Month: January 2013

Making time for ourselves

Karl Duffy2 Comments

474676v1We need to find a way of balancing our ‘inner’ work and our ‘outer’ work  and we begin to appreciate a basic paradox: that in order to be truly generous, truly of service to others, we actually need to be completely ‘self-centred’. We need to be able to stay in touch with our own hearts, listening carefully to what they tell us, even while engaged in external activity or interaction. We need to remain attentive to our own needs, and to really make sure that these are well taken care of  even if it means disappointing people, letting them down, not living up to the expectations they may have of us (or that we have of ourselves). This is not at all easy, with the conditioning most of us have: ‘Don’t be selfish’.

Ajahn Candasiri, A Question of Balance

A fresh start

Karl Duffy2 Comments

/files/Stepping Stones/stepping-stones-1.jpgStart close in, don’t take the second step
or the third, start with the first
thing close in,
the step you don’t want to take.

 Start with the ground you know,
the pale ground
beneath your feet,
your own way of starting
the conversation.

 Start with your own
question, give up on other
people’s questions,
don’t let them smother something
simple.

To find another’s voice
follow your own voice,
wait until that voice
becomes a private ear
listening to another.

 Start right now, take a small step
you can call your own
don’t follow someone else’s
heroics, be humble
and focused, start close in,
don’t mistake that other
for your own.

 Start close in,don’t take the second step
or the third, start with the first
thing close in,
the step you don’t want to take.

David Whyte, Start Close in