The enigma of life

Ici la vie continue égale et monotone en surface, pleine d’éclairs, de sommets et de désepérance, dans les profondeurs. Nous sommes arrivés maintenant á un stade de vie si riche en apprehensions nouvelles intransmissibles aux autres âges de la vie – on se sent rempli á la fois de tant de douceur et de tant de désespoir – l’énigme de cette vie grandit, grandit, vous submerge et vous écrase, puis tout á coup en une lueur suprême on prend conscience due “sacré.”

Here life goes on, even and monotonous on the surface, full of lightning, of summits and of despair, in its depths. We have now arrived at a stage in life so rich in new perceptions that cannot be transmitted to those at another stage – one feels at the same time full of so much gentleness and so much despair – the enigma of this life grows, grows, drowns one and crushes one, then all of a sudden in a supreme moment of light one becomes aware of the sacred.

Letter written from Eugénie to May Sarton, Journal of a Solitude

Practicing eternity

Seeing into darkness is clarity.
Knowing how to yield is strength.
Use your own light
and return to the source of light.
This is called practicing eternity.

Lao Tzu, Tao te Ching 52

Sunday Quote: Aware

it is a serious thing
just to be alive
on this fresh morning
in the broken world

Mary Oliver

Light

If you discover a very thick and deep shadow,

be sure that there is, somewhere within you, a great light.

You must learn to use one to reach the other.

Mirra Alfassa, 1878 – 1973, collaborator of Sri Aurobindo

Sunday Quote: Not to plan

Just because things hadn’t gone the way I had planned

didn’t necessarily mean they had gone wrong.

Ann Patchett, 1963 – American author.

Part of the human family

How you respond to tragedy and suffering is one true measure of your strength. You need to see those moments as moments of growth. You need to look upon them as gifts to help you reclaim what is important in your life. The question you must ask yourself is not if you will heal, but how.  Grief and pain have their own duration, and when they begin to pass, you must take care to guide the shape of the new being you are to become.  So you should not fear tragedy and suffering.  Like love, they make you more a part of the human family.  From them can come your greatest creativity.  They are the fire that burns you pure.  

Kent Nerburn