A quiet Sunday in a long weekend, with some gone away or starting holidays. When we stop running we come to see what really matters
What in your life is Calling you,
When all the noise is silenced,
The meetings adjourned..
The lists laid aside,
And the Wild Iris blooms
By itself
In the dark forest…
What still pulls on your Soul?
Rumi
Spring is a metaphor for transitions. It moves from lifelessness to life and we move from lifelessness to life in each cycle of breathing. If we know change is going to occur we are in a better place to accept it. If we expect things to stay constant we are vulnerable to frustration, disappointment, and resistance.
Spring is also a metaphor for forgiveness. Whatever happened in the last season, life begins anew with no carryover resentment from the past. Spring reminds us, as Pema Chodron says, to start where we are.
Spring shows us the cycle of living and dying on a bigger scale do. Everything comes into being and goes out of being — changing its form. Spring invites us not to become attached to things, even the most precious things in our life. The invitation is to love things wholeheartedly with the awareness that they will not be with us forever. And, indeed, we, ourselves, will not be here forever. The invitation is to not be afraid to grieve when that grief becomes necessary. Grief is, at times, the admission price to the present moment.
So welcome spring and your multifaceted metaphors for mindful living!
On Sunday during his sermon in Bolton Abbey, Fr Michael said that an awareness of goodness can strike at any moment, cutting through our complacency and reminding us that, deep down, there is wonder at the heart of our experience, even when we struggle and cannot see it. He saw it in the tender care of a cow for its new-born calf. Merton saw it in the swallows flight:
There are days when I am convinced that Heaven starts already, now, in this ordinary life, just as it is, in all its incompleteness, yet, this is where Heaven starts. See within yourself, if you can find it. I walked through the field in front of the house, lots of swallows flying, everywhere! Some very near me. It was magical.
We are already one, yet we know it not
Thomas Merton,
Drink your tea slowly and reverently,
as if it as the axis on which the world revolves
Thich Nhat Hanh
Zen teaches that our approach to today determines our whole approach to life.
The Japanese call this attitude Ichi-nichi issho:
‘Each day is a lifetime.’
Philip Toshio Sudo, Zen 24/7
Another quote on accepting that there are reasons we cannot see and that we do not always have to be in control.
Prompted by the swallows returning yesterday :
Break open the cherry tree:
But where are the blossoms?
Wait for spring time and see how they bloom!
Ikkyu, Zen Buddhist monk and poet, 1394 – 1481
photo andrew bossi
This is the primary…affirmation within all of Scripture…
To believe that we and our world are good, very good;
to take delight in our lives and in each other;
to live lives that radiate joy rather than depression, boredom, and resentment;
well … that sounds simple and easy, but remains a rare thing that’s seldom accomplished.
The most important challenge that all of us face in life is to….bless rather than to curse!
Ron Rolheiser, Blessing and Cursing Life
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