Beauty and grace are performed
whether or not we will or sense them.
The least we can do is try to be there.
Annie Dillard
Tag: Nature
Smile, life is good
How can you remember to smile when you wake up? You might hang a reminder–such as a branch, a leaf, a painting, or some inspiring words – so that you notice it when you wake up.
Once you develop the practice of smiling, you may not need a reminder. You will smile as soon as you hear a bird singing or see the sunlight streaming through the window.
Smiling helps you approach the day with gentleness and understanding.
Thich Nhat Hahn
The winter is over, let go, move on
It is so good to see the buds appearing on the branches and the first flowers pushing their way through the soil. Nature is full of positive energy and we too are part of that.
Be ahead of all parting, as though it already were behind you, like the winter that has just gone by. For among these winters there is one so endlessly winter that only by wintering through it all will your heart survive.
Rilke
When you don’t have the answers
Some thoughts prompted somewhat by celebrating a birthday, the passing of time, and another poem by Mary Oliver. A lot of the time I do not have answers to the questions that arise in me or to why things have happened. But increasingly, as the poet describes, I do not dwell too long on them as they have a capacity to stir up discontent. I prefer now not to try to put names or words on my journey, but to keep my heart moving towards an interior openness, or, in the image the poem uses, to walk in an unnamed broad field. To let in space and the vastness of the world. All I can do is open up; what happens afterwards is not within my control. I will just try to welcome it. Life is an adventure, that continually surprises. Its joy and freshness lie there.
How did it come to be
that I am no longer young
and the world that keeps time
in its own way has just been born?
I don’t have the answers
and anyway I have become suspicious
of such questions,
and as for hope, that tender advisement,
even that
I’m going to leave behind.
I’m just going to put on
my jacket, my boots,
I’m just going to go out
to sleep all this night
in some unnamed, flowered corner
of the pasture.
To a heart, full of hesitations
When today you have doubts and fears, why not follow the advice in this Mary Oliver poem. To look at nature all around you – the buds beginning to appear, the early flowers blooming – and see there a support for your inner self.
Oh, my dear heart,
My own dear heart,
Full of hesitations,
Questions, choice of directions,
Look at the world.
Behold the morning glory,
the meanest flower,
the ragweed, the thistle.
Look at the grass.
Mary Oliver, The Singular and Cheerful Life
Walking through life with ease and without fears
In our daily life, our steps are burdened with anxieties and fears. Life itself seems to be a continuous chain of insecure feelings, and so our steps lose their natural easiness. [However] Our earth is truly beautiful. There is so much graceful, natural scenery along paths and roads around the earth! Do you know how many forest paths there are, paved with colorful leaves, offering cool and shade? They are all available to us, yet we cannot enjoy them because our hearts are not trouble-free, and our steps are not at ease.
When you practice walking meditation, you go for a stroll. You have no purpose or direction in space or time. The purpose of walking meditation is walking itself. Going is important, not arriving. Walking meditation is not a means to an end; it is an end. Each step is life; each step is peace and joy. That is why we don’t have to hurry. That is why we slow down. We seem to move forward, but we don’t go anywhere; we are not drawn by a goal. Thus we smile while we are walking.
Walking meditation is learning to walk again with ease.
Thich Nhat Hahn
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