You breathe in gratitude,
and you breathe it out, too.
Once you learn how to do that, then you can bear someone who is unbearable
Anne Lamott
gratitude
Just don’t hold
When it’s dishwashing time, just wash the dishes; sitting time, just sit;
driving time, just drive; talking time, just talk. That’s all. Nothing special. When you’re doing something, just do it.
[However,] It’s easy to say “When you’re doing something, just do it,” but this is very difficult.
Just don’t hold. Thinking is OK. Checking is OK. Only holding is a problem. Don’t hold. Feelings coming and going, OK. Don’t hold. If your mind is not holding anything, it is clear like space.
Clear like space means that sometimes clouds come, sometimes rain or lightning or an airplane comes … but the air is never broken.
Korean Zen Master Seung Sahn. 1927 – 2004
Small acts
We are here to change the world
with small acts of thoughtfulness done daily
rather than with one great breakthrough
Harold S. Kushner
Facing the day with intention
Every morning, before the day has had its say, we make a quiet decision, for our work and for the world.
It is a heroic act to continue to choose goodness in the face of the ugliness being presented as normal, and even as right, and not let the destructive forces of fear win
The realm of heroism doesn’t lie in outward action; it is within us, where we form our attitude towards things, that the hero is born, not in the deeds that he or she does to save the world.
Every human being who gets up in the morning and forms a positive attitude to overcome their obstacles and live in the face of the destructive forces around them is a hero.
And they will always be a hero, whether they succeed or fail, because the hero is already there in the attitude, regardless of whether they live or die in the context of all the forces that would drag us down.
The hero starts here, and starts now, by saying, yes – I can Be. I can have a wish for the good.
Lee van Laer, Parabola Magazine
we are never alone
In parts of Italy Easter Monday is called Il Giorno degli Angeli” — the Day of the Angels.
The word “angel” in Hebrew simply means “messenger.”
That definition implies anything awakening us to reality is an “angel.” Even if there are specific supernatural beings whose job is to flit between heaven and earth, they would be no less an expression of cosmic creativity than a butterfly. Such beings could teach us no more than the everyday miracles we sleepwalk past every day.
Every bird, every flower, every person who passes by us today embodies a deep and holy wisdom that might illumine our world, if we are listening.
We are never really alone. “Angels” are everywhere.
Jim Rigby, Presbyterian minister and writer
Sunday Quote: all time is eternally present
Practice resurrection.
Part of who you are is who you will be.
Wendell Barry, Manifesto
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