We always think we need to do more..

Our heart is often divided by doubt and our efforts go into what or how we should be, or into trying to prove ourselves. We need to dis-engage from this mind which produces narratives such as ‘I need to do more” and not hold on to notions of progress which require a perfect self-image:

Thomas Merton said the way we have structured our lives, we spend our whole life climbing up the ladder of supposed success, and when we get to the top of the ladder we realize it is leaning against the wrong wall — and there is nothing at the top. To get back to the place of inherent abundance, you have to let go of all of the false agendas, unreal goals, and passing self-images. It is all about letting go. The spiritual life is more about unlearning than learning, because the deepest you already knows.

Richard Rohr, The Art of Letting Go

Sunday Quote: Full of wonder

 

This is a wonderful day.

I’ve never seen this one before

Maya Angelou

Developing a routine of care

We are so attentive to our devices, making sure they are charged. Do we show the same care and concern for our hearts? Do we wait until we are running on fumes? How lovely and wise to make sure that the recharging is not through being a “weekend warrior” or even once-every-few-years vacations (both are lovely), but rather a matter of daily practice. […]

Let us, you and I, friends, find what sustains our soul.

Let us find what nurtures our heart, who nurtures our heart, where our heart is nurtured.

Omid Safi, Tending Our Inner Life to Make the World Whole

Turning up, despite our fears

 

Even in beautiful places, we all have to be with different kinds of limitations: we look for an ideal life, but even in nature not every fruit is perfect in shape or colour:

I decided that the most subversive, revolutionary thing I could do

was to show up for my life

and not be ashamed.

Anne Lamott, Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son’s First Year

Sunday Quote: Seeing what is important

A quiet Sunday in a long weekend, with some gone away or starting holidays. When we stop running we come to see what really matters

What in your life is Calling you,
When all the noise is silenced,
The meetings adjourned..
The lists laid aside,
And the Wild Iris blooms
By itself
In the dark forest…
What still pulls on your Soul?

Rumi

Loving life

I’ve always had the feeling that life loves the liver of it. You must live and life will be good to you, give you experiences. They may not all be that pleasant, but nobody promised you a rose garden. But more than likely if you do dare, what you get are the marvelous returns. Courage is probably the most important of the virtues, because without courage you cannot practice any of the other virtues, you can’t say against a murderous society, I oppose your murdering. You got to have courage to do so. I seem to have known that a long time and found great joy in it.

Maya Angelou, in Judith Rich, Conversations with Maya Angelou