Transformation

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

Contentment

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

Sunday Quote: trust

I find hope in the darkest of days

and focus in the brightest.

I do not judge the universe.

The Dalai Lama

breakthrough

Michaelmas: Traditionally in Ireland the day to mark the end of harvest The traditional greeting – “May Michaelmas féinín on you.” – wished for an abundant harvest

The feast of Saints Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, Archangels. Those sent to help or guide us.

Where is the angel

to wrestle with me and wound
not my thigh but my throat,
so curses and blessings flow storming out

and the glass shatters, and the iron sunders?
 

Denise Levertov, Where is the Angel [extract]

Determining our mood

The sailor who does not adjust to the wind conditions will have a difficult time.

One ship drives east and another drives west by the same winds that blow.

Its the set of the sails

and not the gales that determines the way they go.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox, 1850 – 1919, American author and poet.

Sunday Quote: How you travel

It’s not the road ahead that wears you out –

it’s the grain of sand in your shoe.

Old Arabian Proverb