The Journey by Mary Oliver

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice–
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
“Mend my life!”
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do–
determined to save
the only life you could save.

My wisdom belongs to the foolish, my power to the oppressed.

“If there is anything in us, it is not our own; it is a gift of God. But if it is a gift of God, then it is entirely a debt one owes to love, that is, to the law of Christ. And if it is a debt owed to love, then I must serve others with it, not myself. Continue reading

I will sit on the bank and wait for the moment when everything is clear

There is a beautiful story form Buddha’s life, which discusses the crux of being meditative.  Osho has explained it very well in this piece.  Worth reading.

“One day Buddha is passing by a forest. It is a hot summer day and he is feeling very thirsty. He says to Ananda, his chief disciple, “Ananda, you go back. Just three, four miles back we passed a small stream of water. You bring a little water — take my begging bowl. I am feeling very thirsty and tired.” He had become old.

 

Cool Mountain Stream Relaxing Nature Meditation

Continue reading

Just two miles

Buddha was moving from one town to another. They had lost their way. They asked a few villagers on the way, “How far until the next town?”

They said, “Just two miles,” as is always said in India. Whether it is fifty miles or twenty miles, it makes no difference; villagers always say, “Just two miles.” Continue reading

We resist transition not because we can’t accept the change, but because we can’t let go of that piece of ourselves that we have to give up

Transition, is the process of letting go of the way things used to be and then taking hold of the way they subsequently become. In between the letting go and the taking hold again, there is a chaotic but potentially creative “neutral zone” when things aren’t the old way, but aren’t really a new way yet either. This three-phase process-ending, neutral zone, beginning again-is transition. Transition is the way that we all come to terms with change. Continue reading

To let go takes Love

To Let Go” doesn’t mean to stop caring it means I can’t do it for someone else.

“To Let Go” is not to cut myself off, it is the realization I can’t control another.

“To Let Go” is not to enable, but to allow learning from natural consequences.

“To Let Go” is to admit powerlessness which means the outcome is not in my hands.

“To Let Go” is not to try to change or blame another it is to make the most of myself.

“To Let Go” is not to care for but to care about, not to fix but be supportive.

“To Let Go” is not to judge but to allow another to be a human being.

“To Let Go” is to not to be in the middle arranging all the outcomes, but to allow another to affect their own destiny.

“To Let Go” is not to be protective; it is to permit another to face reality.

“To Let Go” is not to deny, but to accept.

“To Let Go” is not to nag, scold, or argue but instead to search out my own shortcomings and to correct them.

“To Let Go” is not to criticize and regulate anybody, but to try to become what I dream I can be.

“To Let Go” is not to regret the past but to grow and live for the present and for the future.

“To Let Go” is to fear less, and to love more…”

–  Robert Paul Gilles, Jr.