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.

….Time for others

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AnamChara : Soul Friendship

Being able to focus on the other person rather than the text you just received has become the new fundamental requirement for having a relationship with that person. If you go to a restaurant these days, for instance, you see people sitting together, at the same table, staring at their video screens, their phone, their iPad, or whatever it may be — and not talking to each other. That’s become the new norm. And what it means is that the connection is being damaged to some extent — threatened by the fact that we’re together, but we’re not together. We’re alone together.

Daniel Goldman, Is Attention the Secret to Emotional Intelligence

Time for ourselves….

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tea22

Drink your tea slowly and reverently,

as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves

–  slowly, evenly –

without rushing toward the future

Thich Nhat Hahn

Waking up

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gift1

All of us know how difficult it is for us to be inside the present moment, to not be asleep to the real riches inside our own lives. The distractions and worries of daily life tend to so consume us that we habitually take for granted what’s most precious to us, our health, the miracle of our senses, the love and friendships that surround us, and the gift of life itself. We go through our daily lives not only with a lack of reflectiveness and lack of gratitude but with a habitual touch of resentment as well, a chronic, grey depression, Robert Moore calls it. We are very much asleep, both to God and to our own lives.

Ron Rolheiser

Really seeing

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closed flower

In a way, nobody sees a flower, really,

it is so small, we haven’t the time

— and to see takes time,

like to have a friend takes time.

Georgia O’Keefe

Weakness

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File:Baby's hand.JPG

It’s not possible to be afraid of a baby.  The way she looks at us, her smile, her eyes, even her fragility, her trust and her innocence seem to touch even the most profound places in the hearts of us adults. The child is able to penetrate the walls that we have constructed around our hearts to defend ourselves, to protect ourselves, to prove that we are independent, competent, and strong. A child reveals the child who is hidden inside each of us, the child whom we have buried behind these impenetrable walls of protection, of strength, and of our need to win. Within our societies based on rivalry, we are often afraid to show our weakness. Admitting weakness can be dangerous since it might lead to rejection. Instead we feel that we need to show our competence, our capability, our power, our knowledge. If not, we risk begin wounded, rejected, isolated, and scorned. The weakness of the child – especially of a very young child – does the opposite: it attracts us and makes  us smile; it leads us to tenderness and communion. It awakens kindness. …….awakened by something outside of me, and yet it is what is deepest within me. It is “me.  All of us, at the deepest level of our being, are wounded children who are searching for love, for tenderness.

Jean Vanier, Christmas Letter, 2011

portraitlady4306

A Christmas lesson: In the ordinary

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File:Proud mother, Kalaw.jpg

Nothing in life is trivial

Life is whole wherever and whenever we touch it,

and one moment or event is not less sacred than another

Vimala Thakar

Beannachtaí na Nollaig oraibh go léir

(Christmas blessings from Ireland to all of you who drop by or who read each day)

photo vera and jean christophe