Reposting …
A world of grief and pain,
flowers bloom
even then.
~ Kobayashi Issa, The Spring of My Life and Selected Haiku
Image credit: Printeboek on Pixabay
Tag: Suffering
Man’s Search For Meaning
There are books that stay with us because they open something quiet and essential within us. Viktor Frankl writes of the one freedom no circumstance can take away: the freedom to choose our attitude, our way. He reminds us that when life cannot be changed, we are invited to change ourselves; and, that in extraordinary situations, our most human reactions are natural.
Man’s Search for Meaning is a book I return to often. Each reading is a reminder of what matters — presence, and the work of shaping our inner world. One of my all time favourite books.
Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.
Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning
When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.
Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning
An abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation is normal behaviour.
Victor Frankl
My copy is a much older edition but I couldn’t find an image for it.
Intrinsic Wholeness
No matter how many scars we carry from what we have gone through and suffered in the past, our intrinsic wholeness is still here: what else contains the scars? None of us has to be a helpless victim of what was done to us or what was not done for us in the past, nor do we have to be helpless in the face of what we may be suffering now. We are also what was present before the scarring—our original wholeness, what was born whole. And we can reconnect with that intrinsic wholeness at any time, because its very nature is that it is always present. It is who we truly are.
~ Jon Kabat-Zinn, Full Catastrophe Living
~ Image credit: NEOSiAM on Pexels
Letting Go Of Should
So many of us live with an underlying sense that we are not enough. We believe that if only we were smarter, more disciplined, or more lovable, we’d finally be at peace. Yet the real prison is not our imperfections, but the belief that we should be perfect.
~ Tara Brach, Radical Acceptance
These words strike close to my heart. I know the weight of striving, the ache of not believing I’m enough. This quote reminds me, and maybe you too, that peace isn’t found in perfection, but in softening towards ourselves.
~ Image credit: tam with a cam on Unsplash
The Wisdom Of Control
In My Control
My boundaries
My responses
My energy
My attitude
My self-talk
Processing emotions
The way I speak
The way I treat others
Who I choose to spend my time with
Out Of My Control
Aging
The Past
Other’s opinion of me
What others say about me
The way people treat me
The way people speak to me
Time
Outcomes
The future
External events
Other people’s beliefs/behaviours
~ Image credit: Andy Chilton on Unsplash
When Life Gives You Upsets
Here’s a little something which might be useful …
To recover more quickly from life’s upsets, ask yourself three questions:
Is it true?
Can I do something about it?
Can I accept it and do something despite its presence?
If your answer to question No. 1 is “no,” drop it. If it’s “yes,” move on to question No. 2 and do the same thing over again. If there’s something you can do about it, do it ….. If not, go into “committed acceptance” – meaning, acknowledge what’s happened and accept it as your new normal.
~ Mo Gawdat
Understanding Is Love’s Other Name
Understanding is love’s other name.
~ Thich Nhat Hanh, Monk, Poet and Peace Activist
A flower is made only of non-flower elements, such as chlorophyll, sunlight, and water. If we were to remove all the non-flower elements from the flower, there would be no flower left. A flower cannot be by herself alone. A flower can only inter-be with all of us … Humans are like this too. We can’t exist by ourselves alone. We can only inter-be. I am made only of non-me elements, such as the Earth, the sun, parents, and ancestors. In a relationship, if you can see the nature of interbeing between you and the other person, you can see that his [her] suffering is your own suffering, and your happiness is his [her] own happiness. With this way of seeing, you speak and act differently. This in itself can relieve so much suffering.
~ Thich Nhat Hanh, from How to Love
~ Image credit: christels on Pixabay
Curating Quietude 