Psychoanalysis, at its best, doesn’t give us answers but loosens the grip of the questions we’re obsessed with.
Sometimes the most liberating thing is to realize that we don’t need to know why we are the way we are –
we just need to live more freely with the uncertainty.
Adam Phillips, British psychoanalytic psychotherapist and essayist, Going Sane
On the occasion of the funeral of Pope Francis, an example of leadership as service, of simplicity in the face of a world of excess and a worldview in contrast to what has taken centre stage these last few months and years.
The measure of the greatness of a society is found in the way it treats those most in need, those who have nothing apart from their poverty. … When we go out to the margins, to the suffering, we discover something new: the joy of service.
Pope Francis, Homily 2015, On Serving the poor
Simplicity does not mean poverty or austerity. It is the conscious choice to reduce the superfluous in order to focus on the essential – what truly matters in life.
The more we clutter our lives with distractions, the less space we have for genuine contentment. Happiness thrives in simplicity, in moments of quiet presence rather than in the relentless pursuit of more.
Matthieu Ricard Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill
Life was unfolding in spite of me, not because of me. The more I leaned back and trusted, the more life took care of itself.
The key is to stop fighting. Lean back , let go and let life flow through you.
When you do, you will see that life knows what it’s doing
Michael Singer, The Surrender Experiment
Same understanding as yesterday’s quote, but from the Western tradition
I have spoken at times of a light in the deepest self,
a light that is uncreated and uncreatable,
and to the extent that we can turn away from created things, we shall find our unity and blessing in that little spark,
which neither space nor time touches.
Meister Eckhart
A bank holiday in Ireland to mark the start of Spring. Helpful in work-life balance
Peace is understood in the Christian tradition as tranquillitas ordinis, the quietness of order, the calm that comes with harmony.
And order is arranging things so that each gives to the other its proper place. Even God must do this. In the Jewish tradition it is said that, in order to create the world, God had to step back
David Steindl-Rast, osb., Music of Silence: A Sacred Journey Through the Hours of the Day
Even the long-beloved
was once an unrecognized stranger.
Just so, the chipped lip of a blue-glazed cup,
blown field of a yellow curtain,
might also,
flooding and falling,
ruin your heart.
A table painted with roses.
An empty clothesline.
Each time,
the found world surprises –
that is its nature.
And then
what is said by all lovers:
“What fools we were, not to have seen.”
Jane Hirshfield, Meeting the Light Completely
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