a new month: don’t wait for perfect

Once we have learned to discern the real nature of both good and evil, we recognize that everything is broken and fallen, weak and poor, while still being the dwelling place of God – you and me, your country, your children, your churches, even your marriage. That is not a put-down, but finally a freedom to love imperfect things! As Jesus told the rich young man, “God alone is good!. In this, you may have been given the greatest recipe for happiness for the rest of your life.

You cannot wait for things to be totally perfect to fall in love with them or you will never love anything. Now, instead, you can love everything.

Richard Rohr

Non-doing

Wasting time for God is an act of ministry, because it reminds us and our people that God is free to touch anyone regardless of our well-meant efforts. Prayer as an articulate way of being useless in the face of God brings a smile to all we do and creates humor in the midst of our occupations and preoccupations.

Henri Nouwen

ordinary life

Do not ask your children
to strive for extraordinary lives.
Such striving may be admirable
but it is the way of foolishness.
Help them instead to find the wonder
and the marvel of an ordinary life.
Show them the joy of tasting
tomatoes, apples, and pears.
Show them how to cry
when pets and people die.
Show them the infinite pleasure
in the touch of a hand.
And make the ordinary come alive for them.
The extraordinary will take care of itself.

William Martin 1925-2010, English poet

Sunday Quote: Light

Every day you play with the light of the Universe

Pablo Neruda

When you wake

There is a small opening into the new day
which closes the moment you begin your plans.

What you can plan is too small for you to live. What you can live wholeheartedly will make plans enough for the vitality hidden in your sleep.

To be human is to become visible
while carrying what is hidden as a gift to others.
To remember the other world in this world is to live in your true inheritance.

David Whyte, What to Remember when Waking [extract]

Not paying off

Now that all your worry

has proved such an unlucrative business

why not find a better job?

Hafiz, translated by Daniel Ladinsky