I don’t talk about being a vegetarian very much – it’s my deal, for reasons I’ve thought long and hard about, and I don’t feel the need to judge or comment on other people’s choices.
Loving the animals and choosing not to eat them is an easy choice for me. The little guy on the video explains it better than I could…
There is so much wonder and mystery in the world… and so much we can never know. We desperately want the “knowing” of answers to life’s big questions and work toward that end with studying and learning. Because we are seekers, the continuing unknowns and mysteries can be unnerving – all those big questions are pressing to be solved.
I believe though that there can be calm in the face of the unknown. Peace even within the space of all that can’t be understood. Safety in what comes next. Trust in the process of life’s unfolding. Where there is connection and a oneness it is enough. There can be sanctuary in the midst of the mystery.
As the Lakota say, “When you see Mystery, call it Mystery”.
The more these words are contemplated, the more they seem to be the most respectful and honoring of the possible ways to celebrate the enormity of all that can’t be known or named or understood. It is all just too big to be contained in human constraints. Feeble attempts to find words for these wonders make them small and limited. Better to let the power remain unnamed; call it mystery and feel the awe.
There is peace in the surrender to not knowing. Not knowing and still trusting. Loving without explaining. Feelings without words. Falling into the wonder…
“Once again I accept that life is uncertain and that the goal is not to become more certain about anything but to relax more into the mystery of not knowing what will come next.”
-Elizabeth Lesser
“Great Mystery, teach me how to trust my heart, my mind, my intuition, my inner knowing, the senses of my body, the blessings of my spirit. Teach me to trust these things so that I may enter my sacred space and love beyond my fear, and thus walk in balance with the passing of each glorious sun.”
― American Indian Lakota Prayer
“Life is an unanswered question, but let’s still believe in the dignity and importance of the question”
― Tennessee Williams
Spring’s sweetness is so close! We awaken again to this glorious season of rebirth.
Time again to nourish our true self.
This poem by John O’Donohue eloquently expresses the longings that come with the unfolding of Spring.
Now, I am Impatient….!
Once you start to awaken, no one can ever
claim you again for the old patterns.Now you realize how precious your time here is.
You are no longer willing to squander your essence on undertakings that do not nourish your true self; your patience grows thin with tired talk and dead language.
You see through the rosters of expectation which promise you safety and the confirmation of your outer identity.
Now you are impatient for growth,
willing to put yourself in the way of change.You want your work to become an expression of your gift.
You want your relationship to voyage beyond the pallid frontiers to where the danger of transformation dwells.You want your God to be wild
and to call you to where your destiny awaits.
-John O’Donohue
Each day has its treasures, each hour its wonders. When I find myself in the mind swirl of things to do and stuff to worry about, I am choosing more often to find something wondrous to put into focus instead.
That wondrous thing/person/feeling is always there.
Always.
Refocusing is possible with….
-a long, sweet breath of thanks-giving, of gratitude for being here, alive, at this moment;
-absorption in na
ture while saying thank you out loud. Wait for it… The raven will grace you with a low fly-by, the trees will rustle and sing in the breeze, the sound of silence will illuminate the moment;
-a peek into a treasured book while watching for the uplifting words that will shine forward and then into your be-ing….
These are tiny movements that create immersion into a calm and gratitude filled space.
Each day brings more learning in taking an active role in moment to moment happiness.
Deepening into the simple life.
“In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in a clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness.”
-Mohandas K. Gandhi
“Smile, breathe and go slowly”
-Thich Nhat Hanh
Time out is a good thing. You can shift to Paradise in the next breath, and a sense of wellness and timelessness will be the wonderful result.
Cheryl Melody
“The quieter you become, the more you are able to hear”
“No snowflake ever falls in the wrong place”
These are Zen proverbs that I could endlessly revisit, falling ever deeper into meaning.
Meditative absorption.
Direct understanding.
The Zen of Winter.
“To the mind that is still the whole universe surrenders”
Lao Tzu
“Music in the soul can be heard by the universe”
“To attain knowledge,
add things every day.
To attain wisdom,
remove things every day.”
Lao Tzu
Winter’s way has laid the outside world bare. The bareness of winter, the quiet serenity, and the snow blanket, can lay bare our inner world too – if we let it.
As above so below.
An unsealed inner universe is open for marvelous reflection and deepening. So much going on while the world sleeps.
Bare, defined, disclosed, discovered, naked, resolved, solved, uncovered, unprotected, clear, debunked, denuded, divulged, exhibited, manifest, open, peeled, revealed, shown, stripped, unmasked, unsealed, unveiled, apparent, brought to light, evident, dug up, on view, unconcealed, unhidden, unsheltered…
“The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.”
-Joseph Campbell
“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.”
-Joseph Campbell
Are we brave enough to lay bare our souls?
To be authentic, real and raw?
To be open?
http://www.celebratewhatsright.com/images
Dewitt Jones is a talented, creative photographer who lives on the sweet island of Molokai. He spent 20 years working and photographing the wonders of the world for National Geographic. I’ve had his book What the Road Passes By for years and go to it often for uplifting words and to get absorbed in his photography.
I love his concept and website, “Celebrate What’s Right with the World”. I think you will too. He posts a weekly photo and it’s all about what’s good and beautiful and uplifting.
The link to his website is at the top of this post and you can sign up for his weekly photo posts.
There is so much that is right with the world.
Enjoy the celebration!
“You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting –
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.”
― Mary Oliver
“For one human being
to love another…
that is perhaps the
most difficult of
all our tasks, the
final and ultimate proof,
the task for which all
others are but
preparation”
–R. Maria Rilke
