Patience and letting time stretch out achieve more than forcing and passion
(Patience et longueur de temps font plus que force ni que rage)
Jean de La Fontaine, Le Lion et le Rat
Tag: Nature
We do not see everything
If we can possibly learn to trust darkness, to understand that life is a pattern of starts and stops, of celebrating the past, of coming to terms with the present and of believing the future to be kind, then we can come to understand that the dark parts are only those closing-down moments, like flowers at night, till the sun shines again……Darkness deserves gratitude. It is the alleluia point at which we learn to understand that not all growth takes place in the sunlight.
Joan Chittister, For all that Has Been, Thanks
photo 4028mdk09
On the threshold
Even though we are having very mild weather this year, there is still a sense that these early November days hold a sense of change, an understanding that we’re moving from one way of being to another. As Terri Lynn Simpson at the Washington National Cathedral Centre for Prayer and Pilgrimage wrote, they “are like open doorways that invite us to a particular kind of mindfulness where we are aware that we’re moving from one way of being to another. One foot is in the past and one foot is in the future, and in the midst of the two is the present. We can put our weight on one foot or another, superficially living in the past or the future, but true balance comes only when we live deeply in the moment”
In the deep Fall
don’t you imagine the leaves think how
comfortable it will be to touch
the earth instead of the
nothingness of air and the endless
freshets of wind? And don’t you think
the trees themselves, especially those with mossy,
warm caves, begin to think
of the birds that will come — six, a dozen — to sleep
inside their bodies? And don’t you hear
the goldenrod whispering goodbye,
the everlasting being crowned with the first
tuffets of snow? The pond
vanishes, and the white field over which
the fox runs so quickly brings out
its blue shadows. And the wind pumps its
bellows. And at evening especially,
the piled firewood shifts a little,
longing to be on its way.
Mary Oliver, Song for Autumn
Sunday Quote: Movement
The deepest words of the wise…teach us…
the same as the whistle of the wind when it blows
or the sound of the water when it is flowing
Antonio Marchado
photo of the Allondon river near Crozet, France.
Roots
The rooting (of trees, of our selves) is as important and as necessary as the rising. We have the opportunity to sink roots into soul and rise up with branches in heaven…..Growth is meant to go in both directions, toward the fertile darkness and the glorious light, each of us having the opportunity to bridge earth and heaven — the underworld and the upperworld — through the trunks of our middleworld lives…. There’s no conflict between spirit-centered being and soulful doing, between transcendence and inscendence. Each supports and enhances the other. Like Rilke, we discover we can have both:
You see, I want a lot
Maybe I want it all;
The darkness of each endless fall,
The shimmering light of each ascent.
Bill Plotkin, Soulcraft
Autumn work
A brief moment of reflection and gratitude. The blog started its sixth year this week. We recently passed 300,000 visits and over 1500 people who follow each day. As I have said before, I try to keep it simple – looking for words or ideas that help mindfulness meditation practice without me getting in the way too much, and hoping that they touch one or two readers in the same way as they help me. Thank you all so much for visiting. As Autumn deepens, we reflect and move on:
Here in Ireland the Gaelic word for October is Deireadh Fomhair, which means the “last harvesting” of what was planted earlier in the year. The weather system has changed these past few days, the leaves have started to fall in earnest, and it is clearer to see how Autumn signals a change in energy, a winding-down, as all of nature – and that includes us – prepares for the different tempo and darker days of winter. So we can use it as a season to find our balance between our past and our future, as our focus naturally turns more inward. We can use it as a time to look back on the work we have done this year, the way we have expended our energy. We can use it to take stock of what we are investing in and harvesting in our lives. Or we can use it to wind down and create space, recognizing the unwise busyness that only creates more anxiety in our minds, keeping us running a lot, but sometimes just making us feel more empty.
Western laziness consists of cramming our lives with compulsive activity,
so that there is no time at all to confront the real issues.
Sogyal Rinpoche
photo Jeff Borden
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