To be a part, that is fulfillment for us:
to be integrated with our solitude
into a state that can be shared.
Rainer Maria Rilke
photo attribution: © Nevit Dilmen
Tag: heart
A different way of seeing
Ours seems to be a world that values “strength.” We want “strong” minds, “tough” wills, “hard as nail” determination, “rugged” personalities, “sturdy” character, and so on. I wonder if we have confused hardness with the strength it takes to truly give and receive love. Let us praise softness. I’m speaking here of hearts, of soft hearts, of gentle spirits. I’m speaking of the gentleness to give and receive love.
Every heart has a wall around it, a wall that protects, yet also keeps out. Every heart is a walled garden, the original meaning of Paradise – the inner garden that’s protected by the wall. Yet I wonder how often the wall becomes a fortress, keeping out the very ones who are meant to reach us, nurture us, love us? Let us praise softness. Let us seek a heart that is not hard, but soft. Let us seek a heart that is not hardened like dry land, but a soft soil tilled over again and again.
In many languages, the words for “love” have a connection to words for “seed.” In Arabic and Persian, a word for love (hubb) comes from the seed that is planted in the ground. Sometimes a seed of love is planted in the heart’s ground through a glance, a touch, a word. Will the seed take root? Will it be nurtured? Will it be fed?
Are we strong enough not to keep out, but to welcome in?
Omid Safi, In Praise of Softness
photo greenlamplady
Early morning walk
I am thinking, or trying to think, about all the imponderables for which we have
no answers, yet endless interest all the range of our lives,
and it’s good for the head no doubt
to undertake such meditation;
Mystery, after all, is God’s other name, and deserves our considerations surely.
But, but – excuse me now, please;
it’s morning, heavenly bright,
and my irrepressible heart begs me to hurry on into the next exquisite moment.
Mary Oliver, Trying to Be Thoughtful in the First Brights of Dawn
Finding happiness inside…
The main object of religion
is not to get a man into heaven
but to get heaven into him
Thomas Hardy
photo from Glendalough by katzegoesireland
Sunday Quote: Simply yourself
When you are content to be simply yourself
and don’t compare or compete,
everyone will respect you.
Lao Tzu
photo sander van der Wel
Not always straight
It may be that
when we no longer know
what to do,
we have come
to our real work,
and when we
no longer know
which way to go,
we have begun
our real journey
Wendell Berry, The Real Work
photo Anna16
