Welcome

Primitive religion is not believed, it is danced!

Arthur Darby Nock

Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
And only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.

Elizabeth Browning



Monday, August 28, 2017

At the end of all

Stillness is vital to the world of the soul. If as you age you become more still, you will discover that stillness can be a great companion. The fragments of your life will have time to unify, and the places where your soul-shelter is wounded or broken will have time to knit and heal. You will be able to return to yourself. In this stillness, you will engage your soul. Many people miss out on themselves completely as they journey through life. They know others, they know places, they know skills, they know their work, but tragically, they do not know themselves at all. Aging can be a lovely time of ripening when you actually meet yourself, indeed maybe for the first time. There are beautiful lines from T. S. Eliot that say:

'And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.'

John O'Donohue
Excerpt from ANAM CARA
________________________________

The clinical notes are done
The car has found its way home
The TV is off

Horses are fed
And dog and cats sprawl on the porch in the heat of
a hot august night

slowly the mind slows
and the body settles
quietly soul does inventory

thoughts wander randomly
and carelessly through the mind

thoughts about things finished
and unfinished
about love experienced and yearned for

good memories flourish
but memories of past hurts as well
and from time to time
feelings of failure
or resentment surface

but in the silence I watch those thoughts drift by
like boats on a river
and quietly just work to let them go
drifting away

meanwhile the mountain looms into the sky
a fawn awkwardly stumble after its mother
and a hawk screams its protest
at my foolishness
and I suspect

yours too

and I return

to stillness

No comments:

Post a Comment