“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” (Rumi)
This is indeed the best strategy, because is implying to work with ourselves first, before we try to change another person. But often we forget about it, and we blame the other for our own shortcomings. And then the balance of our relationship is moved even further. Think about this, when was last time when you sincerely admitted that you were wrong? This also remind me of a story of a Zen monk, asking his master why she needs to get enlightment for herself first instead of helping the humanity to progress. The master told her that is much easier to wear a pair of slippers than to cover the whole Earth with carpet.
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"The dedicated life is the life worth living. You must give with your whole heart."
- Annie Dillard -
If you have a goal, if you focus into something, your overall brain activity is increased, you perform better, you are acting better in response to the environment, you are even energized and ready to use some unknown resources to fuel your pathway. Don't be aimless, find a meaning in your life. There is no dream too big, no project too small. Find your courage and do the first step.
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Today's gift for all my readers
For the Traveler
by John O'Donohue
Every time you leave home,
Another road takes you
Into a world you were never in.
New strangers on other paths await.
New places that have never seen you
Will startle a little at your entry.
Old places that know you well
Will pretend nothing
Changed since your last visit.
When you travel, you find yourself
Alone in a different way,
More attentive now
To the self you bring along,
Your more subtle eye watching
You abroad; and how what meets you
Touches that part of the heart
That lies low at home:
How you unexpectedly attune
To the timbre in some voice,
Opening in conversation
You want to take in
To where your longing
Has pressed hard enough
Inward, on some unsaid dark,
To create a crystal of insight
You could not have known
You needed
To illuminate
Your way.
When you travel,
A new silence
Goes with you,
And if you listen,
You will hear
What your heart would
Love to say.
A journey can become a sacred thing:
Make sure, before you go,
To take the time
To bless your going forth,
To free your heart of ballast
So that the compass of your soul
Might direct you toward
The territories of spirit
Where you will discover
More of your hidden life,
And the urgencies
That deserve to claim you.
May you travel in an awakened way,
Gathered wisely into your inner ground;
That you may not waste the invitations
Which wait along the way to transform you.
May you travel safely, arrive refreshed,
And live your time away to its fullest;
Return home more enriched, and free
To balance the gift of days which call you.
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"Everyone thinks of changing the world but no one thinks of changing him or herself"
- Leo Tolstoy -
Here you have one alternative view to our almighty internal noise. Check the link.
