All is held

The leaves are falling, falling as from far off,
as though far gardens withered in the skies;
they are falling with denying gestures.

And in the nights the heavy earth is falling
from all the stars down into loneliness.

We are all falling. This hand falls.
And look at others; it is in them all.

And yet there is One who holds this falling
endlessly gently in his hands.

Rainer Maria Rilke, Autumn

Whats actually happening

Experiencing,

rather than trying to have special experiences,

is where real freedom lies

Ezra Bayda, At Home in the Muddy Water

Create joy

Life will bring you pain all by itself.

Your responsibility is to create joy

Milton Erikson, American Psychologist,

Striving

One must bear in mind that there is a considerable difference between perfection and completeness….

The individual may strive after perfection,

but must suffer from the opposite of his [or her] intentions for the sake of ….. completeness.

Jung

Hold what is asked

Windowsills evenly welcome both heat and cold.

Radiators speak or fall silent as they must.

Doors are not equivocal,  floorboards do not hesitate or startle.

Impatience does not stir the curtains,

a bed is neither irritable nor rapacious.

Whatever disquiet we sense in a room

we have brought there.

And so I instruct my ribs each morning,

pointing to hinge and plaster and wood —

          You are matter, as they are.

          See how perfectly it can be done.

          Hold, one day more, what is asked.      

Jane Hirshfield,  A Room

Everything, everywhere

The gate of heaven is everywhere.
Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander