Tag: Life

the angel’s hand

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

No heaven can come to us, unless our hearts find rest in today.
Take heaven.

No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this precious little instant. Take peace.

Life is so generous a giver, but we, judging its gifts by their coverings, cast them away as ugly or heavy or hard. Remove the covering, and you will find beneath it a living splendour, woven of love, and wisdom, and power.

Welcome it, greet it, and you touch the angel’s hand that brings it.

Christmas Letter attributed to Fra Angelico, 1396 – 1495.

I was fortunate to see the extraordinary exhibition of his works in Florence earlier this year

Waiting

Karl Duffy3 Comments

Silence is essential.

We need silence just as much as we need air, just as much as plants need light. Silence is a kind of light, the light of the spirit. If in our daily lives we can smile, if we can be peaceful and happy, not only we but everyone will profit from it. This is the most basic kind of peace work.

Thich Nhat Hanh, Silence: The Power of Quiet in a World Full of Noise

darkness

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

Darkness deserves gratitude.

It is the alleluia point at which we learn to understand

that all growth does not take place in the sunlight.

Joan Chittister

the rhetoric of growth

Karl Duffy1 Comment

But beyond self-care and the ability to (really) listen, the practice of doing nothing has something broader to offer us: an antidote to the rhetoric of growth.

In the context of health and ecology, things that grow unchecked are often considered parasitic or cancerous.

Yet we inhabit a culture that privileges novelty and growth over the cyclical and the regenerative.

Jenny Odell, How To Do Nothing

Do not push life

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

Life has its own rhythm. Our task is not to control it, but to engage fully with what is present.

When effort is needed, effort will appear.
When effortlessness becomes essential, it will assert itself.
You need not push life about.
Just flow with it and give yourself completely to the task of the present moment,
which is the dying now to the now. For living is dying.
Without death life cannot be.

Nisargadatta Maharaj, 20th‑century Indian teacher of nondualism

Sunday Quote: joy

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

Today is Gaudete Sunday

Joy is not to be found in things;

we find it inside ourselves

When we are free of all created things,

we find the uncreated joy of God.

Meister Eckhart, Sermon 12, “Blessed are the Poor in Spirit”