Tag: Joy

Make of yourself a light

Karl Duffy1 Comment

In times of deep darkness, we not only need light — we need to be light for one another. That’s a message we must take to heart as we find ourselves lost once again in the all-too-familiar darkness of America’s culture of violence. Who better to deliver that message than Mary Oliver, in a powerful poem that re-tells the story of the Buddha’s last words. Before he died, she tells us, “He looked into the faces of that frightened crowd” and said, “Make of yourself a light.”

We are the frightened crowd the Buddha looked into as he drew his last breath. We are the people who need to be light for one another.

Parker Palmer

Where you are

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You must love the crust of the earth on which you dwell.

You must be able to extract nutriment out of a sandheap.

                     You must have so good an appetite as this, else you will live in vain.        

Thoreau

Growing resilience

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Each person can take one of two attitudes: to build or to plant.
The builders might take years over their tasks, but one day, they finish what they’re doing. Then they find they’re hemmed in by their own walls. Life loses its meaning when the building stops.
       Then there are those who plant. They endure storms and all the many vicissitudes of the seasons, and they rarely rest. But, unlike a building, a garden never stops growing. And while it requires the gardener’s constant attention, it also allows life for the gardener to be a great adventure.
Paulo Coelho, Brida

Grace and gratitiude

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Grace and gratitude share the same root word along with gravitas, and there is a strong interconnection among these three states. When people internalize and integrate their experience of grace, their character naturally deepens and they develop gravitas. In Latin, gravitas is similar to charisma, and is defined as a quality that draws us to those who embody dignity, integrity, wisdom, substance, and presence. Being conscious of where grace is present in our lives motivates our expression of gratitude and cultivates gravitas. Gratitude is the external expression. These moments are rare gifts in which we open to an expansive place within our nature, where all is ‘right with the world.

Angeles Arrien

Sunday Quote: Magical

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This world, after all our science – is still a miracle;

wonderful, inscrutable, magical and more.

Thomas Carlyle, 1795 – 1881, British historian,  essayist, philosopher, mathematician, and teacher.

Navigating safely

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Most of us unknowingly go through life with a tight grip in our inner core. this inner psychological grip corresponds to an outer physiological one. The mind is designed to grasp ideas, and the hands and arms are made to grasp objects. Each form of grasping is an attempt to be in control. Grasping ideas of ourselves and the world – virtual models of reality – allows us to plan, which provides a sense of control, however illusory this control may be. In times of stress we may believe that we need to get a stronger grip on ourselves. In truth, we need to relax it. Our main stress comes from being too tightly wound. When I explain this principle to clients I will sometimes use the metaphor of driving a car: if our grip on the steering wheel is too tense we become a less safe driver. We need to be both alert and relaxed to gracefully navigate the road, as well as life

John J. Prendergast, In Touch: How to Tune In to the Inner Guidance of Your Body and Trust Yourself