Ten Timeless Lessons from the Fourth-Century Desert Dwellers

"Go sit in your cell and your cell will teach you everything."
~ Abba Shepherd

"Many people living the secluded life have died like worldly people. It is better to live in the world and long for solitude than to live in solitude and long for the world."
~ Mother Matrona

"Never stay in a well-known place nor sit with a famous person nor lay foundation for building a cell someday."
~ Zeno, disciple of Silvanus

"To prepare for tomorrow means to cut away the fruit of the spirit and dry oneself up."
~ one of the hermits

"Never be sated with bread, and never run out of wine."
~ Mother Syncletice

"Teach your heart to follow what your tongue tells others."
~Abba Poemen

"Just as smoke drives out bees and takes their honey away from them, so a life of ease drives God from our souls and cancels our good deeds."
~ Abba Shepherd

"Never judge a fornicator. The person who said not to fornicate also said not to judge."
~ one of the old men

Serapion sold his Gospel and gave the money to the hungry. When we asked him why, he said he had sold the book that told him to feed the hungry.
~ the desert fathers

"The hen who stops sitting on the eggs will hatch no chicks; you, too, should stay where you are."
~ one of the mothers

from Spirituality & Health, May/June 2007, "Extreme Simplicity: Ten Lessons from the Fourth-Century Desert Dwellers", by Clair McPherson, p. 57.

She will not be crippled by resentment

from A Thousand Splendid Suns

Laila has decided that she will not be crippled by resentment. Mariam wouldn't want it that way. What's the sense? ... What good is it, Laila jo?

~ Khaled Hosseini

A way to be good again

Amir:

I wished Rahim Khan hadn't called me. I wished he had let me live on in my oblivion. But he had called me. And what Rahim Khan revealed to me changed things. Made me see how my entire life, long before the winter of 195, dating back to when that singing Hazara woman was still nursing me, had been a cycle of lies, betrayals, and secrets.
"There is a way to be good again," he'd said.
A way to end the cycle.

~ Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner, 226-7

Rahim Khan about Baba:

I loved him because he was my friend, but also because he was a good man, maybe even a great man. And this is what I want you to understand, that good, real good, was born out of your father's remorse.
Sometimes, I think everything he did, feeding the poor on the streets, building the orphanage, giving money to friends in need, it was all his way of redeeming himself. And that, I believe, is what true redemption is, Amir jan, when guilt leads to good.

I know that in the end, God will forgive. He will forgive your father, me, and you too. I hope you can do the same. Forgive your father if you can. Forgive me if you wish. But, most important, forgive yourself.

~ Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner, 302

Amelia Earhart quotes

Adventure is worthwhile in itself.

Better do a good deed near at home than go far away to burn incense.

Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace. The soul that knows it not, knows no release from little things; knows not the livid loneliness of fear.

Flying might not be all plain sailing, but the fun of it is worth the price.

I want to do it because I want to do it.

In soloing - as in other activities - it is far easier to start something than it is to finish it.

Never do things others can do and will do if there are things others cannot do or will not do.

Never interrupt someone doing what you said couldn't be done.

No kind action ever stops with itself. One kind action leads to another. Good example is followed. A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees. The greatest work that kindness does to others is that it makes them kind themselves.

Obviously I faced the possibility of not returning when first I considered going. Once faced and settled there really wasn't any good reason to refer to it.

Please know that I am aware of the hazards. I want to do it because I want to do it. Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be a challenge to others.

The more one does and sees and feels, the more one is able to do, and the more genuine may be one's appreciation of fundamental things like home, and love, and understanding companionship.

The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process is its own reward.

The most effective way to do it, is to do it.

The woman who can create her own job is the woman who will win fame and fortune.

There are two kinds of stones, as everyone knows, one of which rolls.

There is so much that must be done in a civilized barbarism like war.

Women must pay for everything. They do get more glory than men for comparable feats, but, they also get more notoriety when they crash.

Women, like men, should try to do the impossible. And when they fail, their failure should be a challenge to others.

~ Amelia Earhart, American Aviator, 1898-1937

Do It!

"The most effective way to do it, is to do it."

