Suppose we did our work
like the snow, quietly, quietly.
leaving nothing out.
Wendell Berry
photo rod allday
Tag: Life
Ordinary life
When it’s time to get dressed, put on your clothes. When you must walk, then walk. When you must sit, then sit. Just be your ordinary self in ordinary life, unconcerned in seeking for enlightenment. When you’re tired, lie down. The fool will laugh at you but the wise man will understand.
Linji Yixuan, Chan Buddhist, died 866
photo pavel
Seeing the magic today
The world is full of magic things
patiently waiting for our senses to get sharper
wb Yeats
Darkness and light
One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light,
but by making the darkness conscious
Jung
Today is Lá Féile Bríde, St. Brigid’s Day, celebrated on the ancient Celtic festival of Imbolc, a word meaning perhaps “in the womb”, and linked with the feminine, fertility and the birth of lambs. The Celts were much more in touch with the rhythms of nature and with symbols than we are, and so lit fires in the darkness to mark the fact that they had arrived at the midway point between the winter and the spring solstice. They celebrated the lengthening days and the early signs of Spring, in a declaration of trust that the darkness of winter was not going to last. It was the start of a period of planting and birth: a time for looking forward and beginning again. For us too, some form of death and rebirth is always happening in our inner selves, even if we are unaware of it. We are never really in just one place, but always somewhat in-between, re-working our own myths and adding depth and meaning to our journey.
For last year’s words
belong to last year’s language
and next year’s words
await another voice.
And to make an end
is to make a beginning
T.S. Eliot, Little Gidding
Sunday Quote: Waking up
It is a serious thing
just to be alive
on this fresh morning
in the broken world.
Mary Oliver
photo sharon mollerus
More conscious living
Dear Mother Earth, as a human family, we have allowed greed and consumerism to prevail. We have been running after status, wealth, power and sensual comforts, forgetting that these things can never bring us true happiness and freedom. We have been so busy trying to cover up the feeling of emptiness inside, that we have not taken the time or space to stop and ask ourselves what we are doing, or where we are going. In the process, we have caused great harm to you, dear Mother Earth, destroying your natural richness, beauty and balance.
Aware of this, we are determined to simplify our life, to stop running, and to remember that in the present moment we already have enough conditions to be happy. With the energy of mindfulness and compassion we feel truly fulfilled and content. In the coming year, we are determined to consume less and to live in such a way that is sustainable for ourselves and for you, Mother Earth.
New Year 2016 Prayer, Plum Village Community, France
