Are we related to something infinite or not? That is the telling question of our life. If we understand and feel that here in this life we already have a link with the infinite, desires and attitudes change. In the final analysis, we count for something only because of the essential we embody, and if we do not embody that, life is wasted.
Carl Jung
Your mind will answer most questions if you learn to relax and wait for the answer.
Our passing dramas stand in contrast to the enduring parts of nature, which goes back inside itself at this time of year, and then starts again.
The oak tree
loves patience,
the mountain is
still looking,
as it has for centuries,
for a word to say about
the gradual way it
slides itself
back to the
world below
to begin again,
in another life,
to be fertile.
When the wind blows
the grass
whistles and whispers
in myths and riddles
and not in our language
but one far older.
The sea is the sea is
always the sea.
These things
you can count on
as you walk about the world
happy or sad,
talky or silent, making
weapons, love, poems.
The briefest of fires.
Mary Oliver, Patience
Sometimes withdrawal and letting go is as much part of growth as is achievement and moving forward:
There is a tendency to want to hurry from autumn to spring, to avoid the long dark days that winter brings. But winter darkness has a positive side to it. As we gather to celebrate the first turn from winter to spring, we are invited to recognize and honor the beauty in the often unwanted season of winter. Let us invite our hearts to be glad for the courage winter proclaims. Let us be grateful for the wisdom winter brings in teaching us about the need for withdrawal as an essential part of renewal. Let us also encourage our spirits as Earth prepares to come forth from this time of withdrawal into a season filled with light.
Joyce Rupp and Macrina Wiederkehr, The Circle of Life
The shortest days of the year. The balance between light and darkness. A time to let go of those thoughts which hold us back and stand firm in that which we are
I move in the descent of days
from what was dreamed to what remains.
Wendell Berry, Boone
Most of us have spent our lives caught up in plans, expectations, ambitions for the future; in regrets, guilt or shame about the past.
To come into the present is to stop the war.
Jack Kornfield
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