~ Amelia Earhart, aviator

Better Truth than a Lie

"It hurts to say that," he said, shrugging. "But better to get hurt by the truth than comforted with a lie."

~ Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner, p. 58

Advancing in another direction

"We are not retreating - we are advancing in another direction."

~ Douglas MacArthur, U.S. W.W. II general in the Pacific

Dementors

Prof. Lupin to Harry Potter:

"Get too near a Dementor, and every good feeling, every happy memory, will be sucked out of you."

J.K. Rowling, Prisoner of Azkaban

A Prayer of Alan Paton

Help me, O Lord, to be more loving. Help me O Lord, not to be afraid to love the outcast, the leper, the unmarried pregnant woman, the traitor to the State, the man out of prison.
Help me by my love to restore the faith of the disillusioned, the disappointed, the early bereaved. Help me by my love to be the witness of your love.
And may I this coming day be able to do some work of peace for you.

~ Alan Paton, a South African writer,
author of "Cry the Beloved Country"
who made a courageous stand against racism

A Man Fell into a Pit

Once upon a time a man fell into a pit and couldn’t get himself out.
A sensitive person came along and said, “I feel for you down there.”
A practical person came along and said, “I knew you were going to fall in sooner or later.”
A Pharisee said, “Only bad people fall into a pit.”
A mathematician calculated how he far he fell.
A news reporter wanted an exclusive story on his pit.
An IRS agent asked if he was paying taxes on the pit.
A self-pitying person said, “You haven’t seen anything until you’ve seen my pit.”
A mystic said, “Just imagine that you’re not in a pit.”
An optimist said, “Things could be worse.”
A pessimist said, “Things will get worse.”
Jesus, seeing the man, took him by the hand and lifted him out of the pit!

~ Ray Pritchard, The Lawyer Who Wanted a Loophole

The Homeless Woman’s Poem

A homeless woman once approached a preacher for help, but because he was busy and helpless, he turned her away and offered to pray for her instead.

The homeless woman, it is said, wrote this poem as a response too that insensitive minister:
"I was hungry, and you formed a humanities group to discuss my hunger.
I was imprisoned, and you crept off quietly to my chapel and prayed for my release.
I was naked, and in your mind you debated the morality of my appearance.
I was sick, and you knelt and thanked God for your health.
I was homeless, and you preached to me the spiritual shelter of the love of God.
I was lonely, and you left me alone to pray for me.

You seem so holy, so close to God but I am still very hungry - and lonely - and cold."

~ Source unknown

Neighborly Prayer

Some of you may be familiar with a story by journalist Tom Junod. It is a true story of a young man afflicted with cerebral palsy. Cerebral palsy did not affect this young man’s mind, but it affected his motor skills and his ability to speak. The boy could only communicate through typing on his computer.
In addition to his physical disabilities, the boy suffered emotional problems after some of his care givers callously abused him. Overwhelmed with self-hatred, the boy often hit himself. Using his computer, he wrote to his mother that he wished he could die.
There was one thing that seemed to bring the boy comfort: watching “Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood.” The kindly, mild-mannered Mr. Rogers emphasized that all people are valuable and worthy of love. His calming demeanor and accepting message touched the boy’s heart and gave him hope.
One day a children’s foundation set up a meeting between the boy and his hero, Mr. Rogers. Upon meeting Mr. Rogers, the boy became so nervous that he began hitting himself, and his mother had to take him to another room to calm him down. When he returned, Mr. Rogers carried on their conversation as if nothing had happened.
And then Mr. Rogers ended the conversation by asking the boy a very special favor: would this boy pray for him? The boy was floored by this request. Would he pray for Mr. Rogers? He had always been the object of someone else’s prayers.
But from that day forward, the boy began praying for Fred Rogers, and he experienced a new sense of hope and self-esteem through this act of praying for a man he so admired. When Tom Junod complimented Fred Rogers on this idea, Rogers reacted with surprise. He had been sincere in his request for the boy’s prayers.
As he said, “I didn’t ask him for his prayers for HIM, I asked for me. I asked him because I think that anyone who has gone through challenges like that must be very close to God. I asked him because I wanted his intercession.”

King Duncan, Collected Sermons, adapted from Tom Junod, Esquire, November 1998

Procrastination

"Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday."

