Each day

In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect.

Trees can be contorted, bent in weird ways,

and they’re still beautiful

Alice Walker

Tensed

We don’t suffer because of life’s changes.

We suffer because we demand that life be a solid block of happiness.

The problem isn’t the wave; it’s our grip on the boat

Ajahn Sucitto, dharma talk, On Resistence

Defended

Grace is the word for what it takes to lay down your armour.

To stop protecting yourself long enough to be touched by something beyond your own strategies

Padraig O’Tuama, In the Shelter: Finding a Home in the World

I was there

We often regret the past because we weren’t truly present for it.

The antidote is to live each moment so fully that, even if it’s painful, we can say, ‘I was there. I felt it all.’

Héctor García & Francesc Miralles, Ichigo Ichie: The Art of Making the Most of Every Moment 

Sunday Quote: A waste of time

We spend all our energy and waste our lives trying to re-create these zones of safety, which are always falling apart. That’s the essence of samsara – the cycle of suffering that comes from continuing to seek happiness in all the wrong places.

Pema Chodron, Comfortable with Uncertainty

 

our natural state of ease

There is a deep difference between inactivity and rest. Inactivity is often filled with mental chatter and tension. True rest is a mindful ‘non-doing.’ It is the art of releasing the need to control, to achieve, and to manage every moment. It is in these moments of sincere letting go that we truly restore ourselves and come back to our natural state of ease.

Joseph Emet, Buddha’s Book of Happiness: Teachings for Achieving Lasting Peace, Joy, and Fearlessness