Aparian

"Were I to be the founder of a new sect,

I would call them Apiarians, and, after the example of the bee,

advise them to extract the honey of every sect."  

- Thomas Jefferson

Think, and imagine. Well, think and imagine a world where love is the way.

Imagine our homes and families when love is the way.

Imagine neighborhoods and communities when love is the way.

Imagine our governments and nations when love is the way.

Imagine business and commerce when love is the way.

Imagine this tired old world when love is the way."

~Presiding Bishop Michael Curry (b. 1953)

When you read about the lives of other people,

people of different circumstances or similar circumstances,

you are part of their lives for that moment.

You inhabit their lives, and you feel what they're feeling,

and that is compassion.

If we see that reading does allow us that,

we see how absolutely essential reading is.

~ Amy Tan

"She had studied the universe all her life,

but had overlooked its clearest message:

For small creatures such as we

the vastness is bearable only through love."

~Carl Sagan (1934-1996)

One's life has value so long as one attributes value

to the life of others, by means of love, friendship,

indignation and compassion.

~ Simone de Beauvoir

"That is... one of my recommendations:

explore something, even if it's just a bookshelf.

Make a stab in the dark. Read off the beaten path.

Your attention is precious.

Be careful of other people trying to direct how you dispense it.

Confront your own values.

Decide what it is you are looking for an then look for it.

Perform connoisseurship.

We all need to create our own vocabulary of appreciation,

or we are trapped by the vocabulary of others."

~Phyllis Rose (b.1942)

"It is a sign of the times, and not a very good sign,

that these days it is necessary - and not only necessary but urgent -

to interest minds in the fate of Mind,

that is to say, in their own fate."

~Paul Valéry (1871-1945)

“Look for a way to lift someone up.

And if that’s all you do, that’s enough.”

Elizabeth Lesser

“That is what compassion does.

It challenges our assumptions, our sense of self-limitation,

worthlessness, of not having a place in the world.

As we develop compassion, our hearts open.”

Sharon Salzberg

“Let our hearts be stretched out in compassion toward others,

for everyone is walking his or her own difficult path.”

Dieter F. Uchtdorf