THE DAILY SPARK

BEING SPRING

“How should Spring bring forth a garden on hard stone?  Become earth, that you may grow flowers of many colors. For you have been heart-breaking rock. Once, for the sake of experiment, be earth!”

Poem by Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī, was a 13th-century Persian poet,  Islamic scholar, theologian, and Sufi mystic originally from Greater Khorasan in Greater Iran.  (1207 -1273)

REFLECTION:

It is officially spring.  Examine how you have become hard.

How can you create a garden that will allow flowers to grow?

How can you “be earth?”

RULE # 4

“Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today.”

Quote by Jordan B. Peterson, from his book:  12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos

REFLECTION:

Do you spend time comparing yourself to others? 

Are you better today than you were yesterday?

THE SPRING THAW

 “In my own life, as winters turn into spring, I find it not only hard to cope with mud but also hard to credit the small harbingers of larger life to come, hard to hope until the outcome is secure. Spring teaches me to look more carefully for the green stems of possibility; for the intuitive hunch that may turn into a larger insight, for the glance or touch that may thaw a frozen relationship, for the stranger’s act of kindness that makes the world seem hospitable again” 

Quote by Parker Palmer

Parker Palmer is an American author, educator and activist who focuses on issues of education, community leadership, spirituality and social change.  He has published ten books including: The Courage To Teach and Let Your Life Speak.  

REFLECTION:

As we move into spring, what new possibilities do you see emerging for you?

Is there a part of you that has been frozen? 

Is there a frozen relationship that can thaw?

Is there an act of kindness you can do to make the world (your world) better?