Greetings, friends. This is a place of meditation, reflection, a place in which to seek serenity and share burdens and joys. Everyone is welcome here, atheists, believers, and those uncertain of how they feel. The first "Brothers and Sisters" of the Obama Presidency, this diary offers some reflections on new beginnings.
Look to this day!
For it is life, the very life of life.
In its brief course
Lie all the verities and realities of your existence:
The bliss of growth;
The glory of action;
The splendor of achievement;
For yesterday is but a dream,
And tomorrow is only a vision;
But today, well lived, makes every yesterday
a dream of happiness,
And every tomorrow a vision of hope.
Amen.
We have it in our power to begin the world over again.
--Thomas Paine
We have endured eight years of reckless, lawless, incompetent leadership. The remaining sludge is very thick.
You have been affected by pollution for so long that it is impossible to become clear all at once. In truth, the matter of life and earth is important: once you turn the light around and recollect the vital spirit to shine stably, then your own mind is the lamp of enlightenment. Everyone has the lamp of mind.
--Lu Yan, Excerpted from The Secret of the Golden Flower
Amen.
Many challenges face us. Every day brings diaries of unemployment, of suffering, of injustice.
Lord God,
You have called your servants
to ventures
of which we cannot see the ending,
by paths as yet untrodden,
through perils unknown.
Give us faith to go out with good courage,
not knowing where we go,
but only that your hand is leading us
and your love supporting us;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Many battles were fought in the past eight years. Governor Dean, Orange to Blue, and so many issues we held dear, those losses were painful, but they strengthened our resolve.
Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward. They may be beaten, but they may start a winning game. --Goethe
Let us heed President Obama's call:
With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.
Brothers and Sisters, people of faith and non-believers alike, let us reflect on our new beginnings, our opportunities to do good. We all have a lamp of the mind. Let it shine, brightly. Thank you for joining us this evening.