In a life properly lived, you’re a river.
You touch things lightly or deeply;
you move along because life herself moves, and you can’t stop it…
Jim Harrison, 1937 – 2016, American poet, novelist, and essayist.
lessons from nature
Tag: Life
Sunday Quote: being content
Contentment is the crown of the spiritual life.
It’s not about having what you want but wanting what you have.
Ajahn Amaro, from a 2015 talk
It flows
We spend so much of our lives trying to figure things out, to nail down the truth, to be certain. But what if the deepest truth is found not in knowing, but in surrendering to the vastness of not knowing?
In Zen practice, we sit with the question, with the breath, with the moment – without an agenda. This is not a passive resignation but an active engagement with life as it is, free from the filters of our assumptions. When we let go of the need to know, we open ourselves to a reality that is alive, immediate, and infinitely creative.
Not knowing is not ignorance. It is the willingness to meet each experience with fresh eyes, to admit that our thoughts and beliefs are provisional, and to rest in the mystery of being. This takes courage.
But here’s the secret: When we stop clinging to what we think we know, we discover a freedom that was always here. The bird doesn’t need to know how to fly; it flies. The river doesn’t need to know how to flow; it flows. Can you let yourself be like that?
Melissa Blacker in The Book of Not Knowing
Trust the process
The way to do is to be.
“Wu wei” means doing by not overdoing. It’s the wisdom of the gardener who nurtures growth without yanking on the plants. It’s the skill of the carpenter who follows the grain instead of forcing the wood. It’s the patience of the cook who lets the soup simmer, knowing interference will only spoil the broth.
In our lives, wu wei is the art of trusting the process – not laziness, but the hardest work of all: getting yourself out of the way
Ursula K. Le Guin, Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching – A Book About the Way and the Power of the Way
Loosen the grip
Psychoanalysis, at its best, doesn’t give us answers but loosens the grip of the questions we’re obsessed with.
Sometimes the most liberating thing is to realize that we don’t need to know why we are the way we are –
we just need to live more freely with the uncertainty.
Adam Phillips, British psychoanalytic psychotherapist and essayist, Going Sane
simplicity
On the occasion of the funeral of Pope Francis, an example of leadership as service, of simplicity in the face of a world of excess and a worldview in contrast to what has taken centre stage these last few months and years.
The measure of the greatness of a society is found in the way it treats those most in need, those who have nothing apart from their poverty. … When we go out to the margins, to the suffering, we discover something new: the joy of service.
Pope Francis, Homily 2015, On Serving the poor
Simplicity does not mean poverty or austerity. It is the conscious choice to reduce the superfluous in order to focus on the essential – what truly matters in life.
The more we clutter our lives with distractions, the less space we have for genuine contentment. Happiness thrives in simplicity, in moments of quiet presence rather than in the relentless pursuit of more.
Matthieu Ricard Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill
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