Keeping your heart open does not mean liking or condoning whatever someone does. It does not mean refraining from defending someone who is being attacked. It means keeping your heart open with compassion for the person attacked, for the attacker, and for yourself. Especially for yourself. I cannot criticize myself for thoughts of fear, anger, […]
The way to find love is to be love, which is just another way of saying be who you are. You are not lovable because someone loves you. You are not without love if someone doesn’t love you. It is not possible to be without love or to be unlovable. It is only possible to
Talk less, listen moreJudge less, love more A mantra is a word or short phrase that focuses your attention. It can be a sacred mantra that connects you to the divine. It can be a brief, inspiring quote. It can be a reminder or guide to keep you focused on what is most important to
Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think on these things. ~Philippians 4:8 Since the beginning of the year, I have paid a lot more attention to my thoughts. Many of us
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Kiss gently with compassion All that come to you The babe and the crone The beggar and the king The wise and the foolish The angry and the meek The joyful and the grieved The fearful and the brave Touch all their hearts with love And smile sweetly to their soul Embrace them with forgiveness And send them on with blessing
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Mistakes. We all make them. Yes, even me. I wrote that last sentence with a smile because occasionally someone has a (mistaken!) perception of me that I don’t make mistakes. Perhaps they think that because I write this blog and lead a contemplation group and meditate and so on, that somehow I am always wise.
Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it. ~George Santayana Oops! I did it again. ~Britney Spears Many of us have caught ourselves at one time or another repeating a pattern or a mistake, and thinking, “I knew better. Why did I do that again?” Our history can teach us to
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I’ve had several conversations over the last month or so that seem to circle around the same theme of challenges in various types of relationships. In each conversation a friend was trying to be caring to someone else at deep cost to themselves. Maybe they felt obligated beyond what their personal energy allowed at that
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In the last post, I wrote about the idea of having a “burden bowl,” where we can lay our burdens down and be free of them forever, or at least until we decide to pick them up again. I left a lot of burdens behind on New Year’s Eve. I wanted to walk into the
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The price of staying awake is giving up every reason you have to stop loving. ~Adyashanti Do you know anyone who is a hoarder? I do. When I walk into her apartment, there are piles of newspapers and magazines everywhere. Boxes of unknown contents are stacked along the walls. Every surface is crowded with deals
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Wanting to be good is a good thing. Right? I want to be a good person, a good mother, a good friend, and so on. And I want others to see me as good. I want my goodness reflected back to me in how others think of me, talk about me, and act towards
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My grandson and I watched the movie Yes Day recently. In the movie, a couple decides to reconnect with their kids by having a day of saying yes to whatever the kids want. Comedy ensues. The movie made me more aware of how often I say no. Maybe I forego a chance to be kind
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Under heaven nothing is more soft and yielding than water Yet nothing is better for overcoming what is hard and stiff As we approach the end of the Tao Te Ching’s 81 chapters, the text returns to the theme of water. Water is the most common metaphor for the energy of Tao. It flows
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Touch. Many people are expressing a need for touch in this time of pandemic social distancing. We miss being touched. We miss touching others. We think of touch as an external, physical connection. But touch can also be internal, emotional, energetic. We can touch with the heart of compassion. Absolutely anything that arises in
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For now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face. 1 Corinthians 13:12 When we read this verse, we might yearn for that time of seeing face to face, when all things become clear and we see things as they really are. We don’t often pause to wonder if we will like
You think you know yourself until things start happening, until you lose the insulation of normality. ~Robert Wilson The photo above shows a label on the side of a jigsaw puzzle box. I was immediately intrigued. “Specification colors
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Reason says, the world is limited in six directionsThere is no way outLove says, there is a wayAnd I have traveled it many times~ RumiI’ve been reading a book titled Shadow Mountain, by Renee Askins, who was a central figure in the wolf restoration project in Yellowstone. One of the biggest hurdles was the forceful
Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point. ~C. S. LewisWhen my dog Rosie was a puppy, she was so terrified of other dogs that I could not take her for a walk. So I went to a wonderful trainer for help. We were in
If it weren’t for my mind, my meditation would be excellent. ~Pema Chodron You’ve heard me frequently emphasize and encourage practice. I’ve talked about the “razor’s edge” of practice, that place where we are challenged to release, expand, embrace, accept, forgive. The place where we meet fear on the battlefield and bow in respect. The
In a recent post, I described my grandson’s loving acceptance of George the lemur who lost his tail. This morning, George was found with his hand resting on Chao Chao in what appears to be a gesture of kindness. (Everyone denies staging this scenario, so think what you will about how this came about.) Chao
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