Category: Make the most of life

A new day, a New week

Karl Duffy2 Comments

dawn sun

 All that is eternal in me
Welcome the wonder of this day,
The field of brightness it creates
Offering time for each thing
To arise and illuminate

 May my mind come alive today
To the invisible geography
That invites me to new frontiers,
To break the dead shell of yesterdays,
To risk being disturbed and changed.

May I have the courage today
To live the life that I would love,
To postpone my dream no longer
But do at last what I came here for
And waste my heart on fear no more.

John O’Donohue, A Morning Offering

Tolerating uncertainty

Karl Duffy5 Comments

File:Misty River Barrow - geograph.org.uk - 1035459.jpg

Life’s energy is never static. It is as shifting, fluid, changing as the weather. How we relate to this dynamic flow of energy is important. We can learn to relax with it, recognizing it as our basic ground, as a natural part of life; Or the feeling of uncertainty, of nothing to hold on to, can cause us to panic, and instantly a chain reaction begins.We panic, we get hooked, and then our habits take over and we act in a very predictable way.

Pema Chodron, Taking the Leap

photo kevin higgins

Sunday Quote: Our guide

Karl Duffy1 Comment

path

On this path

let the heart be your guide

for the body is hesitant and full of fear

Rumi

Absence

Karl Duffy5 Comments

File:Valle d'aosta the last leaf.JPG

A poem for this time of year, when – with the fall of autumn leaves – it seems that letting go is the lesson we have to learn, even if we don’t want to:

May you know that absence is alive with hidden presence,

that nothing is ever lost or forgotten.

May the absences in your life grow full of eternal echo.

May you sense around you the secret Elsewhere,

where the presences that have left you dwell.

May you be generous in your embrace of loss.

May the sore well of grief turn into a seamless flow of presence.

May your compassion reach out to the ones we never hear from.

May you have the courage to speak for the excluded ones.

May you become the gracious and passionate subject of your own life.

May you not disrespect your mystery through brittle words or false belonging.

May you be embraced by God in whom dawn and twilight are one.

May your longing inhabit it’s dreams within the Great Belonging.

John O’Donohue, A Blessing for Absences

photo massimocuaz

Our natural spaciousness

Karl Duffy1 Comment

File:Path across field - geograph.org.uk - 1297870.jpg

We all have a clear, wondrously bright field from the beginning. With boundless wisdom,  journey beyond this,  letting go of accomplishments. Abandon all scheming and simply take on responsibility. Having turned yourself around, and accepting where you are, set out along your path, and a spiritual energy will marvelously move you along. Contact phenomena with total sincerity, not a single atom of dust outside yourself.

Hongzhi, 1091-1157, Chinese Chan (Zen) monk

photo evelyn simak

Not holding on to outcomes

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

sunflower wilting

A flower falls, even though we love it;

a weed grows, even though we do not love it.

Dogen