Outward and inward

When outward praise and gain are forgotten,

the body rests in calm

When inward thinking and worrying cease,

the heart returns to peace.

Anonymous Taoist, late Qing dynasty, Secret Records of Understanding the Way.

Being able to bend

The tree is made strong and resilient by its grounded root system. These roots take nourishment from the ground and grow strong. Grounding also allows the tree to be resilient so that it can yield to the winds of change and not be uprooted. Springiness is the facility to ground and ‘unground’ in a rhythmical way. This buoyancy is a dynamic form of grounding.

Peter Levine, Walking the Tiger

All things, including grass and trees, are soft and pliable in life;
dry and brittle in death.

Stiffness is thus a companion of death,
flexibility a companion of life

Lao Tzu, Tao te Ching 76

Sunday quote: home

When we release that striving

for somewhere else and something else,

we come home.

Karen Maezen Miller

Self care

A long weekend in Ireland

I live by the truth that “No” is a complete sentence.

I rest as a spiritual act.

Anne Lamott, Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith

Change

The problem with life is that it flows and is not graspable.

The beauty of life is that it runs and does not stop.

Joan Chittister, There is a Season

a rainbow

The thing to do, it seems to me, is to prepare yourself so you can be a rainbow in somebody else’s cloud.

Somebody who may not look like you. May not call God the same name you call God – if they call God at all. I may not dance your dances or speak your language.

But be a blessing to somebody. That’s what I think.

– Maya Angelou