Impermanent

Because suffering is impermanent,
that is why we can transform it.
Because happiness is impermanent,
that is why we have to nourish it.

-Thich Nhat Hanh, 10th June 2014

Waiting in line

First snow

Unfinished

this body is not me
but I am in it
what happens to it
happens not just to me
but to the whole of humanity
and divinity

Green bushes, bare trees

The happiness quiz

Are you happy enough? Too happy? Just right?

Personally, I'm average: somewhat happy.

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/nov/03/take-the-oxford-happiness-questionnaire

Don't avoid suffering

"The right response to this sort of pain is not pleasure. It’s holiness. I don’t even mean that in a purely religious sense. It means seeing life as a moral drama, placing the hard experiences in a moral context and trying to redeem something bad by turning it into something sacred."

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/04/08/opinion/brooks-what-suffering-does.html?src=me&ref=general&_r=1&referrer=

The Body Keeps the Score, by Bessel van der Kolk, p. 26

Semrad taught us that most human suffering is related to love and loss and that the job of therapists is to help people "acknowledge, experience, and bear" the reality of life - with all its pleasures and heartbreak. "The greatest sources of our suffering are the lies we tell ourselves," he'd say, urging us to be honest with ourselves about every facet of our experience. He also said that people can never get better without knowing what they know and feeling what they feel... You can be fully in charge of your life only if you can acknowledge the reality of your body, in all its visceral dimensions.

Brambles

Sunny windowsill at work

Grey day

Skyline

Not a great picture by any means, but I do love the way the St. Paul skyline appears when the leaves disappear.

Blue skies

Winding Down

Golden Sky

Taken 10.15.14.

Pause, Breathe, Love

We are not our thoughts.
They rise up,
narrating our actions,
but they are not us.

Nor are we our emotions.
They rise up,
influencing our perceptions,
but they are not us.

We are the breath that nourishes us-
the sacred pause
that comes between the moments
that make up our lives.

We are the love that unites us-
the sacred bond
that connects us to all things
and gives meaning to life.

We are pure awareness-
the sacred knowledge
that we must hold both beauty and pain
to be truly alive.

No, we are not our thoughts or emotions.
We are sacred beings-
 luminous, sacred beings-
alive now, and only now.