And that is just the point… how the world, moist and beautiful, calls to each of us to make a new and serious response.
That’s the big question, the one the world throws at you every morning.
“Here you are, alive. Would you like to make a comment?”
Mary Oliver
The Christian calendar today remembers the story in the gospel of Matthew which tells how King Herod ordered the killing of all the children in an attempt to murder Jesus. It is striking that this feast day is celebrated just a few days after the celebration of Christmas, which is associated with joy. It draws attention to the reality of our changing experience, that sadness can follow joy very quickly, or disappointment come when least expected. Or maybe to the reality of the world, as many people experience violence and hatred every day, no matter what time of year.
To experience peace does not mean that your life is always blissful.
It means that you are capable of tapping into a blissful state of mind amidst the normal chaos of a hectic life.
Jill Boite Taylor, American neuroanatomist.
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
The present moment is never unbearable if you live in it fully.
What is unbearable is to have your body here at 10 A.M. and your mind at 6 P.M.
your body in Bombay and your mind in San Francisco.
Anthony de Mello, sj, The Heart of the Enlightened
Many native cultures believe that the heart is the bridge between Father Sky and Mother Earth. For these traditions, the ‘four-chambered heart,’ the source for sustaining emotional and spiritual health, is described as being full, open, clear, and strong. These traditions feel that it is important to check the condition of the four-chambered heart daily, asking: ‘Am I full-hearted, open-hearted, clear-hearted, and strong-hearted?’
Angeles Arrien 1940 – 2014, Cultural anthropologist.
The last day of the year in the Christian liturgical calendar. Advent and the preparation for Christmas starts tomorrow:
Ah, world, what lessons you prepare for us,
even in the leafless winter,
even in the ashy city.
I am thinking now
of grief, and of getting past it;
I feel my boots
trying to leave the ground,
I feel my heart
pumping hard. I want
to think again of dangerous and noble things.
I want to be light and frolicsome.
I want to be improbable beautiful and afraid of nothing,
as though I had wings.
Mary Oliver, Starlings in Winter
Mindfulbalance 