These roses under my window make no reference to former roses or to better ones; they are for what they are; they exist with God today. There is no time to them. There is simply the rose; it is perfect in every moment of its existence. Its nature is satisfied, and it satisfies nature, in all moments alike.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
We complain a lot about the ever-changing weather in Ireland; this week alone storms and snow, cold and fog…
Every day, priests minutely examine the Teachings
And endlessly chant complicated sutras.
Before doing that, though, they should learn
How to read the love letters sent by
The wind and rain, the snow and moon.
Ikkyu, 1394–1481
When we don’t have sufficient information about what is happening around us, we create meaning. The problem is…this meaning is largely negative. We personalize events and other peoples reactions, interpreting them as responding to us when they aren’t. For example, we decide a person is judgmental because they are frowning while we talk, when we are actually missing the fact that this person always frowns when they are listening carefully. We make us a story that they dislike us, which makes us afraid of them. Why? Because negative facts make a stronger impression on us than positive or neutral ones.
From a nice little book – Leah Weiss, The Little Book of Bhavana
Faith does not need to push the river because faith is able to trust that there is a river.
The river is flowing.
We are in it.
Richard Rohr
Each passing year, we are asked to return to the ground of our spirit in order to go on. Each passing year, we are asked to listen like the seed for our crack of light in spring, to listen like the brook for our soft gurgle in summer, to listen like the leaf for our orange face in fall, to listen like the snow for a quiet place where we can powder down and rest
Mark Nepo, Seven Thousand Ways to Listen: Staying Close to What is Sacred
If your mind isn’t clouded
by unnecessary things,
this is the best season of your life.
Wumen Huikai, 1183 -1260
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