Can we simply allow ourselves to feel happy, no matter what the changing circumstances in our life look like…
When we realize the everlasting truth
of “everything changes”
and find our composure in it,
we find ourselves in Nirvana.
Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, Zen MInd, Beginners Mind
When you start tuning in to winter, you realise that we live through a thousand winters in our lives – some big, some small… Some winters creep up on us so slowly that they have infiltrated every part of our lives before we truly feel them. […] To get better at wintering, we need to address our very notion of time. We tend to imagine that our lives are linear, but they are in fact cyclical.
Katherine May, Wintering: The Power of rest and Retreat in Difficult Times
The wise person does not grieve for the things which they do not have,
but rejoices in those which they do have.
Epictetus, died 135 AD, Greek Stoic philosopher
Do we relate to our circumstances with bitterness or with openness?
This is our choice in every moment
Pema Chodron
La festa di Santa Lucia. Today is the feastday of Saint Lucia of Syracuse (283–304) a martyr revered for her courage in secretly bringing food to those who were hiding from persecution in the catacombs under Rome. Legend tells us that she wore a crown of candles to light her way so that her hands were free to carry the food.
Before the calendar was changed, her feast fell on the shortest day of the year, the Winter Solstice. It is still a big celebration in Nordic countries, marking the turn in winter and the return of light
All night my heart makes its way
however it can over the rough ground
of uncertainties, but only until night
meets and then is overwhelmed by
morning, the light deepening, the
wind easing and just waiting, as I
too wait (and when have I ever been
disappointed?) for redbird to sing.
Mary Oliver, A Thousand Mornings
I clearly remember deciding that from now on,
if life was unfolding in a certain way,
and the only reason I was resisting it was of a personal preference,
I would let go of the preference
and let life be in charge.
Michael A. Singer
Mindfulbalance 