As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.
Henry David Thoreau
Zen is really just a reminder to stay alive and to be awake….We tend to daydream all the time, speculating about the future and dwelling on the past. Zen practice is about appreciating your life in this moment. If you are truly aware of five minutes a day, then you are doing pretty well. We are beset by both the future and the past, and there is no reality apart from the here and now.
Peter Matthiessen, 1927 – 2014. American Writer
Refuse to fall down
If you cannot refuse to fall down,
refuse to stay down.
If you cannot refuse to stay down,
lift your heart toward heaven,
and like a hungry beggar,
ask that it be filled.
You may be pushed down.
You may be kept from rising.
But no one can keep you from lifting your heart
toward heaven
only you.
It is in the middle of misery
that so much becomes clear.
The one who says nothing good
came of this,
is not yet listening.
Clarissa Pinkola Estés, A Prayer
Ireland moving back to much tighter restrictions again for 6 weeks, requiring that our inner resources be strong:
Where you come from is gone, where you thought you were going to was never there, and where you are is no good unless you can get away from it.
Where is there a place for you to be? No place […] Nothing outside you can give you any place […]
In yourself right now is all the place you’ve got.
Flannery O’Connor, 1925 – 1964, American novelist, Wise Blood
Eternity is not infinity
It is not a long time
It does not begin at the end of time
It does not run parallel to time
In its entirety it always was
In its entirety it will always be
It is entirely present always
Wendell Berry, Leavings
Sometimes, to get from where we are to where we are going, we have to be willing to be in-between…..Being in-between isn’t fun, but it’s necessary. It will not last forever. It may feel like we’re standing still, but were not. We’re standing at the in-between place. It’s how we get from here to there. It is not the destination. We are moving forward, even when we’re in-between. Today, I will accept where I am as the ideal place for me to be. If I am in-between, I will strive for the faith that this place is not without purpose, that it is moving me toward something good.
Melodie Beattie
