Year: 2017

A new skin

Karl Duffy1 Comment

We seldom become all of who we are until forced to it….. I have come to believe that we are destined to be opened by the living of our days, and whether we like it or not, whether we choose to participate or not, we will in time, everyone of us, wear the deeper part of who we are as new skin. Either by erosion from without or by shedding from within – and often both – we are forced to live more authentically. And once the crisis that opened us passes, the real choice then becomes: Will we continue such authentic living?

Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening

The question we ask ourselves

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

The cold start here these last few mornings prompt this quote: We are called to bloom where we are planted, even if we would rather be elsewhere.

The approach of a man’s life out of the past is history, and the approach of time out of the future is mystery. Their meeting is the present, and it is consciousness, the only time life is alive.

The endless wonder of this meeting is what causes the mind, in its inward liberty of a frozen morning, to turn back and question and remember:

The world is full of places.

Why is it that I am here? 

Wendell Berry, The Long-Legged House

Sunday Quote: Part of something deeper

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

 

No matter how small we feel in our daily situation,  we are always part of something  greater.

Even for the simple flight of a butterfly, 

all of the sky is necessary.

Paul Claudel,  1868 – 1955, French poet and dramatist. 

Même pour le simple envol d’un papillon, tout le ciel est nécessaire.

 

No permanence

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

We cling to our own point of view, as if everything depended on it.

Yet our views have no permanence;

like autumn and winter, they gradually pass away.

Chuang Tzu,  4th century BC

A letting go practice

Karl Duffy2 Comments

November is the month of letting go of what is no longer needed or has fulfilled its purpose, just as trees now release the last season’s leaves. In China, an old proverb speaks to this: “Give away, throw away or move 27 items for nine days and your life will change.” The practice of letting go teaches us about non-attachment. The process of releasing or emptying provides room for new possibilities, opportunities, and blessings to enter our lives. In November we can readily see how much we have to be thankful for compared to our troubles and dissatisfactions. As we extend gratitude for the bounty and goodness that are present in our lives, any pockets of ingratitude that once seemed large in our imaginations become dwarfed- nearly nonexistent. 

Angeles Arrien 1940 – 2014, Cultural anthropologist.

The driving force

Karl Duffy5 Comments

 

Today, November 2nd, is traditionally the day that we remember those close to us who have died and gone before us

All men should strive to learn before they die,

what they are running from,

and to, and why.

James Thurber