And I have dreamed
of the morning coming in
like a bird through the window
not burdened by a thought
the light a singing
as I had hoped
Wendall Berry, The Design of the House
photo LiAnna Davis
Tag: Mindfulness
The light in the darkness
One day the sun admitted,
I am just a shadow.
I wish I could show you
The Infinite Incandescence
That has cast my brilliant image!
I wish I could show you,
When you are lonely or in darkness,
The astonishing Light
Of your own Being!
Hafiz
photo D Sharon Pruitt
Necessary dying
There’s a necessary dying…Be ground.
Be crumbled so wildflowers will come up where you are.
You’ve been stony too many years. Try something different.
Surrender.
Rumi
The Significance of night
The winter solstice. The shortest, darkest, day can still be full of things to look forward to:
...this is the slowed down season, held fast by darkness
and if no one comes to keep you company
then keep watch over your own solitude.
In that stillness, you will learn
with your whole body
the significance of cold
and the night,
which is otherwise always eluding you.
Patricia Fargnoli, Winter Grace
photo slava
Waiting
In the Islamic tradition, during Ramadam, there is a special night called the Night of Power, when angels are said to descend to earth, bringing peace. It is not known which night it is exactly, so the only attitude to have is one of waiting and watching. This is true for Advent also, but it even applies not just to special seasons but to the mystery in every moment:
God,
just like the Night of Power,
is hidden amidst the other nights
So that the soul
will go on seeking every night.
Oh young one,
not every night is the Night of Power
And yet,
not every night
is bereft of the Night of Power
Rumi
photo CC-BY
Grace and wonder and mystery
Everything we need or want is waiting inside each day … right before us in flawed abundance …nothing is clean or perfect, and nothing unfolds as planned. For the Universe is vital, not perfect. Full of endless seeds attempting to be one thing, colliding with another, and becoming a third.
One of the more difficult paradoxes to accept is that this abundance of gifts is always quietly present and it is we who drift in and out of seeing it. The one recurring doorway to this vitality is our simple participation in life. When we slip into heartless watching, the abundance seems to vanish. When we dare to show up and be fully present, grace and wonder and mystery start to appear, even in the midst of pain. Not as planned dreams, or as images of lovers, or as scripts of success designed by our fantasies of ourselves. But as oddly shaped pods of vitality bursting to multiply and bring us further into the mystery of living.
Mark Nepo, The Exquisite Risk.
photo anemoneprojectors
