God is not all in one place complete,
God is in the bits and pieces of everyday,
a kiss here, a smile there,
and sometimes tears.
Patrick Kavanagh
photo Grafton st Dublin by executioner
Month: April 2014
Ordinary and more
Mindfulness helps you fall in love with the ordinary
Thich Nhat Hahn
The chickens leave the coop
Feelings arise within the state of calm. The mind is experiencing feelings and calm at the same time, without being disturbed. When there is calm like this, there are no harmful consequences. Problems occur when the chicken gets out of the coop. For instance you may be watching the breath entering and leaving and then forget yourself, allowing the mind to wander away from the breath, back home, off to the shops or any number of different places. Perhaps even a half hour may pass before you suddenly realize that you’re supposes to be practicing meditation and you reprimand yourself for your lack of mindfulness. This is where you have to be really careful because this is where the chicken gets out of the coop – the mind leaves its base of calm.
Ajahn Chah, What’s What
photo erik christensen
Giving life to life
We are paying full attention when there is nothing between us and the task at hand. If you are facing a sink full of dirty dishes and the mind is taken up with aversion to the task, impatience with how long it is taking, thinking about what movie you’re going to see that night, you are separated from what you are doing. The hands are washing but the mind is not. To be divided this way is to be less than fully alive. Giving our whole body and mind over to a task being undivided and intimate in your action is what the Chinese masters called giving life to life
Larry Rosenberg, Breath by Breath
photo adam jones
A Generous spirit
When we are stressed we have a tendency to close in on ourselves, to measure our time, fixate on our problems and not notice a lot that is happening around us. We think that this is the best way to protect our energy and our heart. Paradoxically, however, it seems that another strategy is more helpful, going against the voice within us and turning outwards, noticing small details in the day and reaching out to others. An East African proverb reminds us You can share even if you have a little. It may be just noticing how good the coffee tastes, a smile, a friendly phone call, a helping hand, making someone welcome. This quotation from Cormac McCarthy reminds us to create little moments of generosity, of connection, of celebration, even when our life seems barren. There will be innumerable little moments in a day to be kind, even if our hearts do not feel like it.
When you’ve got nothing else, construct ceremonies out of the air and breathe upon them.
Cormac McCarthy, The Road
A generous heart is never lonesome. A generous heart has luck. The lonesomeness of contemporary life is partly due to the failure of generosity. Increasingly we complete with each other for goods, for image, and for status.
John O’Donoghue, Eternal Echoes
Two possible directions for today…..and this week
I’ve discovered there are only two modes of the heart.
We can struggle, or we can surrender. Surrender means wisely accommodating ourselves to what is beyond our control. Getting old, being sick, losing what is dear to us, life’s unsatisfactoriness – all are beyond our control.
I can either be frightened of life and mad at life – or not.
Sylvia Boorstein
photo mike shinners
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