The Joy that isn’t shared,
I’ve heard
dies young.
Anne Sexton, from Welcome Morning
Sunday quote: Joy
Tag: heart
Sunday Quote: A light within
Most days we resist the moment as it presents itself – even if good – as we either try to make it last longer or change into something else. So we go out of the heart and into the head, judging, plotting, wishing. But becoming whole is only realizable from within, when we come to see the heart is complete when it is free of wanting more or wanting less.
As if you were on fire from within.
The moon lives in the lining of your skin.
Pablo Neruda, Ode to a Naked Beauty
When we are drowning
There is a story told in the Middle East about how to help someone who’s drowning.
A man had fallen into a river. He was not much of a swimmer and was in real danger of drowning. A crowd of concerned people wanted to rescue him. They were standing at the edge of the water, each of them urgently shouting out to him: “Give me your hand, give me your hand!”
The man was battling the waves and ignored their urgent plea. He kept going under and was clearly struggling to take another breath.
A saintly man walked up to the scene. He too cared about the drowning man. But his approach was different. Calmly he walked up to the water, waded in up to his knees, glanced lovingly at the drowning man, and said: “Take my hand.”
Much to everyone’s surprise, the drowning man reached out and grabbed the saint’s hand. The two came out of the dangerous water. The drowning man sat up at the edge of the water, breathing heavily, looking relieved, exhausted, and grateful.
The crowd turned towards the saint and asked: “How were you able to reach him when he didn’t heed our plea?” The saint calmly said: “You all asked him for something, his hand. I offered him something, my hand. A drowning man is in no position to give you anything.”
Let us remember not to ask anything of someone who is drowning.
So if you are that saintly soul, if you want to reach out to someone who is struggling to stay above water, go to them. But don’t ask them to give you their hand. Instead, offer them your hand. Don’t ask for their heart, offer them your heart. Offer them your ear, your love, your shoulder. Release your friends, your family, from the shame of their brokenness. Let them know that you love them through the brokenness, because of the brokenness, and God-willing, after the brokenness.
Free your loved ones of the energy they spend to hide their brokenness from you. Free them of the shame of coming to you as they are. Let them spend that energy on surviving, on healing, on thriving. Let us love one another as we are, so that we may become all we are meant to be.
Omid Safi, How to Reach out to Someone who is Suffering
Life as teacher
Repetition is not failure. Ask the Waves. Ask the Leaves. Ask the Wind
There is no expected pace for inner learning. What we need to learn comes when we need it, no matter how old or young, no matter how many times we have to start over, no matter how many times we have to learn the same lesson. We fall down as many times as we need to, to learn how to fall and get up. We fall in love as many times as we need to, to learn how to hold and be held. We misunderstand the many voices of truth as many times as we need to, to truly hear the choir of diversity that surrounds us. We suffer our pain as often as is necessary for us to learn how to break and how to heal. No one really likes this, of course, but we deal with our dislike in the same way, again and again, until we learn what we need to know about the humility of acceptance.
Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening
Going forward silently
Learn from the rivers
in clefts and in crevices:
those in small channels flow noisily,
the great flow silent.
Whatever is not full, makes noise.
Whatever is full is quiet.
Buddha, Nalaka Sutta
To be peace
When you are feeling overwhelmed, you’re trying too hard.
That kind of energy does not help the other person and it does not help you. You should not be too eager to help right away. There are two things, to be and to do. Don’t think too much about to do – to be is first. To be peace. To be joy. And then to do joy, to do happiness – on the basis of being. Being fresh. Being peaceful. Being compassionate. This is the basic practice. It’s like a person sitting at the foot of a tree. The tree does not have to do anything, but the tree is fresh and alive. When you are like that tree, sending out waves of freshness, you help to calm down the suffering in the other person.
Thich Nhat Hanh, Be Beautiful, Be yourself
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