Calming and stilling are the willingness to commit to just being wholeheartedly present in one moment at a time,
to commit to one breath,
to commit to the sense of our feet touching the ground.
To know this, we begin to train the mind.
Christina Feldman, Blindfolding Mara
Ancient knowledge from the Celtic calendar which saw tonight as the threshold between the light and dark times of the year, when the earth turns inward. Sometimes wisdom doesn’t have to be learned so much as reawakened. We scroll endlessly, but rarely return to stillness to rediscover the thresholds where mystery begins.
Fashioned from clay, we carry the memory of the earth. Ancient, forgotten things stir within our hearts, memories from the time before the mind was born. Within us are depths that keep watch. These are depths that no words can trawl or light unriddle.
Our neon times have neglected and evaded the depth-kingdoms of interiority in favor of the ghost realms of cyberspace. We have unlearned the patience and attention of lingering at the thresholds where the unknown awaits us. We have become haunted pilgrims addicted to distraction and driven by the speed and colour of images.
John O’Donohue, Beauty: The Invisible Embrace
A long weekend in Ireland
The spirituality of work arises from the inside out. It does not depend on the job we have but on the way we do the job we have. Work is holy because we are holy – if we bring our holiness to it.
But so is rest holy.
The Sabbath is not simply a day off; it is a day up – a day to remember who we are beyond what we do.
Joan Chittister, The Gift of Years: Growing Older Gracefully
It is good to realize that falling apart is not such a bad thing.
Indeed, it is as essential to transformation as the cracking of outgrown shells.
Anxieties and doubts can be healthy and creative, not only for the person, but for the society, because they permit new and original approaches to reality.
Joanna Macy
A noble lord once visited the monk Ryōkan in search of rare wisdom. Ryōkan said nothing. Instead, he took up his brush and composed a haiku. The lord read it, bowed in understanding, and quietly returned to his castle.
The wind gives me
Enough fallen leaves
To make a fire.
Ryōkan Taigu, 1758–1831
I find hope in the darkest of days
and focus in the brightest.
I do not judge the universe.
The Dalai Lama
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