If you find yourself doubting or hesitating today…
The next time you encounter fear, consider yourself lucky. This is where the courage comes in. Usually we think that brave people have no fear. The truth is that they are intimate with fear. When I was first married, my husband said I was one of the bravest people he knew. When I asked him why, he said because I was a complete coward but went ahead and did things anyhow.
Pema Chodron, When Things Fall Apart
photo dwight sipler
Be patient with everyone, but above all, with yourself.
I mean, do not be disheartened by your imperfections, but always rise up with fresh courage.
I am glad you make a fresh beginning daily.
There is no better means of attainment to the spiritual life than by continually beginning again…
How are we to be patient in dealing with our neighbor’s faults if we are impatient in dealing with our own.
All profitable correction comes from a calm and peaceful mind.
from the ever gentle Saint Francis de Sales,
photo LinSu Hill
Sometimes it is hard to see what what is really going on in our lives or where they are leading to. Underneath, something is happening. We just have to be patient for it to emerge.
If you break open the cherry tree
Where are the flowers?
But in the Springtime
see how they bloom!
Ikkyu, 1394 – 1481 Japanese Zen monk and poet
Here close to earth be cherished, mortal heart,
Hold your way deep as roots push rocks apart
To bring the spurt of green up from the dark.
Where music thundered let the mind be still,
Where the will triumphed let there be no will,
What light revealed, now let the dark fulfill.
Here close to earth the deeper pulse is stirred,
Here where no wings rush and no sudden bird,
But only heart-beat upon beat is heard.
Here let the fiery burden be all spilled,
The passionate voice at last be calmed and stilled
And the long yearning of the blood fulfilled.
Now voyager, come home, come home to rest,
Here on the long-lost country of earth’s breast
Lay down the fiery vision, and be blest, be blest.
extract May Sarton, Now Voyager
photo Yu-hong Wen
When I rise up
let me rise up joyful
like a bird
When I fall
let me fall without regret
like a leaf.
Wendell Berry, Prayers and Sayings of the Mad Farmer
photo sten
It is not easy for a man to be as great as a mountain or a forest.
But that is why the Creator gave them to us as teachers.
Now that I am old I look once more toward them for lessons,
instead of trying to understand the ways of men,
Kent Nerburn, Neither Wolf nor Dog: On Forgotten Roads with an Indian Elder
photo mwolf89
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