Tag: inspiration

Mid-Winter wisdom

Karl Duffy5 Comments

Sometimes withdrawal and letting go is as much part of growth as is achievement and moving forward:

There is a tendency to want to hurry from autumn to spring, to avoid the long dark days that winter brings. But winter darkness has a positive side to it. As we gather to celebrate the first turn from winter to spring, we are invited to recognize and honor the beauty in the often unwanted season of winter. Let us invite our hearts to be glad for the courage winter proclaims. Let us be grateful for the wisdom winter brings in teaching us about the need for withdrawal as an essential part of renewal. Let us also encourage our spirits as Earth prepares to come forth from this time of withdrawal into a season filled with light.

Joyce Rupp and Macrina Wiederkehr, The Circle of Life

Only adventure

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

Life is known only by those who have found a way to be comfortable with change and the unknown. Given the nature of life, there may be no security, but only adventure.

Rachel Naomi Remen

photo Vienna heldenplatz

In your deepest self

Karl Duffy1 Comment

 

If you want to identify me, ask me not where I live,

or what I like to eat, or how I comb my hair,

but ask me what I am living for, in detail,

ask me what I think is keeping me from living fully for the thing I want to live for.

Thomas Merton, My argument with the Gestapo

Sunday Quote: Both and

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

As for life, I’m humbled,
I’m without words
sufficient to say

how it has been hard as flint,
and soft as a spring pond,
both of these
and over and over

Mary Oliver, Long Afternoon at the Edge of Little Sister Pond

In the soul

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

 

The desire to know your own soul

will end all other desires

Rumi

Hold things lightly and go easy

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

 

When the shoe fits, the foot is forgotten,
When the belt fits, the belly is forgotten,
When the heart is right
“For” and “against” are forgotten.

No drives, no compulsions,
No needs, no attractions:
Then your affairs are under control.
You are a free  person.

Easy is right. Begin right
And you are easy.
Continue easy and you are right.
The right way to go easy
Is to forget the right way
And forget that the going is easy.

Chuang Tzu, 4th Century BC, In the Dark Before Dawn, (trans. Thomas Merton)