Author: Anne

This author has written 790 articles

AT THE WINDOW

I was at the window

when a fly near the latch

was on its back spinning-

legs furious, going nowhere.

I thought to swat it

but something in its struggle was too much my own.

It kept spinning and began to tire.

Without moving closer, I exhaled

steadily, my breath a sudden wind,

and the fly found its legs,

rubbed its face and flew away.

I continued to stare at the latch hoping that someday,

the breath of something incomprehensible

would right me and

enable me to fly.

Poem by Mark Nepo

https://marknepo.com/about_bio.php

REFLECTION:

  • Have you ever felt like you were spinning… going nowhere?
  • Did someone offer a breath to help right you?
  • Are you currently struggling? Do you need help? Be courageous – ask for help!
  • Is there someone in your life who needs help? How can you “exhale steadily” to help them fly?

THESE TIMES

Sculpture of a peregrino on the outskirts of Samos along the Camino de Santiago

These are times in which a genius would wish to live.  It is not in the still calm of life, or in the repose of a pacific station, that great characters are formed.  The habits of a vigorous mind are formed in contending with difficulties.  Great necessities call out great virtues.

 Abigail Adams, Letter to John Quincy Adams dated January 19th, 1780 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abigail_Adams

REFLECTION:

  • We are certainly not living in still calm times (Can you imagine what Abigail Adams would think of today’s times?).  Yet we have an opportunity to build a strong character. 
  • What habits have your formed to deal with these difficulties? 
  • What virtues do you need to nurture?

LOOKING AT DISAPPOINTMENT

When we refuse to work with our disappointment, we break the Precepts: rather than experience the disappointment, we resort to anger, greed, gossip, criticism. Yet it’s the moment of being that disappointment which is fruitful; and, if we are not willing to do that, at least we should notice that we are not willing. The moment of disappointment in life is an incomparable gift that we receive many times a day if we’re alert. This gift is always present in anyone’s life, that moment when ‘It’s not the way I want it!”

Quote by Charlotte Joko Beck

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joko_Beck

REFLECTION:

  • Are you willing to look disappointment in the eye?
  • What do you resort to to avoid acknowledging disappointment – anger, greed, gossip, criticism, judgment?
  • How can you see disappointment as a gift?
  • “If it’s not the way you want it”, is there something you can do about that?