Gratitude for what was and what is forthcoming

[Lisa Walford]

2024 was another year of forbearance, and change is almost always complicated.  

Meta global events such as a pandemic and global warming are not annual occurrences, and yet we ebb and flow with these currents as best we can.

As I look over at my library, I see Earth Prayers, Haiku (an anthology), Light on Life (B.K.S. Iyengar), Standing at the Edge (Joan Halifax), Pem Chodrin (Welcoming the Unwelcome), To Bless the Space Between Us (John O'Donohue, and more. I have one book that has lived with me since college, The Search for Personal Freedom. I don't remember what class this was for, but it covers the western humanities from ancient days through the Age of Faith. I suppose that I have always leaned into the arts and culture, poetry and, as Rilke says: "We need, in love, to practice only this, letting each other go. For holding on comes easily, we do not need to learn it."

So many years seeking.. for what? Perhaps the response is in the questions itself, as Rilke and T.S. Eliot might say. The Tao Te Ching, aphorism 2:  

True Seekers are wary

Of all these labels,

Preferring a Way

Of unforced action and stillness. 

Then, without strain, all is accomplished. 

The True Seeker is productive,

But not possessive;

Aware, but not attached;

Fulfilled, but not complacent.     

May this year ahead be a time to practice patience, to stay connected and tuned in to both the small things next door and the big things, in a way that is productive but not possessive, as noted above. 

Love to all!