What to do in the Darkness by Marilyn Chandler McEntyre Go slowly Consent to it But don’t wallow in it Know it as a place of germination And growth Remember the light Take an outstretched hand if you find one Exercise unused senses Find the path by walking it Practice trust Watch for dawn
Soul lethargy is not Letting go.
It is soul sloth.
Soul lethargy is not Letting go. It is soul sloth. Like Sherlock asleep on his exercise wheel, I emerge from this pandemic afraid to get back on the wheel, curled up instead around my COVID fat feeling sorry for myself. Feeling pseudo-safe in a cocoon of my own making. A cocoon leading not to new life but to one doomed to die by soul sloth. Up! My soul opens like a morning glory starved for sunlight, waiting for grace to pull me up. Divine Spirit ever folding and unfolding, Show me the way out. In the asking, soul sloth becomes Letting-go. c. Rita H Kowats 5-30-21 * Apologies to my feline sleuth for so cavalierly exposing his soul and fat belly for all to see.
There’s wiggle room in emptiness. Satiety dulls possibility.
Possibility broods in the empty space left in our souls when ego flees the coup.
There’s wiggle room in emptiness. Satiety dulls possibility.
www.spiritualitywithout borders.blog
The Uses of Not
Thirty spokes meet In the hub. Where the wheel isn’t Is where it’s useful.
Hollowed out, clay makes a pot. Where the pot’s not is where it’s useful.
Cut doors and windows to make a room. Where the room isn’t, there’s room for you.
So the profit in what is is in the use of what isn’t.
Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching: A Book about the Way and the Power of the Way
trans. Ursula K. LeGuin
If you obsess over whether you are making the right decision, you are basically assuming that the universe will reward you for one thing and punish you for another. The universe has no fixed agenda. Once you make any decision, it works around that decision. There is no right or wrong, only a series of possibilities that shift with each thought, feeling, and action that you experience.
Deepak Chopra
Calling forth divine energy I open myself to it’s movements within me, around me, and through me. May spirit guides protect me. Breathing in, I am safe. Breathing out, I release fear. Breathing in, I welcome possibilities Breathing out, I release judgment. Breathing in, I am safe. Breathing out, I release fear. Breathing in, I welcome possibilities Breathing out, I release judgment. May it be so.
PHOTO Credit: c. 2014 Shelly “First Day of School” licensed CC-BY sketchport.com
“Do not fight against pain; do not fight against irritation or jealousy. Embrace them with great tenderness, as though you were embracing a little baby. Your anger is yourself, and you should not be violent toward it. The same thing goes for all of your emotions.” Thich Nhat Hanh You Are Here
We are often so hard on ourselves when discovering our limitations. Thich Nhat Hanh invites us to accompany our breathing with the mantra, "Breathing in, I know that I am breathing in. Breathing out, I know that I am breathing out." Today I adapt it to, "Breathing in, I know that I am human. Breathing out, I accept that I am human." The invitation to embrace all of our emotions tenderly, even those that want to shame us, brings me back to a time of meditation in which I lost myself in remorse and shame while pondering past behaviors. The vulnerable child within me had long since introduced herself to me and I had taken first steps to welcome her back. But the embrace of her humanity still alluded me. In this meditation I felt a strong impulse moving me onto the floor before my little altar. Without thinking, without words, I gathered my knees to my chest and rocked and weeped in that fetal position until the words finally flowed, bringing profound healing, "Margaret, I love you so much. I don't want to be ashamed of you again. I treasure your vulnerability for all that it teaches me." Since that time, it's easier to accept my humanity. But when the shadows return, I become the woman nestled in the womb of the Crescent Moon, where I rock for a while to recover from the utter surprise that I am human! Breathing in, I know that I am human. Breathing out, I accept that I am human. May it be so.
…An authentic life is a life that is aware of and willing to engage its own oppositions…. Sometimes, people who are very vociferous and moralistic are people who have erased the tug of opposition from their lives….It is lonely sometimes to hear them talk because,in their certainty, you can hear the hollow echo of a life only half-lived….One of the greatest duties of postmodern culture…is to try to bring the personal and the communal, the individual and the universal, together.
John O’Donohue in a talk delivered for “The Open Mind”
published in Walking in Wonder by John Quinn and John O’Donohue
The eye with which god sees me is the same eye with which I see god. God’s eye and my eye are one. One seeing, one knowing, one loving. Meister Eckhart
Spirituality Without Borders: Reflections on Spiritual Practice 