Tag: Joy

Light which gives meaning

Karl Duffy4 Comments

When you possess light within, you see it externally.     

Anais Nin

Today is the Summer Solstice, the northern hemisphere’s longest day –  the official start of Summer  – when the longer days of sunlight follow. Unusually for Ireland we are actually forecast a day of very warm sunshine. Traditionally,  cultures knew the significance of this date and marked it by the lighting of bonfires. It reminds us that we are at a midpoint of the year, which hints at every midpoint on a journey.  Life is short and there are many challenges each day.  However, we choose how to use time, bringing the light of beauty to each moment, long or short

We live between the act of awakening and the act of surrender.

Each morning we awaken to the light and the invitation to a new day in the world of time; each night we surrender to the dark to be taken to play in the world of dreams where time is no more. At birth we were awakened and emerged to become visible in the world. At death we will surrender again to the dark to become invisible.

Awakening and surrender: they  frame each day and each life; between them the journey where anything can happen, the beauty and the frailty.

John O’Donohue.
photo SK

Sunday Quote: Just stay in the moment

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Things arise – just let them come;
Things disappear –  just let them go.
Create but do not possess
Act but don’t expect.

Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

We always think we need to do more..

Karl Duffy2 Comments

Our heart is often divided by doubt and our efforts go into what or how we should be, or into trying to prove ourselves. We need to dis-engage from this mind which produces narratives such as ‘I need to do more” and not hold on to notions of progress which require a perfect self-image:

Thomas Merton said the way we have structured our lives, we spend our whole life climbing up the ladder of supposed success, and when we get to the top of the ladder we realize it is leaning against the wrong wall — and there is nothing at the top. To get back to the place of inherent abundance, you have to let go of all of the false agendas, unreal goals, and passing self-images. It is all about letting go. The spiritual life is more about unlearning than learning, because the deepest you already knows.

Richard Rohr, The Art of Letting Go

Sunday Quote: Full of wonder

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This is a wonderful day.

I’ve never seen this one before

Maya Angelou

Sunday Quote: Seeing what is important

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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

Loving life

Karl Duffy1 Comment

I’ve always had the feeling that life loves the liver of it. You must live and life will be good to you, give you experiences. They may not all be that pleasant, but nobody promised you a rose garden. But more than likely if you do dare, what you get are the marvelous returns. Courage is probably the most important of the virtues, because without courage you cannot practice any of the other virtues, you can’t say against a murderous society, I oppose your murdering. You got to have courage to do so. I seem to have known that a long time and found great joy in it.

Maya Angelou, in Judith Rich, Conversations with Maya Angelou