Today though I am feeling a small sense of relief for the gains in progressive legislators, ultimately I must admit to a feeling of unknowing and frankly some doubt, fear, and despair – that it will be enough to turn the tide in time. There is so much more
For this offering, I present something to help us hold our hope and resilience while we must also hold the increasing probability of the self-inflicted extinction of our human species.
A deep and often challenging mystic practice is to hold two opposites and find the divine dance of the mystery that arises. May you find that place, and thrive with
The Wish to Be Generous
All that I serve will die, all my delights,
the flesh kindled from my flesh, garden and field,
the silent lilies standing in the woods,
the woods, the hill, the whole earth, all
will burn in man’s evil, or dwindle
in its own age. Let the world bring on me
the sleep of darkness without stars, so I may know
my little light taken from me into the seed
of the beginning and the end, so I may bow
to mystery, and take my stand on the earth
like a tree in a field, passing without haste
or regret toward what will be, my life
a patient willing descent into the grass.
~ Wendell Berry ~
(The Collected Poems, 1957-1982)
Thank you, dear friend, for keeping this juicy source of sustenance going! I’m at the Jamiat Khas and will keep my ears open for some morsel of wisdom to share here.
Much love to all, even knowing there is ‘no foundation to rely upon,’ as the Buddhists put it…
Yes, indeed my friend. We are the doer and the knower, and more often the one who knows nothing. I am learning to sit in that unknowing.
God works …… all these strifes will pass, and make no real difference to the universe. The only constant in all these unsettling times, is that the doer is man.