It always has the capacity to amaze and we are always on the way……
To live is to be born slowly
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
photo Pauline Eccles
Year: 2016
Speed
It’s a long weekend here in Ireland and the weather is even forecast to be good. A time to slow down, let go our that part of the mind which is task driven and touch into some non-doing:
The great tragedy of speed as an answer to the complexities and responsibilities of existence is that very soon we cannot recognize anything or anyone who is not traveling at the same velocity as we are…..as slaves to speed, we start to lose sight of family members, especially children, or those who are ill or infirm, who are not flying through the world as quickly and determinedly as we are. Just as seriously, we begin to leave behind the parts of our own selves that limp a little, the vulnerabilities that actually give us color and character. We forget that our sanity is dependent on a relationship with longer, more patient cycles extending beyond the urgencies and madness of the office.
David Whyte.
Falling and getting back up
If there be anywhere on earth a lover of God who is always kept safe,
I know nothing of it, for it was not shown to me.
But this was shown:
that in falling and rising again we are always kept in the same love
Julian Of Norwich 1342 – 1416, Anchoress at the church of St Julian, Norwich
photo Jamie Campbell
Loving kindness
I love the gentle kindness in these words, and they are so true of real love.
Sadly, they are far away from how we often treat ourselves.
We are not wholly bad or good
We who live our lives under Milk Wood
And Thou, I know will be the first
To see our best side, and not our worst.
Minister Eli Jenkin’s prayer in Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood, sometimes known as the Sunset poem
photo wiliam warby
Flow: A motto to guide this month
The Master gives himself up
to whatever the moment brings.
He knows that he is going to die,
and he has nothing left to hold on to;
No illusions in his mind,
no resistances in his body.
He doesn’t think about his actions;
they flow from the core of his being.
He holds nothing back from life;
therefore he is ready for death,
as a man is ready for sleep
after a good day’s work.
Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching
Bring love to the moment
At a certain moment in [Nietzsche’s] life, the idea came to him of what he called ‘the love of your fate.’ Whatever your fate is, whatever the hell happens, you say, ‘This is what I need.’ It may look like a wreck, but go at it as though it were an opportunity, a challenge. If you bring love to that moment — not discouragement — you will find the strength is there. This is when the spontaneity of your own nature will have a chance to flow.
Then, when looking back at your life, you will see that the moments which seemed to be great failures followed by wreckage were the incidents that shaped the life you have now. You’ll see that this is really true. Nothing can happen to you that is not positive. Even though it looks and feels at the moment like a negative crisis, it is not. The crisis throws you back, and when you are required to exhibit strength, it comes.
Joseph Campbell
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