Get used to sitting

benchWe might ask, “Given my present situation, how long should I stay with uncomfortable feelings?”  This is a good question, yet there is no right answer. We simply get accustomed to coming back to the present just as it is for a second, for a minute, for an hour — whatever is currently natural — without its becoming an endurance trial. Just pausing for two to three breaths is a perfect way to stay present. This is a good use of our life. Indeed, it is an excellent, joyful use of our life.  

Pema Chodron, Taking the Leap.

Simply noticing

Pennies in the present moment

A life of joy is not in seeking happiness,

but in experiencing and simply being with the circumstances of our life as they are.

Charlotte Joko Beck

The extraordinary is waiting

flower in concrete

The further I wake into this life, the more I realize that Love is everywhere and the extraordinary is waiting quietly beneath the skin of all that is ordinary. Light is in both the broken bottle and the diamond, and music is in both the flowing violin and the water dripping from the drainage pipe. Yes, Love is under the porch as well as on the top of the mountain, and joy is both in the front row and in the bleachers, if we are willing to be where we are.

Mark Nepo,  The Book of Awakening

Sunday Quote: Joy

The music in our heart

When I am silent,

I fall into that place where everything is music.

Rumi

In our hands

open-hands2

Gratefulness is the key to a happy life that we hold in our hands, because if we are not grateful, then no matter how much we have we will not be happy—because we will always want to have something else or something more.

David Steindl-Rast

A new day

dawn 333

Take the breath of the new dawn,
make it a part of you,
it will give you strength.

Hopi saying