Tag: Nature

To be still

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Every other creature on the face of the Earth knows how to just shut up and sit: a butterfly on a leaf, a cat in front of a fireplace. Even a hummingbird comes to rest sometimes. But humans seem to be constantly on the move all day long. Even during the night we have to dope ourselves just to fall asleep. We seem to have lost the ability of our primitive ancestors to just be still with ourselves. Out of that stillness, our whole life arises.

John Daido Loori, The Eight Gates of Zen: A Program of Zen Training

To be celebrated

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A new month dawns. Brighter days. Moving further into Spring…

Once upon a time,
When women were birds,
There was the simple understanding
That to sing at dawn
And to sing at dusk
Was to heal the world through joy.
The birds still remember what we have forgotten,
That the world is meant to be celebrated.

Terry Tempest Williams, born 1955, American writer, educator, conservationist, and activist

Singing

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A beautiful Spring morning, open to possibilities and kindness

If you keep a green bough
in your heart,
a singing bird
will come.

Chinese Proverb

Morning thoughts

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The sun rises in spite of everything
and the far cities are beautiful and bright.
I lie here in a riot of sunlight
watching the day break and the clouds flying.
Everything is going to be all right.

Derek Mahon, 1941-2020, Irish Poet, Everything is going to be all right.

One day more

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Cold here this week and snow falls. Some beautiful words to help us in challenging conditions

Windowsills evenly welcome both heat and cold.

Radiators speak or fall silent as they must.

Doors are not equivocal,  floorboards do not hesitate or startle.

Impatience does not stir the curtains,

a bed is neither irritable nor rapacious.

Whatever disquiet we sense in a room

we have brought there.

And so I instruct my ribs each morning,

pointing to hinge and plaster and wood —

          You are matter, as they are.

          See how perfectly it can be done.

          Hold, one day more, what is asked.   

Jane Hirshfield,  A Room

Waves and water

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Most people view themselves as waves and forget that they are also water. They are used to living in the realm of birth and death, and they forget about the realm of no birth and no death. Just as a wave lives the life of water, so, too, do we live the life of no birth and no death

Thich Nhat Hanh