Tag: Life

No complaints

Karl Duffy2 Comments

The weather is unusually disturbed and cold for this time of year, hailstones and frost….

As soon as the snow melts the grass begins to grow.

Even though the daytime high is barely above freezing, even
though May is very like November, marsh marigolds bloom
in the swamp and the popple trees produce a faint green
that hangs under the low clouds like a haze over the valley.

This is the way the saints live, no complaints, no suspicion,
no surprise.

If it rains, carry an umbrella, if it’s cold, wear
a jacket.

Louis Jenkins, American poet, 1942 -2019, Saints

How is your heart doing?

Karl Duffy1 Comment

A bit of a repost, but expanded in the prism of the pandemic and the type of disconnect it has caused in life.

We have had so many new technological innovations that we thought would make our lives easier, faster, simpler. Yet, we have no more “free” or leisurely time today than we did decades ago. For some of us, the “privileged” ones, the lines between work and home have become blurred. We are on our devices. All. The. Freaking. Time.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

In many Muslim cultures, when you want to ask them how they’re doing, you ask: in Arabic, Kayf haal-ik? or, in Persian, Haal-e shomaa chetoreh? How is your haal?

What is this haal that you inquire about? It is the transient state of one’s heart. In reality, we ask, “How is your heart doing at this very moment, at this breath?” When I ask, “How are you?” that is really what I want to know.

I want to know how your heart is doing, at this very moment. Tell me. Tell me your heart is joyous, tell me your heart is aching, tell me your heart is sad, tell me your heart craves a human touch. Examine your own heart, explore your soul, and then tell me something about your heart and your soul.

We need a different relationship to work, to technology. We know what we want: a meaningful life, a sense of community, a balanced existence. I want us to have a kind of existence where we can pause, look each other in the eye, touch one another, and inquire together: Here is how my heart is doing? I am taking the time to reflect on my own existence; I am in touch enough with my own heart and soul to know how I fare, and I know how to express the state of my heart.

How is the state of your heart today?

Let us insist on a type of human-to-human connection where when one of us responds by saying, “I am just so busy,” we can follow up by saying, “I know, love. We all are. But I want to know how your heart is doing.”

Omid Safi, The Disease of Being Busy

Slow day

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Slow time does not mean doing things more slowly. People suffering from burnout and depression have slowed down considerably and not been restored. Slow time is entering into a living relationship with the present. . . . Slow looking and slow listening nourishes and revitalizes us.

Sue Stuart-Smith, The Well Gardened Mind: Rediscovering Nature in the Modern World

Singing

Karl Duffy4 Comments

An early start to the day, to catch the birdsong at dawn in an annual celebration entitled “Dawn Chorus Day”, moments of joy even in these muted and confused times

A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer,

it sings because it has a song.

 Maya Angelou

Measuring time

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Try to imagine a life without timekeeping. You probably can’t. You have a schedule, a calendar, a time for dinner or a movie.

Yet all around you, timekeeping is ignored. Birds are not late. A dog does not check its watch. Deer do not fret over passing birthdays. Man alone measures time. Man alone chimes the hour. And, because of this, man alone suffers a paralyzing fear that no other creature endures. A fear of time running out.

Mitch Albom, The Time Keeper

Treasure underneath

Karl Duffy2 Comments

A difficult practice these days…

Patience is a hard discipline. It is not just waiting until something happens over which we have no control: the arrival of the bus, the end of the rain, the return of a friend, the resolution of a conflict. Patience is not waiting passively until someone else does something.

Patience asks us to live the moment to the fullest, to be completely present to the moment, to taste the here and now, to be where we are. When we are impatient, we try to get away from where we are. We behave as if the real thing will happen tomorrow, later, and somewhere else. Be patient and trust that the treasure you are looking for is hidden in the ground on which you stand.

Henri Nouwen, Hidden Treasure