Just for Today

Thanks to Rich Young

Just for today, I will try to live through this day only,
and not tackle my whole life problem
at once. I can do something for twelve hours
that would appall me if I felt that I had to
keep it up for a lifetime.
 
Just for today, I will be happy. This assumes to

be true what Abraham Lincoln said, that
"most folks are as happy as they make up
their minds to be."
 
Just for today, I will try to strengthen my mind.

I will study. I will learn something useful.
I will not be a mental loafer. I will read
something that requires effort, thought and
concentration.
 

Just for today, I will adjust myself to what is,
and not try to adjust everything to my own
desires. I will take my "luck" as it comes,
and fit myself to it.
 

Just for today, I will exercise my soul in three
ways: I will do somebody a good turn, and
not get found out. I will do at least two
things I don't want to--just for exercise.
I will not show anyone that my feelings are
hurt; they may be hurt, but today I will not
show it.
 

Just for today, I will be agreeable. I will look
as well as I can, dress becomingly, talk low,
act courteously, criticize not one bit, not
find fault with anything and not try to improve
or regulate anybody except myself.
 

Just for today, I will have a program. I may not
follow it exactly, but I will have it. I will
save myself from two pests: hurry and indecision.
 

Just for today, I will have a quiet half hour all
by myself, and relax. During this half hour,
sometime, I will try to get a better perspective
of my life.
 

Just for today, I will be unafraid. Especially I
will not be afraid to enjoy what is beautiful,
and to believe that as I give to the world, so
the world will give to me.

     

                                ~Kenneth Holmes

“Let the hard things in life break you. Let them affect you. Let them change you.”

"What is the lesson in this wind? What is this storm trying to tell you? What will you learn if you face it with courage? With full honesty and~ lean into it." ~Pema Chodron

Thanks to Rich Young

                                                       We look with uncertainty

Beyond the old choices for 

Clear-cut answers 

To a softer, more permeable aliveness

Which is every moment 

At the brink of death; 

For something new is being born in us 

If we but let it. 

We stand at a new doorway, 

Awaiting that which comes...

Daring to be human creatures. 

Vulnerable to the beauty of existence. 

Learning to love. 

                                                                    ~Anne Hillman

Freefall

Thanks to Stacy Abbott

As swimmers dare 

to lie face to the sky and water bears them, 

as hawks rest upon air

and air sustains them, 

so would I learn to attain

freefall, and float

into Creator Spirit's deep embrace, 

knowing no effort earns 

that all-surrounding grace.

                                                                                   ~Denise Levertov

No Fear

Abhaya Mudra (gesture of no fear) with Dana Flynn at Floyd Yoga Jam, Sept 2, 2012.
This moment changed my life, I think.

     When sorrow comes, let us accept it simply, as a part of life. Let the heart be open to pain; let it be stretched by it. All the evidence we have says that this is the better way.

     An open heart never grows bitter. Or if it does, it cannot remain so. In the desolate hour, there is an outcry; a clenching of the hands upon emptiness; a burning pain of bereavement; a weary ache of loss.

     But anguish, like ecstasy, is not forever. There comes a gentleness, a returning quietness, a restoring stillness. This, too, is a door to life. Here, also, is a deepening of meaning-- and it can lead to dedication; a going forward to the triumph of the soul, the conquering of the wilderness. And in the process will come a deepening inward knowledge that in the final reckoning, all is well.
                                                                                   
                                                                                          ~A. Powell Davies