Never enough

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One of the more persistent forms of suffering, the sense that we have to do more, have more:

One of the deepest habitual patterns that we have

is to feel that now is not enough.

Pema Chodron

Every step is a good step

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Every time we make a mindful step, we are engaged in an act of enlightenment.

We can be enlightened about the fact that we are making a step.

Each step can have beauty in it.

Thich Nhat Hanh

A yes to life

Aligning with your ‘yes!’ is about feeling nourished on every level – feeling deeply alive. I’m not talking about the shallow, quick-fix kinds of comfort that make us feel good only temporarily. The kind of feeling good that I’m talking about, which comes from aligning with your ‘yes!,’ is about listening for the deeper truth underneath all of that. It’s that knowledge that ‘I’m in the right place, at the right time, doing what I’m here to do.’ You feel grounded and at home in yourself. Your life becomes rooted in a deep ‘yes!’ You feel alive and grateful to be in direct contact with life. You are in touch with how exquisite it is to feel and be with the raw truth of all that is moving through you. This kind of alignment includes difficult emotions, pain, and tension. It can include illness and struggle. It is about being in direct, authentic contact with the wholeness of life. Nothing is denied. It is your truth and you are awake to it.

Deborah Zucker, The Vitality Map

Sunday Quote : Life is always changing

You live,

not by securing yourself against impermanence, 

but by finding yourself as impermanence

Michael Stone, Awake in the World

Our cat Barney  who died on Tuesday, aged 19

How to get free in our hearts

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We often prefer to live in our ideas or dreams about life and not where it actually is.

Experiencing, 

rather than trying to have special experiences

is where real freedom lies

Ezra Bayda, At Home in the Muddy Water

photo jaka ostrovrsnik

What makes life beautiful?

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Some reflections from Brother Roger of Taize who I once met when I spent a silent retreat there. He was a good and kindly man, and outlines here an approach which can shape our whole attitude to this day and to life:

Are there realities which make life beautiful

and of which it can be said that they bring a kind of fulfillment, an inner joy?

Yes, there are. And one of these realities bears the name of trust.

Do we realize that what is best in each of us is built up through a simple trusting?

This is something even a child can do.

Br Roger of Taize

photo nicor