Where is this peace to be found? The answer is clear. In weakness. First of all, in our own weakness, in those places of our hearts where we feel most broken, most insecure, most in agony, most afraid. Why there? Because there, our familiar ways of controlling our world are being stripped away; there we are called to let go from doing much, thinking much, and relying on our self-sufficiency. Right there where we are weakest the peace which is not of this world is hidden.
Henri Nouwen
When a person remains focused on the inconstancy of everything that comes together,
ignorance is abandoned,
and clear knowing [wisdom] arises.
The Buddha, Itivuttaka: The Group of Threes, Iti 3.36;
Even with all our technological accomplishments and urban sophistication, we consider ourselves blessed, healed in some manner, forgiven, and for a moment transported into some other world, when we catch a passing glimpse of an animal in the wild: a deer in some woodland, a fox crossing a field, a butterfly in its dancing flight southward to its wintering region, a hawk soaring in the distant sky.
Thomas Berry : Sunbeams, January 2021
March 25th, The Feastday of the Annunciation
In her poem “Annunciation,” Denise Levertov suggests that the message the angel Gabriel brings to Mary is one that comes to each of us. We receive an intimation of some purpose larger and more challenging than anything we have imagined for ourselves, but all too often those strange and risky times….
“More often
those moments
when roads of light and storm
open from darkness in a man or woman,
are turned away from
in dread, in a wave of weakness, in despair
and with relief.
Ordinary lives continue.
God does not smite them.
But the gates close, the pathway vanishes.“
Kathleen Norris, Acedia & Me: A Marriage, Monks, and a Writer’s Life
Trust your heart
if the seas catch fire
(and live by love
though the stars walk backward)
e.e.cummings
In a consumer society, contentment is a radical proposition.
Recognizing abundance rather than scarcity undermines an economy that thrives by creating unmet desires.
Gratitude cultivates an ethic of fullness.
Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants
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