Sometimes I have loved the peacefulness of an ordinary Sunday.
It is like standing in a newly planted garden after a warm rain.
You can feel the silent and invisible life.
Marilynne Robinson, Gilead
Tag: Present moment
Create a space
Consider the “forest pool” metaphor so popular in Buddhism. After inclement weather, the pool is muddy, full of sediment and debris. We cannot clear it by trying to control the contents – that would make the pool worse. We can only wait for all the sediment to settle to the bottom, leaving the pool clear again. So in meditation, by concentrating on the breath or our body or on sounds we can hear in the present moment, we create a space for clarity. We often find that in this spaciousness, an answer to a problem will simply “pop up” to the surface. Sometimes it won’t, but our bodies will thank us for a break from all the worrying.
Sarah Napthali, Stewing
Being content
Why cannot we be content with the secret gift of happiness that is offered to us, without consulting the rest of the world?
Why do we insist rather on a happiness that is approved by magazines and TV?
Perhaps because we do not believe in a happiness that is given to us for nothing? We do not think we can be happy with a happiness that has no price tag on it.
Thomas Merton
Colour on a cold January Monday
We live in all we seek. The hidden shows up in too-plain sight. It lives captive on the face of the obvious – the people, events, and things of the day – to which we as sophisticated children have long since become oblivious.
What a hideout: Holiness lies spread and borne over the surface of time and stuff like color.
Annie Dillard
Sunday Quote: Unfolding
At its heart, the journey of each life is a pilgrimage through unforeseen sacred places that enlarge and enrich the soul.
As a river flows in ideal sequence
May your love discover time is presence.
John O’Donohue
Noticing beauty
A good intention for this year would not necessarily be to do more, but to turn up fully for our lives and experience deeply the beauty in each moment:
The answer must be, I think, that 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, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
