We desperately need to make clearances in our entangled lives to let our souls breathe.
John O’Donohue
Sunday Quote: Space
Tag: balance
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
A soft gaze
Most of our suffering comes from having a fixed view of how life, or this day, should go…
For things to reveal themselves to us
we need to be ready to abandon our views about them
Thich Nhat Hahn
In our power
My motto has always been: “Always merry and bright.” Perhaps that is why I never tire of quoting Rabelais: “For all your ills I give you laughter.” As I look back on my life, which has been full of tragic moments, I see it more as a comedy than a tragedy. The man who takes himself seriously is doomed…
There is nothing wrong with life itself. It is the ocean in which we swim and we either adapt to it or sink to the bottom. But it is in our power as human beings not to pollute the waters of life, not to destroy the spirit which animates us.
The most difficult thing for a creative individual is to refrain from the effort to make the world to his liking and to accept his fellow man for what he is, whether good, bad or indifferent.
Henry Miller, 1891 – 1980, American writer and artist.
Mindfulbalance 