“A Path Less Travelled” by Sean O’Laoire
I believe that we have to become serial killers in order to reach enlightenment. Firstly, we have to kill the ego, in the sense that it needs to be confined to its appropriate tasks (ensuring that I pay my taxes on time, stop at red lights and tie my shoe-laces) but not become my identity. Then I have to kill my father, by which I mean that I have to outgrow the cultural traditions into which I was born, and, instead, embrace a global identity.
A Cartoon by Jeremy Nguyen
Realizing that not every moment in life will be deep, or meaningful, or vibrating with energy that would give him the fulfillment that he'd always hoped for, Todd unloaded the dishwasher.
“The Acorn” by Dianne Bautch
The acorn grows into the grand oak tree,
not caring if the little sapling
longs to be something else …
a maple, a birch, an evergreen.
It becomes what it was created to be,
what it was meant to be.
Simone Weil - Waiting for God
“You can take my word for it too that Greece, Egypt, ancient India and ancient China, the beauty of the world, the pure and authentic reflections of this beauty in art and science…”
“Rumi: In the Arms of the Beloved” —Translation by Jonathan Star
Remember what I said. . . .
I said, Don’t leave, for I am your Friend.
In the mirage of this world
I am the fountain of life.
Even if you leave in anger
and stay away for a thousand years
You will return to me,
"Ojibwa Values"
Traditionally the Ojibwa Value the Spiritual Process
For the Ojibwa, values are part of the spiritual journey ... not the destination.
Values are an integral part of every culture. Along with a perception of mankinds' place in the universe and the individuals own personality, cultural values generate behavior.
Cultural values create expectations and behavior patterns without which a culture would disintegrate and its members lose their sense of identy and self worth.
For example, values tell people what is good or bad, right or wrong, important or insignificant, useful or detrimental, beautiful or unattractive. Values are at the root of traditions that groups of people find important in their daily lives.
What are some Ojibwa values?
"Please Call Me by My True Names" by Thich Nhat Hanh
Do not say that I'll depart tomorrow
because even today I still arrive.
Look deeply: I arrive in every second
to be a bud on a spring branch,
to be a tiny bird, with wings still fragile,
learning to sing in my new nest,
to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower,
to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone.
“A Poem” (title unknown) by Maurice Frydman
Heavy with the mud of many lands I was flowing lazily,
Making obstacles of myself out of my unholy accumulations.
Suddenly I awakened to the freshness of endless beauty,
And felt the eternal environment of endless peace.
“Prayer for Alignment” — by Fr. Sean O’Laoire
Here we pause to reflect silently on the ways in which we are unaligned as individuals and as communities.
A: I acknowledge to you, my sisters and my brothers
that I have been unaware of the God-in-all-beings.
“The Old Violin - The Touch of the Masters Hand” by - Myra Brooks Welch
'Twas battered and scarred, and the auctioneer
Thought it scarcely worth his while
To waste much time on the old violin,
But held it up with a smile.
"What am I bidden, good folks," he cried,
"Who'll start the bidding for me?"
"A dollar, a dollar. Then two! Only two?
Two dollars, and who'll make it three?"