I can not do everything, but I can do something.
I must not fail to do the something that I can do.
Helen Keller.
Decluttering our minds
Gaps between activities allow our minds to reopen, expand and have original, often time-and-effort-saving big ideas. So don’t walk with your head down, lost in thought. Don’t just text and call folks when you’re driving or waiting. Don’t read the newspaper when you’re in the bathroom. Allow a little space in your life. Doing nothing is the foundation for doing anything – and it’s one thing we Americans are really, really bad at.
So let go of one or two minutes of entertainment a day – and look out upon this life and world.
Waylon Lewis, Huffington Post
Seeing the bigger picture
The more things go “our way” for a while, the more we can believe that that is the way it is supposed to be.
And when things don’t go “our way,” which sooner or later they will not, we can get angry, disappointed, depressed, devastated……… forgetting that it was never “supposed to be” any one way at all.
Jon Kabat-Zinn, Arriving at your own Door
Nomad
Heard this song for the first time this evening. Its beautiful haunting melody and sparse words speak to those times in our lives when we struggle and are sad, or when our heart feels raw. Often when that happens we contract and turn away, to protect ourselves. It is at times like that that we need friends who will not hide their face, to ground us and help us feel that we have a place.
The other day I looked
At myself in the mirror
Do not hide your face
Do not hide your face
From me when I feel sad
On the day when I call you
Answer me, please answer me
And turn your shy ear towards me
No cows and no grass to graze on
Makes me feel I’m a nomad
I’m lost and silent in the wilderness
Like an owl among the ruins
My wings lined with ashes
alone on the roof
I feel I’m a nomad
I feel I’m a nomad
I feel I’m a nomad
My days go up in smoke
My bones are aching
My days go up in smoke
My heart is breaking
Geoffrey Oryema Nomad
Holding the heart open
Had a beautifu
l stroll this morning on a trail in a forest. The leaves on the trees were shades of red and orange and yellow and the sun was shining brightly. Suddenly not far away on the trail I saw a deer. They come down into this part of the forest because it is a refuge, safe from hunters. It stood and watched me carefully, with big bright eyes. I was full of tenderness toward this timid creature, but it turned away, afraid to trust any human.
The human heart is like that. We want so much to connect, to relax with others, but we wait to see and test if they can actually hold our hearts and our fears. We seem to continually be on the alert for danger. Frequently we have moments like this encounter – with people or with events in our life – when we are faced with a choice. Do we keep the heart open or do we turn away? Can we stay open to all we encounter, knowing that everything we meet can be worked with. I know I find this hard and often say “no” to life as it presents itself in this moment and I contract and pull away.
Stand firm
Doing yoga this morning. The warrior pose. Widening the heart. Being open to all possibilities. We can often identify ourself with who we want to be, or could be in the future, or who our worries say we are. We can forget the strength we actually have and who we really are. The present moment is the only one we have. It is there our happiness is worked out. We lose so much of life by refusing to stay in it, preferring to live in our fears and our worries.
Throw away all thoughts of imaginary things
and stand firm in that which you are.
Kabir
