I am like the air on a calm day
as it holds itself still, letting nothing escape.
Colm Toibin, The Testament of Mary
photo of early morning fog University College Dublin by Crys83
Tag: Meditation
Keeping a place
If I keep a green bough in my heart,
the singing bird will come.
Chinese Proverb
Full life
Listen, are you breathing just a little,
and calling it a life?
Mary Oliver, Have you ever tried to enter the Long Black Branches
The question before me, now that I
am old, is not how to be dead,
which I know from enough practice,
but how to be alive, as these worn
hills still tell, and some paintings
of Paul Cézanne, and this mere
singing wren, who thinks he’s alive
forever, this instant, and may be.
Wendell Berry, Sabbaths, 2001, VIII
The challenge
I want to know if you can see beauty … every day,
and if you can source your own life from its presence.
Oriah Mountain Dreamer, The Invitation
Photo: Glendalough, June 18 2015
Stubborn refusal
The path of love is not the absence of fear. Real love is made possible through vulnerability. Vulnerability is the possibility of having one’s heart open enough to let love in, and also let pain in. The path of love is not the avoiding of suffering, but the welcoming of joy and suffering alike, the way a gracious host would.
So no, the path of love is not being impervious to fear.
It is simply the stubborn refusal to let fear have the last word.
Omid Safi, We must Cling to Love
photo Eric kilby
Not wasting our lives
If you have one hour of air and many hours to go,
you must breathe slowly.
If you have one arm’s length and many things to care for,
you must give freely.
If you have one chance to know God and many doubts, you must
set your heart on fire.
We are blessed.
Every day is a chance.
We have two arms
Fear wastes air.
Mark Nepo, Freefall
