Surprised by joy

Our life journey contain many twists and turns and we all make mistakes along the way. And yet, Spring returns

I write, 

erase, 

rewrite.

Erase again, and then…

A poppy blooms.

Hokusai, 1760 – 1849, Japanese painter, printmaker

As it is

The biggest error we make in our life … is to think that … our life just as it is, with all of its problems, … has something wrong with it. And because we think that, we get busy... Our life is always all right. … But since we refuse to accept life as it is, because of our preference for things that are pleasurable, we pick and choose from life.

Charlotte Joko Beck, Everyday Zen

Sunday Quote: Birth to oneself

A new moon teaches gradualness
and deliberation and how one gives birth
to oneself slowly
. Patience with small details
makes perfect a large work, like the universe.
What nine months of attention does for an embryo
forty early mornings will do for your gradually growing wholeness

Rumi

Asking the dog

Love, love, love, says Percy.
And hurry as fast as you can
along the shining beach, or the rubble, or the dust.

Then, go to sleep.
Give up your body heat, your beating heart.
Then, trust.

Mary Oliver, I Ask Percy How I Should Live My Life

A life of joy

The first day of Spring in most calendars in the Northern Hemisphere

We learn in our guts, not just in our brain, that a life of joy is not in seeking happiness, but in experiencing and simply being the circumstances of our life as they are.

Charlotte Joko Beck, Everyday Zen

Both rain and sun

The cloud weeps, and then the garden sprouts.
The baby cries, and the mother’s milk flows.
The Nurse of Creation has said, Let them cry a lot.

This rain-weeping and sun-burning twine together
to make us grow. Keep your intelligence white-hot
and your grief glistening,
so your life will stay fresh.
Cry easily like a little child.

Rumi