The current of life requires us to stand up, again and again, and we are not defeated when we are worn down, just exposed anew at a deeper level. We are meant to live between the two. In this way, life keeps getting more and more precious. It is a natural law like gravity or osmosis: Stand up to be worn bare. It is how everything in the way is thinned, so we can feel just how thoroughly alive we are.
Mark Nepo
If I ask you, ‘Who are you?’ You answer, ‘I am the one who sees. From back in here somewhere, I look out, and I am aware of the events, thoughts, and emotions that pass before me.’ If you go very deep, that is where you live. A true spiritual being lives there, without effort and without intent. Behind all thoughts and emotions, there you are. Now you are in the center of your consciousness. You are behind everything, your true home. The great mystery begins once you take that seat deep within.
Michael Singer
Let this darkness be a bell tower
and you the bell. As you ring,
what batters you becomes your strength.
Move back and forth into the change.
What is it like, such intensity of pain?
If the drink is bitter, turn yourself to wine.
Rilke
Reflecting on the challenges posed by this ongoing pandemic:
Reality met on its own terms demands …..another identity …..more silent and more here than the one looking hungrily for an easy, unearned answer.
David Whyte, Consolations
The long silences need to be loved, perhaps
more than the words
which arrive
to describe them
in time.
Franz Wright, 1953 – 2015 American Poet, East Boston, 1996
We must find a way to replace yearning for what life has withheld from us with gratitude for what we have been given.
Kent Nerburn
Transformation not only shifts how you view the world, but also how you relate to the world. In every situation, ask yourself, ‘Am I being an actor or a victim? Am I valuing or devaluing? Am I focused on me or on us?’ As humans, we are meaning-making creatures. We can create any meaning we want. Why not create a life-enhancing set of possibilities, rather than an endless refrain of victimization and suffering? Manifesting your transformation in the world is what makes it substantial.
Marilyn Schlitz, Social anthropologist, researcher and writer,
Mindfulbalance 