Today, know that Love is your original parent, who loves you unconditionally, gives you full attention, and has given you a heritage of stability and wholeness. Know also that those around you have the same relationship with their ever-present, wise parent who guides and delights in them now and always.
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In her book Kitchen Table Wisdom, Rachel Naomi Remen gives advice on how to pray bigger:
"Prayers is not a way to get what we want to happen, like the remote control that comes with the television set. I think that prayer may be less about asking for the things we are attached to than it is about relinquishing our attachments in some way. It can take us beyond fear, which is an attachment, and beyond hope, with is another form of attachment. It can help us to remember the nature of the world and the nature of life, not on an intellectual level but in a deep and experiential way. When we pray, we don't change the world, we change ourselves." By Mark Nepo, quoted in Rachel Naomi Remen's Kitchen Table Wisdom:
Each person is born with an unencumbered spot, free of expectation and regret, free of ambition and embarrassment, free of fear and worry, an umbilical spot of grace where we were each first touched by God. It is this spot of grace that issues peace . . . To know this spot of inwardness is to know who we are, not by the surface markers of identity, not by where we work or what we wear or how we like to be addressed but by feeling our place in relation to the Infinite and by inhabiting it. Today, see clearly the many joys in your life. When a gift or joyful opportunity is presented to you, take it. Do not unnecessarily create suffering or complication out of fear, superstition, habit, or guilt.
Proverbs says, "A wise woman builds her house. But a foolish woman tears hers down with her own hands." Proverbs says that a virtuous woman "perceiveth that her merchandise is good."
Today, recognize that "your merchandise is good." Acknowledge that your talents and contributions and qualities have value--this is a holy demand. To tear down (with thoughts, words, or actions) that which you have accomplished does not serve you or others. Inspired by the writings of physician Rachel Naomi Remen:
Today, tend instead of fix. Only physical objects can be broken. People, and lives, are not machines that need dismantling and hammering. People and lives are dynamic, living things - like plants - that thrive when lovingly tended. A living thing has its own healing, restoring life force with which we can only be collaborators. Moments of joy are gift to you from Love. Do not reject joy because:
you think you don't deserve it. you are afraid of its intensity. you are afraid of its temporary nature. joy asks you to slow down and savor the moment and you are too busy. you feel joy doing an activity not on your schedule, not in the plan, and you should feel guilty instead. other people are suffering. you know you will suffer again. somberness is the sign of your seriousness and commitment to improving yourself and the world. Joy is divine. It is the very presence of Love. Say yes. Say thank you. Hold it gently and don't panic when the feeling begins to fades. It will return. "The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want."
Today, Love is with me, a power and force that provides stillness and depth to my life. I shall not want for love, affection, clarity, energy, beauty, wisdom, direction, a sense of belonging, a sense of worth, a sense of purpose, a sense of safety. As useful a tool as goal setting can be, it is more essential recognize the fullness of Love in the moment. |
AuthorTarn Wilson is the author of the memoir The Slow Farm and numerous essays. You may read more of her work at tarnwilson.com. Archives
September 2020
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