Tag: Life

Life satisfaction

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

File:London, a packed train leaves King's Cross St. Pancras - geograph.org.uk - 1500449.jpg

We have enormous expectations that our careers will provide satisfaction in our life, and however well or unwell our jobs work for us, in the second half of life we often find ourselves working for them, with decreasing satisfaction even as we accomplish our goals, collect our paychecks…If the soul could be bought so easily, then our culture would easily work. Only the unconscious think it does. Look around you. Look within you.  Be honest. How well does material affluence work? And what is the price?

James Hollis, Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life.

photo of London underground train by Chris Downer

Choice

Karl Duffy3 Comments

File:Hommikune udu Kakerdaja rabas.jpg

Find a place where you can feel completely at ease

and say to yourself,

Only I can destroy my peace,

and I choose not to do so

Allan Lokos, Pocket Peace

photo abrget47j

Focus on the now

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

killeshin

We are endlessly offered into life: all time is ours.
And what any one of us might be worth,
death alone knows – and does not tell.

Rilke, Sonnets to Orpheus, II, 24

Step by step

Karl Duffy1 Comment

File:Stepping Stones in Japanese Gardens.JPG

The only thing that is ultimately real about your journey

is the step that you are taking at this moment.

That’s all there ever is.

Eckhart Tolle

photo japanese gardens kildare, peter clarke

Perspective

Karl Duffy2 Comments

File:2009-04-07 Berlin Olympiastadion 554.jpg

“Is my life meaningful?” When I ask the question this way the perspective is very different. Now my happiness will no longer depend upon my never getting sick, or upon my not getting lonely, or upon my never being misunderstood, or upon my never making wrong choices, or on somehow being exempt from death’s shadow. Life can be frustrating and still be very meaningful. We can be lonely, sick, sorrowful about wrong choices, over-worked and unappreciated, staring old age and death in the face and still experience deep meaning. Happiness will be a by-product of that.

Are my symbols working?  Does my life have a meaning?

The question about happiness comes after that question.

Ron Rolheiser, Happiness and Meaning

Disapproving

Karl Duffy1 Comment

File:Disapproving... (8721304440).jpg

Everyone’s mind likes saying “but.”

Thinking you are doing it wrong, that the conditions of your life stop you from making friends with yourself – these thoughts might get in the way of noticing what it is like to be you. You might disapprove of who you are, but disapproving is just another way of not being here.

In this case, making friends with yourself could mean lowering your standards….

John Tarrant, What’s it Like to be You?

photo Ian Kirk