Growth and transformation occur not by changing who we are
…….but as we summon the courage to be who we are.
And that means bringing our own true, vulnerable, imperfect selves out of hiding and into the world
Katrina Kenison, Magical Journey: An Apprenticeship in Contentment
Got news yesterday of the sudden death of an old friend, who I had not seen in over 18 months due to pandemic restrictions. It made me think of the choices we have as to where we invest our energy and our thoughts. Life can pass us by, and we waste a lot of it rehashing our familiar litany of fears, tired old stories and self-doubts.
In Zen temples there is a small wooden board called a “han” that is struck with a mallet to signal that it is time for some part of the daily routine. It might have the words “Shoji jidai” written on it in ink. Have you ever seen this? The words mean “life is full of fortune and misfortune, but cherish being alive, every single day. Life will pass you by“
Come now, open your eyes.
What kind of day should we make today?
Shunmyo Masumo, Zen: The Art of Simple Living
We need to have the courage to follow our heart:
Best advice I ever got was an old friend of mine, a black friend, who said you have to go the way your blood beats.
If you don’t live the only life you have, you won’t live some other life, you won’t live any life at all.
That’s the only advice you can give anybody.
James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room
When people ask, “Well, how shall we practice this gratefulness?” ….there is a very simple kind of methodology to it: Stop, look, go. Most of us — caught up in schedules and deadlines and rushing around, and so the first thing is that we have to stop, because otherwise we are not really coming into this present moment at all, and we can’t even appreciate the opportunity that is given to us, because we rush by, and it rushes by. So stopping is the first thing.
And then you look: What is, now, the opportunity of this given moment, only this moment, and the unique opportunity this moment gives? And that is where this beholding comes in…. And if you do that, if you try practicing that at this moment, we will already be happier people, because it has an immediate feedback of joy.
David Steindl-Rast, How to Be Grateful in Every Moment (But Not for Everything)
We are part of something greater, so we don’t have to work so hard to make things happen. Even if one part of life breaks, the ‘hidden instruments’ keep playing unimpeded:
Don’t worry about saving these songs!
And if one of our instruments breaks,
it doesn’t matter.
We have fallen into the place
where everything is music.
….even if the whole world’s harp
should burn up, there will still be
hidden instruments playing.
They derive
from a slow and powerful root
that we can’t see.
Rumi, Where Everything Is Music [extract]
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things.
Gerard Manley Hopkins, God’s Grandeur
This morning the Summer Solstice occurred at 04:31 in Ireland, beginning the northern hemisphere’s longest day. Different cultures knew the significance of this date and marked it by bonfires – as I will this evening – to recognize the ongoing gift of each day of light and to celebrate the energy of life.
These rituals remind us that we are at a midpoint in the year, which hints at every midpoint in our lives, every letting go and starting over. Life passes and we discover again its “dearest freshness”. We relax into its mystery, without looking for answers, without clinging to security.
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.
Mindfulbalance 