"When we feel impatient with our relationships, our work, or our spiritual practice, we need to realize that we are resisting how things are. A sense of humor and curiosity about our lives can also help us confront impatience."

~ Michele McDonald

From: 'Mysticism of Now'

Relationship is one of the most beautiful and spiritual endeavors of the human soul. This is how we learn to love God

aright-in relationship with our sister, our brother, and our environment. We need to really ponder deeply about the nature of relationship.  As we begin to reflect we will soon discover how to agree,  how to have empathy and how to express our disagreements and anger creatively. We will learn to see and understand beyond appearances, and we will learn when to be silent and when to speak. As we relate consciously not unconsciously- a feeling beyond words and thoughts, of the relationship of oneness will one day become manifest. Then, slowly but surely, we will begin to witness the work of God in our sister, in our son, in our neighbor, and in the foreign family living on the other side of the railroad tracks. Christ begins to shine as the human being who happens to be your neighbor. It is here that the depth of relationship is revealed when Silence speaks.

~ Rafael Catala

“Understanding of the self only arises in relationship,

in watching yourself in relationship to people, ideas,

and things, to trees, the earth, and the world around

you and within you.  Relationship is the mirror in which

the self is revealed.  Without self-knowledge there is

no basis for right thought and action.”

~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

"It is vital to leave a lot of room for change in one's relations to

another person. Change comes about in times of transition, allowing

love actually to ripen and expand. Then one is able to really know the

other one--to see that person with their faults and weaknesses and

going through change, a human being like oneself. Only at this stage

can there be true love."—

The Dalai Lama

--from Impermanence: Embracing Change by David Hodge and Hi-Jin Kang

Hodge, published by Snow Lion Publications

"Through my love for you, I want to express my love for the whole cosmos, the whole of humanity, and all beings. By living with you, I want to learn to love everyone and all species. If I succeed in loving you, I will be able to love everyone and all species on Earth... This is the real message of love."

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

"If you would learn the secret of right relations, look only for the divine in people and things, and leave the rest to God."

~ J. Allen Boone