Especially at this time of year…
There are two kinds of thoughts that dominate almost all humans: thoughts revolving around our own history and thoughts revolving around our own future …
Try putting them down, just for a bit.
See if you can greet some part of life more immediately, here and now.
Björn Natthiko Lindeblad. I May Be Wrong: And Other Wisdoms From Life as a Forest Monk
No heaven can come to us, unless our hearts find rest in today.
Take heaven.
No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this precious little instant. Take peace.
Life is so generous a giver, but we, judging its gifts by their coverings, cast them away as ugly or heavy or hard. Remove the covering, and you will find beneath it a living splendour, woven of love, and wisdom, and power.
Welcome it, greet it, and you touch the angel’s hand that brings it.
Christmas Letter attributed to Fra Angelico, 1396 – 1495.
I was fortunate to see the extraordinary exhibition of his works in Florence earlier this year
Nollaig Shona Daoibh! [Happy Christmas to you all ]
All grace comes precisely from nowhere – from silence and emptiness = which is what makes it grace. It is both you, and yet so much greater than you at the same time, which is probably why believers chose both up-rushing fountains and down-rushing doves as metaphors for this universal experience. Sometimes it is an uprush and sometimes it is a down-rush, but it is always from a silence that is larger than you, surrounds you, and names the deeper truth of the full moment that is you.
The word “prayer” has been so consistently trivialized to refer to something you do, instead of something that is done to you, with you, in you, and as you.
Then, like Mary, you are ready to give birth. You are ready for Christmas.
Richard Rohr
Silence is essential.
We need silence just as much as we need air, just as much as plants need light. Silence is a kind of light, the light of the spirit. If in our daily lives we can smile, if we can be peaceful and happy, not only we but everyone will profit from it. This is the most basic kind of peace work.
Thich Nhat Hanh, Silence: The Power of Quiet in a World Full of Noise
The ocean refuses no river. It accepts all comers, and in time, even the muddiest waters clear.
This is the work of stillness: to let everything settle until only what is essential remains.
Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening
Darkness deserves gratitude.
It is the alleluia point at which we learn to understand
that all growth does not take place in the sunlight.
Joan Chittister
Mindfulbalance 