Ripeness is
what falls away with ease.
Not only the heavy apple,
the pear,
but also the dried brown strands
of autumn iris from their core.
To let your body
love this world
that gave itself to your care
in all of its ripeness,
with ease,
and will take itself from you
in equal ripeness and ease,
is also harvest.
And however sharply
you are tested –
this sorrow, that great love –
it too will leave on that clean knife.
Jane Hirshfield, Ripeness
Beginning in infancy (or even before) each of us, in response to perceived threats to our well-being, develops a false self: a set of protective behaviors driven at root by a sense of need and lack. The essence of the false self is driven, addictive energy, consisting of tremendous emotional investment in compensatory “emotional programs for happiness.”
Cynthia Bourgeault, Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening
What is right today is wrong tomorrow
Ryokan, 1758 – 1831, Japanese Zen monk and poet
Next time is next time.
Now is now
The words of Hirayama in the beautiful, meditative, film Perfect Days, to his niece who wants to know when they will go to see the ocean.
It sums up his whole philosophy of life
Therefore, tell me:
what will engage you?
What will open the dark fields of your mind,
like a lover
at first touching?
Mary Oliver, Flare
Feastday of Saint Francis of Assisi
The tree which moves some to tears of joy, is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way.
Some see nature all ridicule and deformity … and some scarce see nature at all.
But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself.
William Blake
You have power over your mind, not outside events.
Realize this, and you will find strength
Marcus Aurelius
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