Month: February 2017

Things could be otherwise

Karl Duffy2 Comments

File:Legs (2914966343).jpg

A day when I am aware of the gift of life.

This poem was written by Jane Kenyon shortly before she died of leukemia at age 47, aware that things would soon change for her.

I got out of bed
on two strong legs.
It might have been
otherwise. I ate
cereal, sweet
milk, ripe, flawless
peach. It might
have been otherwise.
I took the dog uphill
to the birch wood.
All morning I did
the work I love.

At noon I lay down
with my mate. It might
have been otherwise.
We ate dinner together
at a table with silver
candlesticks. It might
have been otherwise.
I slept in a bed
in a room with paintings
on the walls, and
planned another day
just like this day.
But one day, I know,
it will be otherwise.

Jane Kenyon, Otherwise

photo harald hoyer

When things are dark in our lives

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File:Candle burning.jpg

In Buddhism, a definition of faith is the ability to keep our hearts open in the darkness of the unknown. The root of the word patience is a Latin verb for “suffer,” which in the ancient sense meant to hold, not to grasp but to bear, to tolerate without pushing away. Being patient doesn’t mean being passive. It means being attentive, willing to be available to what is happening, going on seeing, noticing how things change. When we aren’t wishing for something to be over, or when we aren’t freezing around an idea about what it is we are seeing, we see and hear more. We notice that nature has cycles, that each day is not the same length and quality, and that darkness passes. The meaning of life, the real purpose of our presence here, is being attentive, being willing to go on seeing and keeping our hearts open — not just for our sake but for the sake of others. We make ourselves available to life, opening our hearts to the passing flow of it, knowing we will blunder and get it wrong but sometimes right.

Tracy Cochran (with thanks to make believe boutique) 

photo NCCo

The gift of presence

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File:Old couple in love.jpg

Some reflections on love, for the day that is in it…

The human soul doesn’t want to be advised or fixed or saved.

It simply wants to be witnessed — to be seen, heard and companioned exactly as it is.

When we make that kind of deep bow to the soul of a suffering person, our respect reinforces the soul’s healing resources, the only resources that can help the sufferer make it through.

Parker Palmer, The Gift of Presence, The Perils of Advice

There is no way into presence except through a love exchange.

Rumi

photo Ian McKenzie

Don’t let passing things get under your skin

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We cannot always control what happens in a day, but we can control how it affects us:

Just like a drop of water on a lotus leaf,

or in the same way as water on a red lily does not stick,

so too a wise person does not get hooked by

the seen, the heard, the sensed

The Buddha, Jara Sutra: Old Age

photo H.Zell

Sunday Quote: On not being blind to what is around us

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daff

If your daily life seems poor, do not blame it;

blame yourself,

tell yourself that you are not poet enough to call forth its riches;

for to the creator there is no poverty

Rainer Maria Rilke

Shhhhh…..Give up words and go deeper

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File:La mer à Exmouth WA.JPG

Different thoughts come to my mind prompted by these words of Rumi.

One says simply: Give up the worrying chatter of the week and take some rest in silence this weekend. Another says: Words are just inadequate to say what things or people mean to you. A third says: Your heart knows better than your thinking mind. Let go and follow it.

What do they say to you?

Inside me a hundred beings are putting their fingers to their lips and saying,

“That’s enough for now.  Shhhhh.”

Silence is an ocean.   Speech is a river.

When the ocean is searching for you, don’t walk

to the language-river.

Listen to the ocean,

and bring your talky business to an end.

Rumi, Send the Chaperones Away

photo dinkum