The promise of being broken
and the possibility of being opened
are written into the contract of human life.
Elizabeth Lesser, Broken Open
Tag: growth
….And keeping our faces toward change
Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.
To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable.
Helen Keller
In a general sense we seem to prefer things to remain the same and dislike too much uncertainty (except maybe when the normal dull Irish Summer has been replaced by warm sunny days). Change unsettles and can prompt an almost instant movement towards turning away or tightening up. So it is a challenge to “keep our faces towards change” – as Helen Keller says- by going against our instinct for once and staying with something that our fears tell us to avoid. When we consistently buy into our fears and strengthen fearful thoughts, we can forget some of the larger truths of life, or lose sight of our essential confidence and strength. An avoidance mentality leads us to expect trouble and weakens our ability to live with how the present moment is unfolding.
One of the fundamental truths of existence is that life changes, and changes in ways that we cannot expect. So developing this capacity to turn towards change is a necessary skill for working with life. It is probably best to practice it in smaller matters, so that it is somewhat developed when the bigger changes happen. So it is good to sometimes look at some small things we avoid and see what we can learn from them. We could practice with something like some paperwork we have been putting off, a contact we have been delaying, or staying in the presence of someone who disturbs us instead of running away. In this way we can be curious about what happens when we move towards something rather than moving away.
photo of dawn at Dunmore East Co. Waterford, Ireland
Like a therapist
We are trying to develop a different relationship with the mind. Awareness contributes to the subduing of harmful emotions and this awareness extends to everything, including ourselves. We need to treat ourselves with the same objective distance that a therapist uses for her clients. By subduing the harmful emotions and afflictive states of mind, our aim is to increase our helpful emotions or mental states, like empathy, gentleness, compassion, wisdom, generosity, warmth and so on. The more we become aware of our inner workings, the more adept we become at applying the mental balancing techniques that will offer us true mental health
Karuna Cayton, The Misleading Mind
U.S. Navy photo of physical therapist Rachel Oden
Conditions for Growth
The potential space between baby and mother, between child and family, between the individual and society and the world, depends on experience which leads to trust. It can be looked upon as sacred to the individual, in that it is here that the individual experiences creative living.
Winnicott, Playing and Reality
Little steps
Sometimes I feel overwhelmed. But I try to work one day at a time. If we just worry about the big picture, we are powerless. So my secret is to start right away doing whatever little work I can do. I try to give joy to one person in the morning, and remove the suffering of one person in the afternoon. That’s enough.
When you see you can do that, you continue, and you give two little joys, and you remove two little sufferings, then three, and then four. If you and your friends do not despise the small work, a million people will remove a lot of suffering. That is the secret. Start right now.
Sister Chân Không
photo shaun mitchem
Seizing the moment
Although the reflection in the pond
is often blurry to us:
Grasp the image.
Only in the double world
do voices become
tender and eternal.
Rilke, Sonnets to Orpheus, I,9
Mindfulbalance 