Monthly Archives: March 2013

We should look for the extraordinary that appears in each of days. It is there.

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We should look for the extraordinary that appears in each of days. It is there.

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These Days

I take my leave for the next day and will return Monday. I find in the quiet time those important things, their roots, and the dirt they grew in. Several Buddhist authors wrote about the need to recognize both the flowers and the weeds in our gardens. Charles Olson wrote this beautiful, simple, short poem I think echoes that message. I examine life fully and grow attentive, present, and creative in moments of solitude. The gap between stimulus and response grows. I explore radical opportunities to respond, not react. Enjoy.

whatever you have to say, leave
the roots on, let them
dangle

And the dirt

Just to make clear
where they come from

Here are some great acts of loving-kindness. I am sure we can add to it considerably but it is a great beginning.

Preface to Leaves of Grass

I re-blogged Distraction and Love yesterday. John posted it originally at What is Real True Love? He followed up to comment and left a long, wonderful comment with quotes. What distracts us? I only ask and answer that question when I have the space and solitude. It is in those moments that I can hold my questions and have enough compassion to receive the answers. I was led to this passage by Walt Whitman from John’s comments. I gently question my facts and truths, learned throughout my life in the quiet of meditation and prayer.

I love his beard and hair. When I grow up, I might look like him. I hope to find the wisdom Whitman spoke of so eloquently. Enjoy.

“Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote you income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take your hat off to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul your very flesh shall be a great poem.”

 

The challenge for me, over the years, has been to accept that the change I want in the world begins with me to paraphrase Mahatma Gandhi. Thomas Merton and, later, Parker Palmer wrote about the violence of activism. They are not talking about social justice, but the being so busy that the busyness of triviality overwhelms. Paul Simon’s words come to mind: Slow down/you move to fast/you gotta make the morning last. Have a great morning.