~ Don Marquis

Charles Kettering quotes

A person must have a certain amount of intelligent ignorance to get anywhere.

A problem well stated is a problem half-solved.

An inventor fails 999 times, and if he succeeds once, he's in. He treats his failures simply as practice shots.

An inventor is simply a fellow who doesn't take his education too seriously.

Believe and act as if it were impossible to fail.

Every time you tear a leaf off a calendar, you present a new place for new ideas and progress.

High achievement always takes place in the framework of high expectation.

I object to people running down the future. I am going to live all the rest of my life there.

If you have always done it that way, it is probably wrong.

If you want to kill any idea in the world, get a committee working on it.

In America we can say what we think, and even if we can't think, we can say it anyhow.

Inventing is a combination of brains and materials. The more brains you use, the less material you need.

It doesn't matter if you try and try and try again, and fail. It does matter if you try and fail, and fail to try again.

It is not a disgrace to fail. Failing is one of the greatest arts in the world.

Keep on going, and the chances are that you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I never heard of anyone ever stumbling on something sitting down.

Knowing is not understanding. There is a great difference between knowing and understanding: you can know a lot about something and not really understand it.

My definition of an educated man is the fellow who knows the right thing to do at the time it has to be done. You can be sincere and still be stupid.

My interest is in the future because I am going to spend the rest of my life there.

No one would have crossed the ocean if he could have gotten off the ship in the storm.

One fails forward toward success.

Our imagination is the only limit to what we can hope to have in the future.

People are very open-minded about new things - as long as they're exactly like the old ones.

People think of the inventor as a screwball, but no one ever asks the inventor what he thinks of other people.

Problems are the price of progress. Don't bring me anything but trouble. Good news weakens me.

The biggest job we have is to teach a newly hired employee how to fail intelligently. We have to train him to experiment over and over and to keep on trying and failing until he learns what will work.

The future can be anything we want it to be, providing we have the faith and that we realize that peace, no less than war, required "blood and sweat and tears."

The only difference between a problem and a solution is that people understand the solution.

The only time you mustn't fail is the last time you try.

The opportunities of man are limited only by his imagination. But so few have imagination that there are ten thousand fiddlers to one composer.

The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress.

The Wright brothers flew right through the smoke screen of impossibility.

There exist limitless opportunities in every industry. Where there is an open mind, there will always be a frontier.

There is a great difference between knowing and understanding: you can know a lot about something and not really understand it.

Thinking is one thing no one has ever been able to tax.

We need to teach the highly educated man that it is not a disgrace to fail and that he must analyze every failure to find its cause. He must learn how to fail intelligently, for failing is one of the greatest arts in the world.

We often say that the biggest job we have is to teach a newly hired employee to fail intelligently... to experiment over and over again and to keep on trying and failing until he learns what will work.

We should all be concerned about the future because we will have to spend the rest of our lives there.

You can be sincere and still be stupid.

You can't have a better tomorrow if you are thinking about yesterday all the time.

You will never stub your toe standing still. The faster you go, the more chance there is of stubbing your toe, but the more chance you have of getting somewhere.

~ Charles Kettering
American Inventor, b. 1876, d. 1958
www.brainyquote.com

She thinks I'm real!

A family settled down for dinner at a restaurant. The waitress first took the order of the adults, then turned to the seven year old. 'What will you have?' she asked.
The boy looked around the table timidly and said, 'I would like to have a hot dog.'
Before the waitress could write down the order, the mother interrupted. 'No hot dogs,' she said, 'Get him a steak with mashed potatoes and carrots.'
The waitress ignored her. 'Do you want ketchup or mustard on your hot dog?' she asked the boy.
'Ketchup.'
'Coming up in a minute,' said the waitress as she started for the kitchen.
There was a stunned silence when she left. Finally the boy looked at everyone present and said, 'Know what? She thinks I'm real!'

~ Anthony deMello in The Heart of the Enlightened

No Theories

"Before I got married I had six theories about bringing up children; now I have six children and no theories."

~ John Wilmot

Denominations

“I don’t care what denomination you belong to, as long as you’re ashamed of it.”

~ Rabbi Irving “Yitz” Greenberg