I can't sleep…
Am I the sun inside me?
~ Kazim Ali, from “Dear Rumi,” The Far Mosque
Notes:
I was racing back home from the computer store, busily doing my errands, trying to get things done. I noticed a restaurant and shopping center to my right, on the freeway. I’d been curious about this place for almost a year. Today, instead of driving by, I turned off the highway and pulled into the parking lot. I spent the next three hours browsing through the stores filled with antiques, trinkets, and gourmet foods. Then I enjoyed a leisurely dinner—a juicy hamburger and a chocolate malt—at the restaurant before returning home. The stores had always been there; I’d always driven past. Today I stopped, satisfied my curiosity, and enjoyed myself.
It’s easy to spend our lives working toward a goal, convinced that if we could only get there, we’d be truly happy then. Today is the only moment we have. If we wait until tomorrow to be happy, we’ll miss out on the beauty of today.
Have your plans. Set goals.
Let yourself be happy now.
~ Melody Beattie, from “Be Happy Now” & More Language of Letting Go
Photo Credit
Enough. These few words are enough.
If not these words, this breath.
If not this breath, this sitting here.
This opening to life
we have refused
again and again
until now.
Until now.
~David Whyte, “Enough” Where Many Rivers Meet
Notes: Poem: Thank you Beth @ Alive on all Channels. Photo: Vadim Stein via Mennyfox55
Waking up in the morning
I vow with all beings
to be ready for sparks…
I vow with all beings
to let the pain and surprise
slow me down to this step,
this step.
~Robert Aitken, from “Zen Vows for Daily Life”
Notes:
But mostly I live here in the capricious present
Writing down one thing, then the next.
Autumn passes like empty freight cars—
Some doors open, some doors closed—
Light flickers and flashes through the cracks.
The trees are a thousand species of fires.
— Eric Pankey, from “Southern Elegy,” Trace: Poems
Notes:
