Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach.

–Clarissa Pinkola Estes

Let us accept the invitation, ever-open, from the Stillness, taste its exquisite sweetness, and heed its silent instruction.

–Paul Brunton, Perspectives

In an article from the UK publication, The Guardian, a report:

The New Yorker reported this week that the Pentagon has already sent special operations teams into Iran to locate possible nuclear weapons sites. The report by Seymour Hersh, a veteran investigative journalist, was played down by the White House and the Pentagon, with comments that stopped short of an outright denial.

However, there are denials coming from the Pentagon, as reported in Express India:

Pentagon’s spokesman Lawrence Dirita said in a statement that the article “is so riddled with errors of fundamental fact that the credibility of his (Hersh) entire piece is destroyed”. …However, the spokesman did not confirm or deny Hersh’s claim that the administration had authorised covert operations against the countries, located in West Asia and South Asia.

Considering all this, I have a question.

Don’t weep for the dead; weep for the brightness in the eyes which is dimmed, for the feeling of love which has withered before its time and for the weeds of hate and revenge which have inherited their place. Can a plant grow on salty soil? Can a nation grow on the soil of fire and sulphur, hate and revenge?

—Natan Hofshi

Remember:

There is no surprise more magical than the surprise of being loved.

–Charles Morgan

When you look into a child’s eyes, think of this. And when you look into an adult’s eyes, imagine the child within. Now go to a mirror and look at yourself. That quote applies to you, too. Who loves you? Take a moment to ponder this. Somebody loves you and cares about your well-being and success. Somebody finds you endearing, notices your talents, accepts your quirks. Even if that somebody has died, the love they carried and gave lives yet. When you feel impoverished of love, try to remember this. Then turn around and remember this of all the people you meet — somebody loves them too. Look for the reasons why this might be. You’d be amazed at what you find, and how this affects your perspective of the human race.

Writers would have it that heroes and good characters are less interesting than villains and pests because virtue is boring. I’ll agree that that’s often true in stories, or if you’re Dickens, and it may be that this chapter is doomed to fall short of rousing your passionate interest. But in real life, I have to say, I have found authentic goodness magnificent, muscular, tonic, as rare and grand as Yosemite’s El Capitan, a mountain whose magnitude stuns you further when you realize that it is a monolith, one whole, seamless rock. I find absolutely nothing boring about true goodness.

–June Sprigg, Simple Gifts: Lessons in Living from a Shaker Village

We are called to play the good Samaritan on life’s roadside. But one day we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life’s highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.

–Martin Luther King Jr.