‘Most of us recognise impermanence at an intellectual level. But we still become upset when one of our possessions breaks, when a relationship ends, or when we notice that we are growing older. We act – and in our heart of hearts we think – as though all things were unchangeable and permanent. And the tension created by trying to maintain an attitude which is so profoundly at odds with reality introduces a jarring and irritating quality into our everyday experience, because the real world is constantly slapping us in the face whenever it fails to match up to our illusions.’ Chris Pauling
Blog
Thought for September 2020
‘If we are safe and nurtured enough to develop our capacity to wonder, we start to wonder about the people in our lives……their thoughts and experiences, their pain and joy, their wants and needs. We begin to sense that they are to themselves as vast and complex as we are to ourselves, their inner world as infinite as our own.’ Richard Rohr
Thought for August 2020
‘The imagination is the creative force in the individual. It works on the threshold that runs between light and dark, visible and invisible, quest and question, possibility and fact. The imagination is the great friend of possibility. Where the imagination is awake and alive, fact never hardens or closes but remains open, inviting you to new thresholds of possibility and creativity.’ John O’Donohue
Thought for July 2020
‘Uncertainty is fearful to the ego, which always wants to control reality, but from the viewpoint of detachment, a constantly shifting and changing universe must remain uncertain. If things were certain, there could be no creativity. Therefore spirit works through surprises and unexpected outcomes.
We achieve peace of mind only when we accept the wisdom of uncertainty.’ Deepak Chopra
Thought for June
Gift is the principle on which human existence is based; it is the most pervasive, even if little noticed, reality of our lives. We have life itself by others gift of procreation, pregnancy and childbirth. We are sustained in life by the good things of nature and by the labour, generosity and society of other human beings. We are educated by the self-giving of our teachers. We are sustained constantly by gifts – love, forgiveness, reconciliation, pleasure. Our whole life is a fabrication of gifts received, and we ourselves contribute our gifts to the lives of others. William Countryman
Thought for May 2020
‘There is an extremely powerful force that, so far, science has not found a formal explanation to. It is a force that includes and governs all others, and is even behind any phenomenon operating in the universe and has not yet been identified by us.This universal force is LOVE.
When scientists looked for a unified theory of the universe they forgot the most powerful unseen force. Love is Light, that enlightens those who give and receive it. Love is gravity, because it makes some people feel attracted to others. Love is power, because it multiplies the best we have, and allows humanity not to be extinguished in their blind selfishness. Love unfolds and reveals. For love we live and die. Love is God and God is Love.
This force explains everything and gives meaning to life. This is the variable that we have ignored for too long, maybe because we are afraid of love because it is the only energy in the universe that man has not learned to drive at will.’ Anonymous
Thought for April
What to do in the darkness, by Marilyn Chandler McEntyre
Go slowly.
Consent to it
but don’t wallow in it.
Know it as a place of germination
and growth.
Remember the light.
Take an outstretched hand if you find one.
Exercise unused senses.
Find the path by walking it.
Practise trust.
Wait for dawn
Thought for March 2020
‘Hanging onto grudges and entertaining vengeful fantasies ultimately weakens rather than empowers the self because what we do not forgive, we are doomed to live out.’ J P Pingleton
Thought for February 2020
‘Every person has a vocation to be someone; but they must understand that in order to fulfil this vocation they can only be one person: themself.’ From Thomas Merton
Thought for New Year
‘Yearning for a new way will not produce it. Only ending the old way can do that. You cannot hold onto the old, all the while declaring that you want something new. The old will defy the new; the old will deny the new; the old will decry the new. There is only one way to bring in the new. You must make room for it.’ Neale Donald Walsch
