The Shaky Place

Compassionate action starts with seeing yourself when you start to make yourself right and when you start to make yourself wrong. At that point you could just contemplate the fact that there is a larger alternative to either of those, a more tender, shaky kind of place where you could live.

Pema Chödrön

With the tender shakiness of spring beginning, exuberant yet still tentative, may we  take courage for our own tender hearts! How can we live in that open space between right and wrong?

The Grief of This World

Somedays the news is just too much. I feel my chest contract, my heart hurt and I want to turn away from all the pain that being human can bring. Somedays the stories I bear witness to feel  so painful. I know it has always been so; that to be human is to know pain and joy...but some just seem to be given TOO much pain to bear. And then I see this quote from the Talmud, and I breathe a little easier. Ancient wisdom guides us, once again. Our problems are not new. Just stay the course, the ancient ones tell us. Show up and be present!

"Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it."

The Talmud