Lightly Child, Lightly.

The heavy is the root of the light.
The unmoved is the source of all movement.

Thus the Master travels all day
without leaving home.
However splendid the views,
she stays serenely in herself.

Why should the lord of the country
flit about like a fool?
If you let yourself be blown to and fro,
you lose touch with your root.
If you let restlessness move you,
you lose touch with who you are.

Lao-Tzu, from “Tao Te Ching” translation by S. Mitchell


Notes:

  • Poem:  via Thetaoteching (Thank you Beth @ Alive on All Channels). Photo: Eric Rose (via see more)
  • Post Title & Inspiration: Aldous Huxley: “It’s dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply. Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them.”

 

Saturday Morning

It is time to just go into a cocoon

and spin your soul.

~ Sheila Heti, How Should a Person Be?: A Novel


Photo: Chelsea

Monday Morning Wake-up Call

When up close, each thing reveals its shimmer. And it’s the unexpected closeness that holds everything together. The light spreads across my dog’s face, her eyes so devoted to wherever I want to go.

Can I be this devoted to the pull of life?  

Mark Nepo, from “Speechless” in Things That Join the Sea and the Sky: Field Notes on Living


Photograph by Kris Vanderveken (via Newthom)

Monday Morning Wake-Up Call

Most of us live in this paradox: we are trailing glimpses of insight, knowing why we are here, and not knowing. We both remember, and forget. We are imbued with wonder, and sometimes consumed with loss. From childhood on, we seek our purpose in a thousand ways…The purpose of life is not to maintain personal comfort; it’s to grow the soul…”The work” does not need to be grand, only fitting. It is guided by asking ourselves over and over: What is the next right thing?

~Christina BaldwinThe Seven Whispers: A Spiritual Practice for Times Like These


Notes: Quote – Thank you Make Believe Boutique. Photo: Marta Bevacqua

Into the mug of morning pour yourself

Into the mug of morning
pour yourself, warm
and dark, your aromatic
presence hugging the hand-formed
divide between inside and out.
Ease from empty into full
until, brim-level, you
rise an swirl, a steamy
mist rejoining its source.

~Sharon Sharp


Notes: Photo: mennyfox55. Poem: Thank you Make Believe Boutique