March 1
"In solitude we give passionate attention to our lives, to our memories, to the details around us." - Virginia Wolf
"Reverie is not a mind vacuum. It is rather the gift of an hour which knows the plentitude of the soul." - Gaston Bachelard
How do I make time for the gift of solitude?
March 2
"Don't be afraid to feel as angry or as loving as you can, because when you feel nothing, it's just death." - Lena Horne
When do I feel most alive?
March 3
"Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, 'Who do the crowds say I am?'"
Luke 9:18-22
Who do I say Jesus is?
March 4
"The world is round and the place which may seem like the end may also be only the beginning." - Ivy Baker Priest
What have I learned about myself through my life's beginnings and endings?
March 5
"You have looked deep into my heart, LORD, and you know all about me.
You know when I am resting or when I am working, and from heaven you discover my thoughts.
You notice everything I do and everywhere I go." - Psalm 139:1-3
What is it about me that I often hide from others?
March 6
"To value his [her] own good opinion, a child has to feel that [s]he is a worthwhile person. [S]He has to have confidence in himself [herself] as an individual." - Sidonie Greunberg
When do I feel most confident?
Do I help others to feel confident and welcomed when they are around me?
March 7
"Kinship is healing. We are physicians to each other." - Oliver Sacks
Who is "medicinal" in my life? At what times?
For whom am I "medicinal"? At what times?
March 8
"If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday." - Pearl Buck
Do I reflect on yesterday, feeling the grace and experiencing the searching?
March 9
"I would ask that the gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last through life...as an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantments of later years...the alienation from the sources of our strength." - Rachel Carson
In our busy, materialistic society, how do I cultivate my own sense of wonder?
March 10
"Before I even speak a word, you know what I will say, and with your powerful arm you protect me from every side. I can't understand all of this! Such wonderful knowledge is far above me. Where could I go to escape from your Spirit or from your sight?" - Psalm 139:4-7
How do I respond to the "wonderful knowledge" that I am known and protected by God?
March 11
"Progress lies not in enhancing what is, but in advancing toward what will be." - Kahlil Gibran
Am I open to any direction my path might take?
March 12
"Look deep into my heart, God, and find out everything I am thinking." - Psalm 139: 23
What is revealed deep in my heart?
March 13
"Ordinary courage." - Various
How would I define this phrase in terms of my own life?
March 14
"How little we know what a human life really is - even our own. To judge us by what we call our actions is probably as futile as to judge us by our dreams." - George Bernanos, The Diary of a Country Priest
How does my being reflect the light of God that shines within me?
March 15
"This is what I learned in school this week:
1. Forget some thing that is not important
2. be a good sport.
3. don't play wen you stil have work."
- Alexis Corcoran (age 6)
What things have I learned this week?
March 16
"Imagine what it is like for a child to grow up in fear. Pray for children who do." - T.G. Wilhelm
Do I pray for those who live in fear?
How can I help them with that fear?
March 17
"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened." - Matthew 7: 7-9
What do I request and seek? Why?
What might prevent me from asking, seeking and knocking?
What will be on the other side of the door?
March 18
"In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity." - Albert Einstein
What are my current challenges?
What opportunities are available?
March 19
"For I know well the plans I have in mind for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare, not your woe!" - Jeremiah 29:11
What fills me with hope?
What worries might be relieved?
March 20
"Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful...Welcome it in every fair face, in every fair sky, in every fair flower." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
How am I taking time to see the beauty in all things?
March 21
"Certain thoughts are prayers. There are moments when whatever be the attitude of the body, the soul is on its knees." - Author unknown
What is prayer? Which of my thoughts are prayers?
March 22
"Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy." - Thich Nhat Hanh
What are the small things that make me smile? How do I share that joy with those around me?
March 23
"When you hold resentment toward another, you are bound to that person or condition by an emotional link that is stronger than steel. Forgiveness is the only way to dissolve that link and get free." - Catherine Ponder
To what people or conditions am I linked because of resentment?
March 24
"For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-
discipline." - 2 Timothy 1:7
When do I feel most powerful, loving and self-controlled?
March 25
"I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain made low, the rough places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
What will I do today to move toward my dream?
March 26
"O LORD, you have searched me and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD."
- Psalm 139 1-4
March 27
"I pass through the gates, wind the old road and paths, perform rites of beauty in the being beyond thought, just walking and sitting, breathing and sharing, passing through the mind of land, the inspired air, the eye at the heart of the world ? becoming a part of that whole, touching the timeless place."
- Richard Bodner, from A Wanderer Returns
Do I have a place, either real or imaginary, that seems home to my soul?
March 28
"Jesus did not come to explain away suffering and remove it. He came to fill it with his presence."
- Paul Claudel
In what ways do I feel grace in my everyday life, even during periods of prolonged exhaustion or desolation?
March 29
"Laughter soothes a sore soul." - Carol Kelley
March 30
"By having reverence for life, we enter into a spiritual relation with the world. By practicing reverence for life, we become good, deep and alive."
- Albert Schweitzer
How do I practice reverence for life?
March 31
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness and self-control."
- Galatians 5:22-23a
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