Many cups, one table

It is Finished?

How Do You Measure Up?

In Remembrance of Me

Crises

When we keep our crises private,

they grow fatter every day,

and then they start to strangle us.

Sobonfu Some

Upon This Rock I Will Build...

The Making of Silver (video)

Knowledge

Knowledge is a bird in a forest: no one on his or her own can ever catch it.

Ewe oral tradition

Society

Life in society is a cosmic mission

Chief of a Central African tribe

This Little Light of Mine

Ritual

There is always something in the self that is either overcompensating, pretending, giving in, or pushing too hard.

The only way one can reach that and move out is through ritual.

Sobonfu Some

Old Age

Thus a person is born to a new life, which shall be their old age. 

And such is their vocation: to become a point of equilibrium, where the various dimensions that they bear may join together through them.

Then shall they truly deserve the name of Human,

who speaks with the Everlasting and guarantees the balance of creation.

Amadou Hampate Ba (adapted)

Glorious Ending

Innocent Suffering

When two elephants go to war

it is the ground that suffers

African proverb 

Overextended

Balance

We cannot be happy if we expect to live all the time at the highest peak of intensity. Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance and order and rhythm and harmony.

Thomas Merton

Pointing the Way

Needing Others

You cannot paint white on white or black on black.

Everyone needs the Other in order to be seen.

Manu Dibanjo

Into the Unknown

Water

We should be as water,

which is lower than all things yet stronger

even than the rocks.

Oglala Sioux

In the Forest

In the forest, when the branches quarrel, the roots embrace.

Waiting for the Rushing Wind

Hurry

Never be in too much of a hurry:

nature is patience

West African Elder

Words

Words have an intrinsic power.  When they are true, sensible, and sincere, they heal "the hearts that mourn."  They help to settle disputes between husbands and wives, parents and children, brothers and sisters.  They help to establish and realize initiatives by the community and relieve suffering.

Words are sacred.

Aminata Traore 

A Cloud of Witnesses

What God Sees

It is not what you are nor what you have been that God sees with his all-merciful eyes,

but what you desire to be.

The Cloud of Unknowing

Mid-Summer Fantasy

Kikuyu Proverb

A plant loses its blossom as soon as it bears fruit

Kikuyu proverb

The power of creation

Happiness

Happiness is not acquired.

It does not consist in appearances.

We each have to build it during each moment

of our lives, working through our hearts.

-Female elder in a Dogon village

Which Path Will You Take?