We need to give up what no longer works
and find new ways of being
that keep us close to what matters
Mark Nepo
Tag: Mindfulness
A new month: Unexpected gifts
As life becomes harder … it also becomes richer,
because the fewer expectations we have,
the more good things of life become unexpected gifts that we accept with gratitude.
Etty Hillesum, born 1914, died in Auschwitz 1943.
Inner voyages
The human heart is never still. … There are always new thoughts and experiences emerging in your life; some moments delight and surprise you, others bring you onto shaky ground. …The mind and heart are wanderers who are always tempted by new horizons. … Your longing frequently takes you on inner voyages that no one would ever guess. …longing keeps the door open and calls towards us the gifts and blessings which our lives dream.
John O’Donohue,
White and black keys
In life, nothing dwells. The wind blows and then stops. The blossoms burst forth and then fall. Things come and go. The melody drifts back onto an aching E flat and then back to E again. The song of your life is played on white and black keys. Sadness is … an essential truth of human life. But let’s not dwell there. Not while the song is still playing.
Karen Maizen Miller, Be Sad
Photo alisson felus
When the heart is open
Sometimes we orient to the world through ideas and get fixed on our notion of how things should be. We can run from how a thing actually is. What we need at times is the courage to embrace life as it is actually unfolding, and not avoid it or hide in some concept which we think it should be.
The idea of love is not love
The idea of the ocean is neither salt nor sand;
The face of the seal cannot rise from the idea
to stare at you,
to astound your heart
Mary Oliver
Sunday Quote: waiting and longing
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
