Moving Slowly Trisha)

This is something I came across in a book I picked up at a used book store a few years ago. I think it makes a lot of sense any time of year...but especially during these frenzied weeks before Christmas...

I usually get into too many different kinds of activities at this time of year. One day I realize I am skimming the surface of everything. There is but hollow pleasure in too crowded weeks. Real rewards come from engaging in fewer activities and experiencing each one more deeply. Loss of alertness and freshness of approach tell me to slow up. Life is best when there is a balance between activities and intervals of aloneness. In the intervals we are able to deepen the meaning of the activities.

The days I like least are those when I pass through my environment superficially almost as if it were a stage backdrop. I scarcely see anything except what needs doing at the moment. . .In contrast, when I am not pressed by a push of events I move more slowly and savor each moment. Every activity becomes a feature in itself and the simplest routine has its own joy. I feel the texture of the blanket when making a bed, and it is good. I feel the soil when I am repotting a houseplant and it is good. I listen beyond words to what people mean. I look at the sales person in the store and really see her. . . .this is living “three-dimensionally” – going that extra mile, doing all the things you are not required to do, but which give added meaning. Living this way you see not only your goal but the path that leads you there and all the little flowers and ferns that grow along its edges.
-- Jean Hersey

Illusive Happiness (Denny)

As he listened to the two voices he was so attached to and thought back to the afternoon, the striking of the clocks, the easy, pleasant company, the walk around the shore, with a rush of feeling he felt that this must be happiness. As soon as the thought came to him, he fought it back, blaming the whiskey. The very idea was as dangerous as presumptive speech: happiness could not be sought or worried into being, or even fully grasped; it should ne allowed its own slow pace so that it passes unnoticed, if it ever comes at all.

from That They May Face the Rising Sun by John McGahern

A slice of humble pie (Denny)...

Remember, you are just an extra in everyone else's play.

Frankilin Delano Roosevelt

This reminds me of another little saying, whose author I either do not know or have forgotten: "Remember that when you die, not everyone at the funeral will be sad."

Although humility is not the same thing as humiliation, it is the one virtue most human beings, by definition, lack.

Life is for each man a solitary cell whose walls are mirrors.

Eugene O'Neill

That's a pretty dark view of life, but, at least for some, it has a ring of truth about it...

"Being-Time" (Denny)

The traces of the ebb and flow of time are so evident that we do not doubt them; yet, though we do not doubt them, we ought not to conclude that we understand them. Human beings are changeable, at one time questioning what they do not understand and at another time no longer questioning the same thing, so their former questionings do not always coincide with their present ones. The questioning alone, for its duration, is time.

Roshi Philip Kapleau
The Three Pillars of Zen

I first read The Three Pillars in around 1980. It is nice to pick up a book one had read previously and to discover that the underlined bits still have that same force of appeal. I re-discovered this little gem a few days ago while rummaging through the book shelf.

soul-care (Trisha)

"It is important to pray for those who are given into our care in the world. Each person walks a unique pathway through the world. You have your own work, gifts, difficulties and commitments. In order to take your place and contribute to the light of the world, you need to honor all these different dimensions of your life. Adjacent to all your activity in the world, there is also present in your life a small group of people who are directly in your care. They are usually family and some intimate friends who come to dwell at the center of your life. These people are sent to you with gifts and challenges. in turn, you have a duty to look out for them. These people are in your soul-care. When someone is really close to you, you are in each others soul-care. Because of the calling of your own life, you cannot be continually there. Yet in the affection of prayer, you can carry the icons of their presence on the altar of your heart. Often unknown to the world, you secretly carry these friends and family members in your heart and from heart to heart you bless, mind and care for each other.

John O'Donohue
Eternal Echoes