Sunday Inspiration: I Believe

I believe in the sun even when it is not shining.
I believe in love even when I cannot feel it.
I believe in God even when he is silent.
—Written on a cellar wall in Cologne, Germany during the Holocaust

Sunday Inspiration: Be Civilized

Anthropologist Margaret Mead said that the first sign of civilization in an ancient culture was a femur (thighbone) that had been broken and then healed. Mead explained that in the animal kingdom, if you break your leg, you die. You cannot run from danger, get to the river for a drink or hunt for food. You are meat for prowling beasts. No animal survives a broken leg long enough for the bone to heal.

“A broken femur that has healed is evidence that someone has taken time to stay with the one who fell, has bound up the wound, has carried the person to safety and has tended the person through recovery. Helping someone else through difficulty is where civilization starts,” Mead said.

We are at our best when we serve others. Be civilized.
—Ira Byock

Sunday Inspiration: Our Most Basic Common Link

In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s future. And we are all mortal.
—John F. Kennedy

Sunday Inspiration: Courage

Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.
—Ambrose Redmoon

Sunday Inspiration: Transformation

I used to think the top environmental problems were biodiversity loos, ecosystem collapse and climate change. I thought that with 30 years of good science we could address those problems. But I was wrong. The top environmental problems are selfishness, greed, and apathy…and to deal with those we need a spiritual and cultural transformation. And we scientists don’t know how to do that.
—Gus Speth