Tag: Joy

Open to surprise

Karl Duffy1 Comment

File:Scenery of Shinji pond at Expo’70 Commemorative Park in Osaka.jpg

Gorgeous amazing things come into our lives when we are paying attention:

Mangoes, Grandchildren, Bach, ponds…

This happens more often when we have as little expectation as possible.

If you say, “Well, that’s pretty much what I thought I’d see,” you are in trouble. At that point you have to ask yourself why you are even here.

[…] Astonishing material and revelation appear in our lives all the time. Let it be. Unto us, so much is given. We just have to be open for business.

Anne Lamott, Help Thanks Wow: Three Essential Prayers

photo: laitche

When we feel fear

Karl Duffy1 Comment

File:Whos that disturbing my sleep? (3330675747).jpg

If you find yourself doubting or hesitating today…

The next time you encounter fear, consider yourself lucky. This is where the courage comes in. Usually we think that brave people have no fear. The truth is that they are intimate with fear. When I was first married, my husband said I was one of the bravest people he knew. When I asked him why, he said because I was a complete coward but went ahead and did things anyhow.

Pema Chodron, When Things Fall Apart

photo dwight sipler

The basic truth about happiness

Karl Duffy1 Comment

File:Blackberries, Swindon and Cricklade Railway - geograph.org.uk - 549615.jpg

“All is always now,” says T. S. Eliot.

This statement implies a profound insight: Not only is the now not in time; time is in the now.

When the future comes, it will be now, and any past event becomes now as we remember it. There is only one now. It cannot be multiplied; it simply is.

The now is the opposite of time.

In fact, this is Augustine’s definition: “Eternity is the now that does not pass away.”

A happiness anchored in the now is eternal.

David Steindl-Rast, A Basic Human Approach to Happiness

photo Brian Robert Marshall

Keeping space in the mind

Karl Duffy1 Comment

File:Blue grapes in vineyard.jpg

Another Monday morning. For some the beginning of a work week can come too soon, the weekend not allowing enough time to relax and wind down. Even from early the mind starts to speed up and get sucked into the details. To balance this, the wisdom and faith traditions place our daily and weekly activities in a wider context, allowing us to see beyond the dramas which play out in our minds,  with us at the center. They remind us that to hold a bigger, slower,  perspective, and to notice little moments of wonder as they present themselves to us, this day.

The sun,

with all those planets revolving around it and dependent on it,

can still ripen a bunch of grapes

as if it had nothing else in the universe to do.

Galileo

Beautiful (Saturday) morning instructions

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

File:Fruit for Breakfast (3994802719).jpg

1.

 Japanese teacher says:
At first light, rise.
Don’t hover between
sleep and waking,
this makes you heavy,
puts a stone inside your heart.

The minute you drift back to shore,
anchor. Breathe.
Remember your deepest name.

2.

Sometimes objects stun me,
bamboo strainer, gray mug,
sitting exactly where
they were left.

They have not slept
or dreamt of lost faces.

I touch them carefully,
saying, tell me what you know.

3.

Cup of waves,
strawberry balanced
in a seashell.

In morning the water seems
clear to the bottom.

No fish blocks my view.

Naomi Shihab Nye, Breaking the Fast

photo thor

No matter what

Karl Duffy1 Comment

IMG_2565 (1)

I heard a man say a poem once,

he said,

‘All that lives is holy.’

John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath