A way that can be articulated is not a permanent Way,
and names that can be designated are not permanent labels.
Wen Tzu, Daoist text attributed to follower of Lao Tzu, pre 55 BC
Author: Karl Duffy
This is a Mindfulness Practice Blog written in Laois, Ireland, containing reflections on meditation practice, psychological growth, spirituality and wellness which hopefully may encourage and benefit others as they reflect on their lives and seek to develop a more balanced, mindful and conscious approach to it.
The image of self we carry around
In order to change our mode of action,
we must change the image of ourselves that we carry within us.
Moshe Feldenkreis
Sunday Quote: A life with song
This morning is International Dawn Chorus Day, a worldwide celebration of music in nature.
The birders I encountered in books and in the world shared little except this simple secret:
if you listen to birds, every day will have a song in it.
Kyo McLear, Bird Art Life: A Year of Observation
photo Artemy Voikhansky
With thanks to David Kanigan at Live and Learn
…and make us stronger
See how the flesh grows back
across a wound, with a great vehemence,
more strong
than the simple, untested surface before.
Jane Hirshfield, For What Binds Us
photo Kanchelskis
How difficulties can be creative…
A different way of seeing the challenges in life, and maybe a more helpful way of looking at the slow diversions which life obliges us to take:
Une difficulte est une lumiere. Une difficulte insurmontable est un soleil. Paul Valery
(A difficulty is a light; an insurmountable difficulty is a sun)
We tend to perceive difficulty as disturbance. Ironically, difficulty can be a great friend of creativity… I love these lines from Paul Valery: this is a completely different way of considering the awkward, the uneven, and the difficult. Deep within us, there is a terrible impulse and drive toward perfection. We want everything flattened into one shape. We do not like unexpected shapes… The imagination in its loyalty to possibility often takes the curved path rather than the linear way. Such risk and openness inherit the harvest of creativity, beauty and spirit.
John O’Donohue Anam Chara
photo kilabs
The gift of life
A reminder to see each day as a gift to be celebrated:
God has given us the gift of life
It is up to us to give ourselves the gift of living fully
(Dieu nous a donné le vivre; c’est à nous de nous donner le bien vivre)
Voltaire, 1694–1778, French writer, philosopher and public activist, Œuvres complètes de Voltaire: melanges. commentaires sur corneille.
