Finally I am coming to the conclusion
that my highest ambition is to be what I already am.
Thomas Merton
Autumn: new beginnings
A short note on the passing of time: I started this blog ten years ago this week, and, once I got going, have posted every day since then. Some of you have been with me since those early days, and I thank you for your support and encouragement. I am very grateful to everyone who stops by, even if just once.
I post to remind myself to begin anew every day and hope that the thoughts selected help you see the world in new and fresh ways too.
That old September feeling, left over from school days, of summer passing, vacation nearly done, obligations gathering, books and football in the air… Another Fall, another turned page: there was something of jubilee in that annual autumnal beginning, as if last year’s mistakes had been wiped clean by summer.
Abba Poemen said about Abba Pior that every single day he made a fresh beginning.
Abba Poemen, Egyptian monk, (c. 340–450)
Light in the darkness
When you find yourself bereft
Of any belief in yourself
And all you unknowingly
Leaned on has fallen….
Steady yourself and see
That it is your own thinking
That darkens your world,
Search and you will find
A diamond-thought of light.
Know that you are not alone,
And that this darkness has purpose
John O’Donohue, For Courage (extract)
Set-backs
Sometimes we must undergo hardships, breakups, and narcissistic wounds, which shatter the flattering image that we had of ourselves, in order to discover two truths: that we are not who we thought we were; and that the loss of a cherished pleasure is not necessarily the loss of true happiness and well-being.
Jean-Yves Leloup, Compassion and Meditation
Where you actually are
When you find your place where you actually are, practice occurs....
When you find your way at this moment, practice occurs…
Here is the place; Here the way unfolds
Dogen, 1200 – 1253, Genjōkōan: Actualizaing the Fundamental Point
What is the sacred?
Wisdom consists in doing the next thing that you have to do,
doing it with your whole heart,
and finding delight in doing it.
And the delight is the sense of the sacred.
Helen Luke, 1904 – 1995, Jungian Analyst and writer
