I will always have fears,
but I need not be my fears—
for I have other places in my inner landscape
from which I can speak and act
Parker Palmer
photo of morning sun at Portmarnock, Co. Dublin
Category: Be fully present
New and unique
No Moment is the same as any other. Each is unique and contains unique possibilities.
Beginners mind reminds us this simple truth.
The next time you are seeing someone who is familiar to you, ask yourself if you are seeing this person with fresh eyes, as she or he really is,
or if you are seeing only the reflection of your own thoughts about this person
Jon Kabat Zinn, Full Catastrophe LIving
photo EEIM
Always waiting for something to slot into place
Always our rationalization is the same –“Once this situation is remedied, then I will be happy.”
But it never works that way in reality: The goal is achieved, but the person who reaches it is not the same person who dreamed it.
The goal was static, but the person’s identity was dynamic.
Philip Moffitt
photo twilightsojourn
Wanting other
Most humans are never fully present in the now,
because unconsciously they believe that the next moment must be more important than this one.
But then you miss your whole life, which is never not now
Eckhart Tolle
photo michal osmenda
On the threshold
Even though we are having very mild weather this year, there is still a sense that these early November days hold a sense of change, an understanding that we’re moving from one way of being to another. As Terri Lynn Simpson at the Washington National Cathedral Centre for Prayer and Pilgrimage wrote, they “are like open doorways that invite us to a particular kind of mindfulness where we are aware that we’re moving from one way of being to another. One foot is in the past and one foot is in the future, and in the midst of the two is the present. We can put our weight on one foot or another, superficially living in the past or the future, but true balance comes only when we live deeply in the moment”
In the deep Fall
don’t you imagine the leaves think how
comfortable it will be to touch
the earth instead of the
nothingness of air and the endless
freshets of wind? And don’t you think
the trees themselves, especially those with mossy,
warm caves, begin to think
of the birds that will come — six, a dozen — to sleep
inside their bodies? And don’t you hear
the goldenrod whispering goodbye,
the everlasting being crowned with the first
tuffets of snow? The pond
vanishes, and the white field over which
the fox runs so quickly brings out
its blue shadows. And the wind pumps its
bellows. And at evening especially,
the piled firewood shifts a little,
longing to be on its way.
Mary Oliver, Song for Autumn
On being fully in the moment
A thought prompted by the traditional fires lit on this important Celtic feast day of Samhain which marks the start of winter or the “darker half” of the year and which have transferred over into the celebration of Halloween.
When you do something,
you should burn yourself completely,
like a good bonfire,
leaving no trace of yourself.
Shunryu Suzuki
photo janne karaste
