Tag: Joy

All directions have a meaning

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No matter what stories our mind may tell us in times of difficulty, all things are ordered and return to their home. We are calm deep down when we realize that our days have meaning in an overall rhythm  and we are not isolated but have a place in the overall “family of things”

The wild geese, high in the clean blue air, are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, 
the world offers itself to your imagination, 
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting –
over and over announcing your place 
in the family of things.

Mary Oliver

What happiness is not…

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Many people today assume that happiness implies the absence of suffering and struggle, as if a life of meaning, service to others or tormented but creative accomplishment is not also a happy life. Another misconception is that happiness must be sought and acquired, as if it were something special that is apart from ordinary, everyday life. It must be attained by fulfilling some  requirement – perhaps by making more money or finding a new relationship – or by following some prescribed method or program of self-improvement. But happiness is right before our eyes, immediately available to us if we surrender to what this very moment offers, to what fate has put on our table right now. The happiness complex consists of the hope that happiness will come, if only….

Michael Gellert, The Way of the Small

Focus on the cultivation of your heart

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Be gentle and patient both with yourself and with others, no matter what comes along. In this way, waiting becomes a fulfilling, very meaningful experience. If you live gently, honorably, focusing on the cultivation of your heart, good things are sure to follow. Try to live as purely and as simply and as gently as you can. Relax. Be flexible. Be forgiving. Be creative. Be loving.  Those who cross your path may need you.

Robert Lax, The Way of the Dreamcatcher.

What happiness is…

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Happiness happens when you fit with your life, when you fit so harmoniously that whatsoever you are doing is your joy. Then suddenly you will come to know: meditation follows you. If you love the work that you are doing, if you love the way you are living, then you are meditative.

Osho

Another day dawns

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The further I wake into this life, the more I realize that Love is everywhere and the extraordinary is waiting quietly beneath the skin of all that is ordinary. Light is in both the broken bottle and the diamond, and music is in both the flowing violin and the water dripping from the drainage pipe. Yes, Love is under the porch as well as on the top of the mountain, and JOY is both in the front row and in the bleachers, if we are willing to be where we are.

Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening

Being Happy today 3: A matter of choice

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Joy does not simply happen to us.

We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day.

Henri Nouwen