The Evangelical Universalist Forum

Holy Simplicity

I was at the Catholic bookstore yesterday and got me an amazing new book on keeping things simple. It’s the way the Mystical Saints lived their lives. It’s also how they tell us to keep spiritual principles in A.A - Keep It Simple Sweetheart - is the slogan. Here’s what it says about the book:

Speaking of simplicity and Alcoholics Anonymous, here’s the Catholic Franciscan Friar( Fr. Richard Rohr) talking on the Twelve Steps from A.A. in his book “Breathing Under Water”. He believes Bill Wilson (founder of A.A.) was inspired by God.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8o6_IqKdy8

St. Francis of Assisi was also about simplicity - Big Time. Go here:

catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=50

Well, Michael, I’m on a quest to learn about Islam. Both the Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker variations. Here’s a short YouTube video, from a meeting set up by DuPage United - meet your Muslim neighbor

Sounds great Randy. If that’s what you are into go for it. I’m a caregiver for an 85 year old man that I met in A.A. He started out as my A.A. sponsor now I help him. Through the years we have developed a good relationship with each other. I’ve always had a heart for the weak, unfortunate, poor, sick etc. etc. When he dies I’m going to join a place that helps the elderly and be a third order Friar and live there helping people. Here’s a link:

saintfrancisvillage.com/

You can recognize truth by it’s beauty and simplicity - Richard Feynman (Nobel Laureate in Physics)

From my A.A. book of slogans:

“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.”
― Confucius

“And I learned what is obvious to a child. That life is simply a collection of little lives, each lived one day at a time. That each day should be spent finding beauty in flowers and poetry and talking to animals. That a day spent with dreaming and sunsets and refreshing breezes cannot be bettered. But most of all, I learned that life is about sitting on benches next to ancient creeks with my hand on her knee and sometimes, on good days, for falling in love.”
― Nicholas Sparks

“Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify.”
― Henry David Thoreau

“Manifest plainness,
Embrace simplicity,
Reduce selfishness,
Have few desires.”
― Lao Tzu

“There is no greatness where there is not simplicity, goodness, and truth.”
― Leo Tolstoy

“The greatest ideas are the simplest.”
― William Golding

“As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness.”
― Henry David Thoreau

“Nature is pleased with simplicity. And nature is no dummy”
― Isaac Newton