Tag: gratitude

In relationships and in life

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

File:St Roch Cemetery Merci Marble.JPG

At every moment we have the choice of either feeling gratitude for what has been given to us or indulging in grievance about what is missing. Grievance and gratitude are polar opposites. Grievance focuses on what is not there – the imperfections of relational love – and looks for someone to blame. Gratitude recognises what is here – the simple beauty of human presence and contact – and responds to it with appreciation

John Welwood, Perfect Love, Imperfect Relationships.

photo from  Saint Roch Cemetery, New Orleans

The right response

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

Life is given to us; every moment is given.

The only appropriate response therefore is gratefulness. When we wake up to the fact that everything is a gift, it is only natural to be thankful and to look on everything that happens as a chance to respond to the Given Life.

David Steindl-Rast, The Music of Silence

Reach out today

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

You often say “I would give, but only to the deserving” . The trees in the orchard say not so, nor the flocks in the pastures. They give that they may live,  for to withhold is to perish.

Kahlil Gibran

Today, send out goodness

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

If you send out goodness from yourself, or if you share that which is happy or good within you, it will all come back to you multiplied ten thousand times. In the kingdom of love there is no competition; there is no possessiveness or control. The more love you give away, the more love you will have.

John O’Donoghue

A key practice for happiness: Cultivate thankfulness today

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

Gratitude is the sweetest of all the practices for daily life and the most easily cultivated, requiring the least sacrifice for what is gained in return.  It is a very powerful form of mindfulness practice, particularly for those  who have depressive or self-defeating feelings, and those with a reactive personality who habitually notice everything that’s wrong in a situation.

Practicing mindfulness of gratitude consistently leads to a direct experience of being connected to life and the realization that there is a larger context in which your personal story is unfolding. Cultivating thankfulness for being part of life blossoms into a feeling of being blessed, not in the sense of winning the lottery, but in a more refined appreciation for the interdependent nature of life. It also elicits feelings of generosity, which create further joy. Gratitude can soften a heart that has become too guarded, and it builds the capacity for forgiveness, which creates the clarity of mind that is ideal for spiritual development.

Phillip Moffitt, Selfless Gratitude

Searching for a home

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

Tomorrow is Saint Patrick’s Day, the Patron Saint of the Irish, so a few posts on identity, home,  the self and being secure in who we are.

There is an internal landscape, a geography of the soul; we search for its outlines all our lives. Those who are lucky enough to find it ease like water over a stone, onto its fluid contours, and are home. Some find it in the place of their birth; others may leave a seaside town, parched, and find themselves refreshed in the desert. There are those born in rolling countryside who are really only at ease in the intense and busy loneliness of the city. For some, the search is for the imprint of another; a child or a mother, a grandfather or a brother, a lover, a husband, a wife, or a foe. We may go through our lives happy or unhappy, successful or unfulfilled, loved or unloved, without ever standing cold with the shock of recognition, without ever feeling the agony as the twisted iron in our soul unlocks itself and we slip at last into place.

Josephine Hart