Words to Light the Darkness
A Curated Sampling of Voices from the Past to Help Light the Path Ahead
As the world has continued its confounding march into ever-deepening VUCA* landscapes, I’ve noticed a trend emerging.
People are slowing down. They’re stepping out of the techno-madness, and relearning how to breathe, how to be, if only for a few minutes, a simple part of the earth from which they emerged.
People are turning off their screens. They’re planting gardens. They’re growing vegetables. They’re lighting campfires and having languid conversations over good wine or an exquisite scotch.
I don’t think this is some whacky luddite rebellion against “the machine” culture of this new age. From what I can see, it’s just regular people who recognize, like we all recognize, that in our mad 100-year race toward “progress” (and…just what does that mean, again?), we’ve lost something critical about what it means to be human, what it means to actually be alive, and to know it, and to feel it, and to be here in this moment right now, and to share the miracle of that experience with other people.
We are looking back to find a better way forward.
So as we come to the end of another mad year, and peer over the edge into a year that promises to be even more VUCA than the last few (and that is definitely saying something), I thought I would share some wise words from people who have come before us that might help us find the handholds we need to find our way in the dark, and show us how to plant our feet on solid earth, even when the world seems lost in chaos.
If any of these speak to you, I recommend copying them somewhere you will see them regularly, and meditate on them just for a minute of two every day. That, plus a handful of intentional deep breaths, can work miracles over time.**
Words to Light the Darkness:
“When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive—to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.” – Marcus Aurelius
“We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature — trees, flowers, grass — grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence ... We need silence to be able to touch souls.” — Mother Teresa
“The best way to know God is to love many things.” — Vincent van Gogh
“If we really want prayer, we’ll have to give it time. We must slow down to a human tempo and we’ll begin to have time to listen. And as soon as we listen to what’s going on, things will begin to take shape by themselves ... The best way to pray is: stop. Let prayer pray within you, whether you know it or not. This means a deep awareness of our true inner identity.” — Thomas Merton
"There is a huge silence inside each of us that beckons us into itself, and the recovery of our own silence can begin to teach us the language of heaven." — Meister Eckhart
"Where, except in the present, can the Eternal be met?" — C. S. Lewis
“We need the tonic of wildness...At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because it is unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature.” ― Henry David Thoreau
"Pure, intuitive attention is the only source of perfectly beautiful art, truly original and brilliant scientific discovery, of philosophy which really aspires to wisdom and of true, practical love of one's neighbour. This kind of attention when turned to God is true prayer." — Simone Weil
“The beginning of devotion is paying attention.” — Mary Oliver
"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." — Martin Luther King, Jr.
“When you look at the keyboard, all the notes are there already. But if you mean a note enough, it will sound different. You got to pick the notes you really mean!” — Thelonious Monk
“When I am silent, I fall into the place where everything is music.” — Rumi
“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will find them gradually, without noticing it, and live along some distant day into the answer.” — Rainer Maria Rilke
"Believe in the holy contour of life." — Jack Kerouac
"Freedom is actually a bigger game than power. Power is about what you can control. Freedom is about what you can unleash." — Harriet Rubin
“Fear is the cheapest room in the house. I would like to see you living in better conditions.” – Hafiz
“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.” — St. Paul the Apostle
“Find the real world, give it endlessly away, grow rich flinging gold to all who ask. Live at the empty heart of paradox. I’ll dance there with you—cheek to cheek.” — Rumi
Happy New Year, everyone.
May you be surprised by joy in 2024, and overcome by the astounding blessing of all the Good True Beautiful emerging from your life.
— Michael
A plethora of wisdom to take into the new year. I’ll be indeed often-referencing the list. Thanks, Michael. Happy New Year to you, brother!