#unity

In the deeps are the violence and terror of which psychology has warned us. But if you ride these monsters deeper down, if you drop with them farther over the world's rim, you find what our sciences cannot locate or name, the substrate, the ocean or matrix or ether which buoys the rest, which gives goodness its power for good, and evil its power for evil, the unified field: our complex and inexplicable caring for each other, and for our life together here. This is given. It is not learned. ↗

— Annie Dillard

#life #love #science #sea #unity

We may be little, insignificant servants in the eyes of a world motivated by efficiency, control and success. But when we realize that God has chosen us from all eternity, sent us into the world as the blessed ones, handed us over to suffering, can't we, then, also trust that our little lives will multiply themselves and be able to fulfill the needs of countless people? ↗

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

#god-s-children #the-church #life

Superabundant piety/righteousness (and its practices) is that form of life that enhances the individual and the community simultaneously. ↗

— Michael Joseph Brown

#piety #righteousness #life

Sometimes in this life, only one or two opportunities are put before us and we must seize them no matter the risk. ↗

— Andre Dubus III

#inspirational #lessons-in-life #life #motivational #opportunity

If you don't have a whole lot of unsatisfied people, the economy stops dead, doesn't it? ↗

— Andy Couturier

#economy #japan #money #society #money

Where there is not community, trust, respect, ethical behavior are difficult for the young to learn and for the old to maintain. ↗

— Robert K. Greenleaf

#elderly #ethics #respect #trust #youth

The function of the well-intentioned individual, acting in isolation, is to formulate or disseminate theoretical truths. The function of the well-intentioned individuals in association is to live in accordance with those truths, to demonstrate what happens when theory is translated into practice, to create small-scale working models of the better form of society to which the speculative idealist looks forward. ↗

— Aldous Huxley

#ends-and-means #social-living #nature

The war for the Narmada valley is not just some exotic tribal war, or a remote rural war or even an exclusively Indian war. Its a war for the rivers and the mountains and the forests of the world. All sorts of warriors from all over the world, anyone who wishes to enlist, will be honored and welcomed. Every kind of warrior will be needed. Doctors, lawyers, teachers, judges, journalists, students, sportsmen, painters, actors, singers, lovers . . . The borders are open, folks! Come on in. ↗

— Arundhati Roy

#inspirational #love #narmada-valley #nature #new-world-order

As an introverted person, I struggle even writing about community because I know how difficult it often is for me to walk across the room to converse with people. People often drain the energy out of me, and too often I prefer to protect myself rather than engage in relationships with people. For some of us who are more extroverted, community is a way of life, yet I wonder how intentional even the most extroverted person is about making community a holiness-shaping thing. Community with God’s people ultimately shapes us to reflect more of who God is. ↗

— Tyler Braun

#relationship

When the highest value in a community is loyalty to the greater cause, meaning the continuity of the status quo, all means to this end are imbued with religious significance, and are thereby justified. ↗

— Pearl Abraham

#justification #religion #status-quo #religion