Having an attentive eye

File:An Autumn Field - geograph.org.uk - 615320.jpg

To the attentive eye, each moment of the year has its own beauty,

and in the same field, it beholds, every hour,

a picture which was never seen before, and which shall never be seen again.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Balance in nature and in life

dawn light2

There are as many nights as days, and the one is just as long as the other in the year’s course. Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. It is far better to take things as they come along with patience and equanimity

Jung.

The ease that comes from trust

autumn leaves

In contrast to our frenetic, saturated lives, the earth offers a calming stillness. Movement and growth in nature takes its time. The patience of nature enjoys the ease of trust and hope. There is something in our clay nature that needs to continually experience this ancient, outer ease of the world. It helps us remember who we are and why we are here.

John O’Donohue, Beauty: The Invisible Embrace

Sunday Quote: Autumn begins

Autumn

Don’t prolong the past,

don’t invite the future,

don’t be deceived by appearances,

just dwell in present awareness.

Patrul Rinpoche

Preoccupied

beech leaf

I often think that if the rest of creation could actually speak,

it would be looking at us wondering why we quibble about the details of living out our lives

when everything around us and everything inside us is so utterly and totally unique.

David Whyte, What to Remember when Waking

Breaking problems down

evening sun kildare

Gentle, slow, walking – best done  in nature – sends a signal to the brain and by slowing down the body we slow down the rushing mind.  It can put things in perspective and prevent us from living all the time in our heads:

In my room, the world is beyond my understanding;
 But when I walk I see that it consists of three or four
 hills and a cloud.

Wallace Stevens, Of the Surface of Things