“All the changes in one’s environment are brought about by one’s hands.”

Maria Montessori

“There is just so much hurt, disappointment, and oppression one can take. . . . The line between reason and madness grows thinner.”

Rosa Parks

“I do not allow myself to be overcome by hopelessness, no matter how tough the situation. I believe that if you just do your little bit without thinking of the bigness of what you stand against, if you turn to the enlargement of your own capacities, just that itself creates new potential.”

Vandana Shiva

“We stand with you and breathe. We stand with you in our continued grief, shock, and devastation with all that is unfolding on our planet. We stand with you as we contemplate how not to fall into the pitfalls of anger, aggression, and revenge. We stand with you as we choose, as best we can, not to attack or blame others. We stand with you as we face depression that keeps us numb and anxiety that keeps us frozen and reactive, and we stand with you as we seek support during this wild and utterly unholy time. We stand with you because we need each other. We stand with you and breathe.”

The School for the Great Turning w/ Verana Faye Bailowitz

“When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.”

Wendell Berry in Openings: Poems by Wendell Berry

“If we want our actions to add to the building of a new culture even while resolving the issue at hand, we should not hesitate to explain why we’re doing what we’re doing, to anyone who will listen. The point is not that they’ll immediately ‘get it’: the point is that this is how paradigms change: through repetition that slowly builds up and becomes the new normal.”

Michael Nagler, The Third Harmony

“We must accept finite disappointment but never lose infinite hope.”

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

“There is no greater block to world peace or inner peace than fear. . . and through negative concentration we tend to attract the things we fear. If we fear nothing and radiate love, we can expect good things to come.”

Peace Pilgrim

“The choice today is no longer
between violence and nonviolence. It is either nonviolence or nonexistence.”

Dr. Martin Luther King

“It may seem sometimes as if a culture of peace does not stand a chance against the culture of war, the culture of violence and the cultures of impunity and intolerance. Peace may indeed be a complex challenge, dependent on action in many fields and even a bit of luck from time to time. It may be a painfully slow process, and fragile and imperfect when it is achieved. But peace is in our hands. We can do it.”

Kofi Annan

“It has always been easy to hate and destroy. To build and to cherish is much more difficult.”

Queen Elizabeth II