Having a spiritual life doesn’t mean striving to stop the rain from falling or keeping our hearts from breaking. It means letting go of our resistance and wilful separation. It means taking our place in the greater whole of life. This surrender tends to happen in moments of loss but also sometimes in moments of great love or moments when we have been spared. In those moments it’s natural to say or inwardly feel “Thy will be done,” I surrender, opening to the rain and the sun and all that will come, knowing that we and life is more than we think we are.
Tracy Cochran, The Golden Ticket
photo : gorkaazk
Our instinct is to run away from the difficult moments in our life,
when in fact they may be sent to teach us and help us grow:
Medicine and illness heal one another
The whole world is medicine
Yunmen, 862 – 949
photo CGP grey
A day when I am aware of the gift of life.
This poem was written by Jane Kenyon shortly before she died of leukemia at age 47, aware that things would soon change for her.
I got out of bed
on two strong legs.
It might have been
otherwise. I ate
cereal, sweet
milk, ripe, flawless
peach. It might
have been otherwise.
I took the dog uphill
to the birch wood.
All morning I did
the work I love.
At noon I lay down
with my mate. It might
have been otherwise.
We ate dinner together
at a table with silver
candlesticks. It might
have been otherwise.
I slept in a bed
in a room with paintings
on the walls, and
planned another day
just like this day.
But one day, I know,
it will be otherwise.
Jane Kenyon, Otherwise
photo harald hoyer
Some reflections on love, for the day that is in it…
The human soul doesn’t want to be advised or fixed or saved.
It simply wants to be witnessed — to be seen, heard and companioned exactly as it is.
When we make that kind of deep bow to the soul of a suffering person, our respect reinforces the soul’s healing resources, the only resources that can help the sufferer make it through.
Parker Palmer, The Gift of Presence, The Perils of Advice
There is no way into presence except through a love exchange.
Rumi
photo Ian McKenzie
If your daily life seems poor, do not blame it;
blame yourself,
tell yourself that you are not poet enough to call forth its riches;
for to the creator there is no poverty
Rainer Maria Rilke
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