image by: Graham Fink
Study me as much as you like, you will not know me,
for I differ in a hundred ways from what you see me to be.Put yourself behind my eyes and see me as I see myself,
for I have chosen to dwell in a place you cannot see
Rumi
quote
unsticking stuck
There are many ways of moving forward, but only one way of standing still.
Franklin D Roosevelt
We notice stuck. When we experience it, stuck draws our attention. We can’t see past it. We feel it pinning us down. Stuck consumes us.
When we’re stuck we become blind to possibilities. Ways to move forward. Advancement. Growth. Movement. All seem out of reach when stuck grasps us.
Yet there are always more ways of moving forwards.
how are you walking?
Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.
Helen Keller
work, love, dance
Work like you don’t need money, love like you’ve never been hurt and dance like no one’s watching
Satchel Paige
or…
Dance like it hurts, love like you need the money and work only when someone is watching.
Scott Adams
as ever, it’s your choice.
the pain of living and the drug of dreams
T. S. Eliot wrote in his Animula poem of ‘the pain of living and the drug of dreams.’
Dreams can be like that, can’t they? Addictive.
And like a drug, somehow drawing us away from reality. Taking us to another world.
We speak of them quite lightly. We talk about such things as ‘our dream holiday’, ‘my dream job’. We speak about ‘a dream house’ or ‘a dream car’.
Dreaming about material things seems easy. Dreaming about things we might do, almost as easy.
Dreaming about who we want to be, often harder. So we avoid it. For the most part.
We just plough on with life. With living. Same routines. Same thoughts. Same feelings. Same pain.
But dreams bring about change. Dreams inspire. Dreams provide hope. Dreams enable. Dreams motivate. Dreams create reality.
What I dream matters and for that moment the world exists that way
Benjamin Zander
life’s guest house
This being human is a guest house. Every morning is a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor…
Welcome and entertain them all. Treat each guest honorably.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in. Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.
Rumi
Each thought, each feeling that arrives in your awareness, greet it, thank it for its wisdom, its desire to speak to you. Each is a messenger. Each a mentor.
Do not turn them away or shun them. Do not hasten to compost them. Be curious about their story. Enquire of their intent; how they seek to serve you. Each has a purpose, each a meaning. We’re usually just too busy to notice. Too dismissive of this errant thought, this unwelcome sensation in the body, this repeating voice.
They seek to help us grow.
day to day
you are today where the thoughts of yesterday brought you, and you will be tomorrow where the thoughts of today take you
Sometimes we need to break the pattern.
open up
… and the day came, when risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom
Anais Nin
see
In the right light, at the right time, everything is extraordinary.
where is the burn?
Free from passion and desire, you have stripped the thorns from the stem.
Buddha
What is it that you hunger to do?
illuminated dandelion 