to fly” - Patrick Overton

Come to the edge, he said.

They said: We are afraid.

Come to the edge, he said.

They came.

He pushed them...and they flew.

- Guillaume Apollinaire

Love is what we are born with.

Fear is what we have learned here.

The spiritual journey

is the unlearning of fear

and the acceptance of love

back into our hearts.

Marianne Williamson

We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time.

T.S. Eliot

When love beckons to you follow him,

Though his ways are hard and steep.

And when his wings enfold you yield to him,

Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.

And when he speaks to you believe in him,

Though his voice may shatter your dreams

as the north wind lays waste the garden.

For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you.

Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.

Even as he ascends to your height

and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,

So shall he descend to your roots

and shake them in their clinging to the earth.

Kahil Gibran

To be a star,

you must shine your own light,

follow your own path,

and don't worry about the darkness,

for that is when the stars shine brightest

"God speaks to each of us as he makes us

then walks with us silently out of the night.

These are the words we dimly hear:

You, sent out beyond your recall, to go the limits

of your longing. Embody me. Flare up like flame

and make big shadows I can move in.

Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.

Just keep going.

No feeling is final.

Don't let yourself lose me.

Nearby is the country they call life.

You will know it by its seriousness.

Give me your hand."

-Ranier Maria Rilke

Beauty is life when life unveils her holy face.

But you are life and you are the veil.

Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror.

But you are eternity and you are the mirror.

Among the hills, when you sit in the cool shade of the white poplars,

sharing the peace and serenity of distant fields and meadows -

then let your heart say in silence, "God rests in reason."

And when the storm comes, and the mighty wind shakes the forest,

and thunder and lightning proclaim the majesty of the sky, -

then let your heart say in awe, "God moves in passion."

And since you are a breath In God's sphere,

and a leaf in God's forest,

you too should rest in reason and move in passion.

People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered;

Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;

Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies;

Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and sincere, people may deceive you;

Be honest and sincere anyway.

What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight;

Create anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous;

Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, will often be forgotten;

Do good anyway.

Give the best you have, and it may never be enough;

Give the best anyway.

In the final analysis, it is between you and God;

It was never between you and them anyway.

Mother Teresa