You mustn’t wish for another life. You mustn’t want to be somebody else.
What you must do is this:
“Rejoice evermore.
Pray without ceasing.
In everything give thanks.”
I am not all the way capable of so much, but those are the right instructions.
Wendell Berry, Hannah Coulter
photo: trou
The mind that tries to shape tomorrow beyond its capacities
will find no rest.
Rumi, That lives in Us
A miracle is often the willingness to see the common
in an uncommon way.
Noah benShea
I dream of a quiet man who explains nothing and defends nothing
but only know where the rarest wildflowers are blooming
and who goes
and finds that he is smiling not by his own will
Wendell Berry
photo ross
Here is a practice I have been working with for more than a decade. I recite, usually silently, these two sentences:
May I meet this moment fully.
May I meet it as a friend.
These blessing phrases cultivate and sustain a mind of peace and goodwill. For me, they represent the promise of practice. “May I meet this moment fully” expresses my faith that an alert and balanced mind is a possibility for human beings. “May I meet it as a friend” reminds me that my mind’s natural benevolence is my best refuge. Although most of my daily practice has always been the simple practice of alert attention to changing experience, I often begin periods of simple sitting with some repetitions of this two-phrase mantra as a kind of mood-setter, an incliner of my mind toward relaxing.
Sylvia Boorstein, A Bad Day at the Airport
One is never lacking in opportunities each day to be happy,
as the wonderful G.K. Chesterton reminded us in 1908:
The test of all happiness is gratitude.
Children are grateful when Santa Claus puts in their stockings gifts of toys or sweets.
Could I not be grateful to Santa Claus when he puts in my stockings the gift of two miraculous legs?
photo nevit dilmen
