Tag: Life

We do not see everything

Karl Duffy1 Comment

File:Wiesloch weiße Blüten Bärlauch.JPG

If we can possibly learn to trust darkness, to understand that life is a pattern of starts and stops, of celebrating the past,  of coming to terms with the present and of believing the future to be kind, then we can come to understand that the dark parts are only those closing-down moments, like flowers at night, till the sun shines again……Darkness deserves gratitude. It is the alleluia point at which we learn to understand that not all growth takes place in the sunlight.

Joan Chittister, For all that Has Been, Thanks

photo 4028mdk09

Seasons in a life

Karl Duffy1 Comment

File:Glengesh pass in Ireland old tree.jpg

The question of the first half of life is “What is the world asking of me?” …. The question for the second half is, however, quite different, “What now does the soul ask of me?” Another way of putting the first question is …. Do you have enough energy, courage, resourcefulness, to enter into this world, take on its demands, and create your own conscious place in it?  In the second half of life the question becomes Who, now, apart from the roles you play, are you? Do you have the wherewithal to shift course, deconstruct your painfully achieved identity, risking failure, marginalization and loss of collective approval….  The whole … [of this part] … of life calls us to a spiritual, by which I mean psychological, agenda, while maintaining one’s participation in the social community. 

James Hollis, On this Journey we call Our Life: Living the Questions

Sunday Quote: The parts of our lives

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Without darkness nothing comes to birth, 

As without light nothing flowers. 

May Sarton

photo olybrius

Trust in darkness

Karl Duffy1 Comment

 

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No seed ever sees the flower.

Zen saying

As I said yesterday, November marks the beginning of the “darker half” of the year in the Celtic Calendar, as the balance between light and darkness in the day continues to shift. The earth becomes colder and nature more dormant,  with a different rhythm from one of growth and maturity. Parallel process can occur in our lives. For example, difficulties occur which can seem dark or unclear and without hope, or we can have parts of our lives that seem dormant.  However, darkness in nature, and in our lives, does not mean that nothing is happening.  Things that are now hidden or buried will eventually become seen. That what is now unconscious will become conscious in time. At times,  all we can do is wait and trust.

photo by friedrich bohringer

When we get caught up in the drama

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File:Arabian Nights Dinner Show.jpg

Mindfulness helps us get better at seeing the difference between what’s happening and the stories we tell ourselves about what’s happening, stories that get in the way of direct experience. Often such stories treat a fleeting state of mind as if it were our entire and permanent self.

Sharon Salzberg

photo experience kissimmee

A concrete instruction

Karl Duffy1 Comment

File:Singapura cat looking around.jpg

Not always easy to do when a piece of work or a meeting does not go to plan, but since we often cannot really evaluate something until much later,  it is best to rest in the present, and not in a story about what it means,  or with the passing mood which it provokes.

For us, as people wanting to live a full, unrestricted, adventurous, real kind of life, there is a concrete instruction we can follow: see what is. Acknowledge it without judging it as right or wrong. Let it go and come back to the present moment. Whatever comes up, see what it is without calling it right or wrong. Acknowledge it. See it clearly without judgment and let it go. Come back to the present moment.

Pema Chodron, The wisdom of No Escape

photo takahashi hososhima