Tag: Mindfulness

Mid-Winter wisdom

Karl Duffy5 Comments

Sometimes withdrawal and letting go is as much part of growth as is achievement and moving forward:

There is a tendency to want to hurry from autumn to spring, to avoid the long dark days that winter brings. But winter darkness has a positive side to it. As we gather to celebrate the first turn from winter to spring, we are invited to recognize and honor the beauty in the often unwanted season of winter. Let us invite our hearts to be glad for the courage winter proclaims. Let us be grateful for the wisdom winter brings in teaching us about the need for withdrawal as an essential part of renewal. Let us also encourage our spirits as Earth prepares to come forth from this time of withdrawal into a season filled with light.

Joyce Rupp and Macrina Wiederkehr, The Circle of Life

What remains

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The shortest days of the year. The balance between light and darkness. A time to let go of those thoughts which hold us back and stand firm in that which we are

I move in the descent of days

from what was dreamed to what remains.

Wendell Berry, Boone

The days shorten: living fully

Karl Duffy3 Comments

Most of us have spent our lives caught up in plans, expectations, ambitions for the future; in regrets, guilt or shame about the past.

To come into the present is to stop the war.

Jack Kornfield

Only adventure

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Life is known only by those who have found a way to be comfortable with change and the unknown. Given the nature of life, there may be no security, but only adventure.

Rachel Naomi Remen

photo Vienna heldenplatz

Our deeper mind

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From the beginning of  time,

everyone has mistakenly identified themselves with what they are aware of.

Controlled by their experience of perceived objects,

they lose track of their fundamental deeper mind.

  The Surangama Sutra, Mahāyāna Buddhist text, pre 705 AD

Sunday Quote:The best gift

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Today the Christian Liturgy starts to chant the O Antiphons –   aspirations used since the 5th Century in the final days before Christmas and which resonate with deep needs in our humanity,

The first of them wishes that we may grow in wisdom at this time of year around the Winter Solstice, when the days are shorter and nature quietens down, and we can see more clearly the bare elements in our lives. What maters most? In many old traditions, having a wise perspective on what was important in life was greatly treasured. In some ways it is the best gift one could get in these days, leading to a resting of the mind and contentment.

To the mind that is still,

the whole universe surrenders.

Lao Tzu