Take what is given

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At my feet the white-petalled daisies display
the small suns of their center piece, their – if you don’t
mind my saying so – their hearts.

Of course
I could be wrong, perhaps their hearts are pale and
narrow and hidden in the roots.

What do I know?
But this: it is heaven itself to take what is given,
to see what is plain; what the sun lights up willingly;
for example – I think this
as I reach down, not to pick but merely to touch –
the suitability of the field for the daisies, and the
daisies for the field

Mary Oliver, Daisies

No feeling is final

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Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
Just keep going. No feeling is final.
Don’t let yourself lose me.

Nearby is the country they call life.
You will know it by its seriousness.

Give me your hand.

Rilke, Book of Hours, I

photo April Killingsworth

Kindness towards ourselves…

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May there be kindness in your gaze when you look within.

May you never place walls between the light and yourself.

May your angel free you from the prisons of guilt, fear, disappointment, and despair.

May you allow the wild beauty of the invisible world to gather you, mind you, and embrace you in belonging.

John O’Donohue, Eternal Echoes

Photo: without you

Sunday Quote: Colour

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There is not one little blade of grass,

there is no colour in this world

that is not intended to make men rejoice.

John Calvin

An unobserved life

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The search for happiness is one of the chief sources of unhappiness.

Eric Hoffer, American moral and social philosopher.

Making friends with ourselves

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The ninth Karama, a sixteenth-century meditation master, wrote of a “reverse meditation”, in which we recognize thoughts as they occur and regard them as friends. This “reverses” the tendency to regard thoughts as distractions from the main focus; now the thoughts themselves are the main focus. Mindfulness-of-mind practice is a further step on the path of making friends with ourselves. This is the heart of awareness practice: making friends with our entire being as a stepping stone to embracing our world.

Gaylon Ferguson, Natural Wakefulness