The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things
Henry Ward Beecher, 1813 – 1887, American social reformer.
How to be happy
Sunday Quote: Space
We desperately need to make clearances in our entangled lives to let our souls breathe.
John O’Donohue
Breathe Freely
The rivers will return to their beginnings.
The wind will cease in its turning about.
Trees instead of budding will tend to their roots.
Old men will chase a ball, a glance in the mirror –
They are children again.
The dead will wake up, not comprehending.
Till everything that happened has unhappened.
What a relief! Breathe freely, you who have suffered much.
Czesław Miłosz
Continue writing
Embrace uncertainty.
Some of the most beautiful chapters in our lives won’t have a title until much later
Bob Goff, 1959 – , lawyer and author
The Life you have
Occasionally, weep deeply over the life you hoped would be. Grieve the losses.
Then wash your face. Trust God.
And embrace the life you have.
John Piper, Theologian and Pastor
Beauty Changes
Today is Candlemas in the Christian tradition, the lighting of candles to look towards the end of winter, layered on the earlier Celtic feast of Imbolc.
Beauty changes; it’s not static. The seasons change. All the leaves fall off the trees, all the flowers disappear. Everything becomes bleak in winter when there is hardly any noticeable contrast, except in shades of dark and light. Now we might say that spring is more beautiful than winter, if we prefer vibrant colors, beautiful flowers, an the kind of energy that spring brings. But if we open our minds, we also begin to recognize the subtle beauty of winter. We can appreciate the lack of color and silence of winter as much as the energy of spring.
This appreciation comes from not having opinions about things being perfect in a static way. It comes from seeing that the rose is a perfect rose in spring, summer, autumn and winter. For static perfection, you need a plastic rose, but that’s never as satisfying.
Ajahn Sumedho, The Mind and the Way
Mindfulbalance 