Author: Anne

This author has written 790 articles

YOUR UNIQUE GIFT

Each of us, as we journey through life, has the opportunity to find and to give his or her unique gift.  Whether this gift is quiet or small in the eyes of the world does not matter at all – not at all;  it is through the finding and the giving that we may come to know the joy that lies at the center of both the dark times and the light. 

Quote by Helen M. Luke

Helen M. Luke (1904-1995) was born in England. In midlife, she studied at the Jung Institute in Zurich, then moved to the U.S. and established an analytical practice with Robert Johnson in Los Angeles. In 1962, she founded the Apple Farm Community (a Jungian Retreat Center) in Three Rivers, Michigan, “a center for people seeking to discover and appropriate the transforming power of symbols in their lives.”

REFLECTION:

  • Have you found your unique gift?
  • How have you given away … shared your gift with another/others?
  • What joy have you come to know through  your unique gift?

OUTWITTED

He drew a circle that shut me out – Heretic, Rebel, a thing to flout. 

But love and I had the wit to win: We drew a circle and took him in!

Poem by Edwin Markem titled OUTWITTED

Edwin Markham, original name Charles Edward Anson Markham, (1852 – 1940), was an American poet and lecturer, best-known for his poem of social protest, “The Man with the Hoe.” The youngest son of pioneer parents, Markham grew up on an isolated valley ranch in the Suisun hills in central California. After graduation from college, he became first a teacher and then a school administrator. In 1899 he gained national fame with the publication in the San Francisco Examiner of “The Man with the Hoe.” It was inspired by Jean Francois Millet’s painting.  Markham made the French peasant the symbol of the exploited classes throughout the world. Its success enabled Markham to devote himself to writing and lecturing—in which he concerned himself with social and industrial, as well as poetic, problems.

REFLECTION:

  • What circles have you drawn that keep people out?
  • Can you draw a larger circle to let others in?
  • What does that look like?  Feel like?
  • Start drawing!

USELESS??

“No one is useless in this world, who lightens the burden of another.”

FROM:  Charles Dickins  Quoted from his novel:  Dr. Marigold 

Charles Dickens,  (1812 – 1870) was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian era.  His many volumes include such works as  A Christmas Carol, David  Copperfield, Bleak House, A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, Our Mutual Friend and Doctor Marigold.  

REFLECTION:

  • Have you lightened the burden of another recently?
  • If not, how can you?
  • Make an effort today to ease someone’s burden.