An ant on the move does more than a dozing ox. ~ Lao Tzu
The Best Thing I Heard This Weekend
From my friend, Jill Badonsky, author of The Awe-manac:
“March was originally the first month on the early Roman calendar. Its name honors Mars, the Roman god of war. To honor Mars, it’s the Awe-Manac Month of Unleashing Your Inner Warrior On All Tormenting Thoughts And Unfulfilling Actions Keeping You Captive.”
Right on!
Good Words
“I had been continually exhorted to define my purpose in life but I was now beginning to doubt whether life might not be too complex a thing to be kept within the bounds of a single formulated purpose, whether it would not burst its way out or, if the purpose was too strong, perhaps grow distorted like an oak whose trunk has been encircled with an iron band…So I began to have an idea of my life, not as a slow shaping of achievement to fit my preconceived purpose, but as the gradual discovery and growth of a purpose which I did not know.”
-Marion Milner
Good Words
We cannot have self-trust if our mind is such a bad neighborhood that we’re afraid to go into it.
–Jennifer Louden
Suffering and gratitude-they can’t really be BFF’s.
–Lynne Morrell
Wow
“Perhaps God is waiting to be found in the things we try to avoid.”
-Danielle LaPorte
Go here to read the rest of her post: “where to find God: down, not up”
Our Work
The real work of this life is not what we do every day from nine to five. The real work is to disidentify from self-images that were formed lifetimes ago, and from which we still construct our daily lives. The real work is to allow ourselves to be who we already are, and to have what we already have. The real work is to be passionate, be holy, be wild, be irreverent, to laugh and cry until you awaken the sleeping spirits, until the ground of your being cleaves and the universe comes flooding in….our work is to discover, and then inhabit, our own lives.
-Geneen Roth, Appetites: On The Search For True Nourishment
Oh Yeah
Hitting Me Right Between The Eyes
Lately I have been reading Kathleen Norris’ new book, Acedia & Me: A Marriage, Monks, and A Writer’s Life, and yesterday I came upon this prayer that is so perfect for me and where I am right now.
It comes from the Book of Common Prayer: Prayers for use by a Sick Person:
“This is another day, O Lord. I know not what it will bring forth, but make me ready, Lord, for whatever it may be. If I am to stand up, help me to stand bravely. If I am to sit still, help me to sit quietly. If I am to lie low, help me to do it patiently. And if I am to do nothing, let me do it gallantly. Make these words more than words, and give me the Spirit of Jesus. Amen.”
And if I am to do nothing, let me do it gallantly. Hm, doing nothing…gallantly. Never tried that one before.
Doing nothing…
-resentfully
-angrily
-guiltily
-fearfully
-grudgingly
I’ve run the gamut with those.
But “doing nothing gallantly.”
Definitely something to chew on.
Good Words
…in the book of Isaiah the word of God is envisioned as the rain God sends to earth, and the prophet declares that it will not return empty, but bearing good fruit. If we are made in God’s image, perhaps we are also words of God in this sense, and our life’s pilgrimage is to determine what our particular word is and how we are to bring it to fruition. Within this frame of reference, we can envision the whole of our life as a journey home.
-Kathleen Norris
Things You Will Never See Me Getting Excited Over
