I have come to see that our problem is that we don’t know what happiness is. We confuse it with a life uncluttered by feelings of anxiety, rage, doubt, and sadness. But happiness is something entirely different. It’s the ability to receive the pleasant without grasping and the unpleasant without condemning.
Mark Epstein, Opening Up to Happiness
A nice poem for a rainy Saturday.
Her capacity to see wonder in nature, and in life, no matter what the weather, was extraordinary
Last night
the rain spoke to me
slowly, saying,
what joy
to come falling out of the brisk cloud,
to be happy again
in a new way on the earth!
That’s what it said
as it dropped,
smelling of iron,
and vanished like a dream of the ocean
into the branches
and the grass below.
Then it was over.
The sky cleared.
I was standing
under a tree.
The tree was a tree with happy leaves,
and I was myself,
and there were stars in the sky
that were also themselves at the moment,
at which moment
my right hand was holding my left hand
which was holding the tree
which was filled with stars
and the soft rain—
imagine! imagine!
the wild and wondrous journeys
still to be ours.
Mary Oliver, Last Night the Rain Spoke to Me
Today is Candlemas, so I could post about light and darkness, as the days begin to noticeably lengthen in the Northern Hemisphere and hope returns. But instead, sticking with an idea in yesterdays post, different tradition:
Every blade of grass
has a constellation in the heavens
that strikes it and says, ‘Grow! Grow!’
The Talmud
As David Whyte says, we have many allies as we make our way through each day and each week – the blue sky, the wind on our face, the yellow daffodils blooming early because of the mild early Spring. If we can notice them we get some space from the worrying thoughts that accompany us
To feel abandoned is to deny the intimacy of your surroundings
David Whyte
A predictable but sad post today on hearing of the death of Mary Oliver
When death comes
like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,
I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering:
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?
And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,
and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility,
and I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular,
and each name a comfortable music in the mouth,
tending, as all music does, toward silence,
and each body a lion of courage, and something
precious to the earth.
When it’s over, I want to say all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.
When it’s over, I don’t want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don’t want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.
I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.
Mary Oliver, When Death Comes
Fame or self: Which matters more?
Self or wealth: Which is more precious?
Gain or loss: Which is more painful?
He who is attached to things will suffer much.
He who saves will suffer heavy loss.
A contented person is never disappointed.
The person who knows when to stop will not find themselves in trouble.
They will stay forever safe.
Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching 44
Mindfulbalance 