Part of our work as humans on a wisdom path is to contribute to something more than strife, polarization, and unhelpful chaos. Our work, as Cynthia Bourgeault reminds us, is to engage the practices of attention and surrender that help us to be present in all three centers to what is and to allow ourselves to become alchemizers the can bear substances needed to infuse the pain and toxicity in this horizontal realm. Substances of peace, patience, kindness, goodness, forbearance, gentleness, faithfulness, perseverance, self control, humility, mercy, hope, joy, compassion, and love may abundantly shower and nourish this parched planet of which we are a part of and have allowed to become vastly malnourished. Let's keep working and trusting. May it be so, Heather
A Couple of Readings: “The person I normally take myself to be—that busy, anxious little ‘I’ so preoccupied with its goals, fears, desires, and issues—is never even remotely the whole of who I am, and to seek the fulfillment of my life at this level means to miss out on the bigger life. This is why, according to his teaching, the one who tries to keep his ‘life’ (i.e., the small one) will lose it, and the one who is willing to lose it will find the real thing. Beneath the surface there is a deeper and vastly more authentic Self, but its presence is usually veiled by the clamor of the smaller ‘I’ with its insatiable needs and demands. This confusion between small self and larger Self (variously known in the traditions as ‘True Self,’ ‘Essential Self,’ or ‘Real I’) is the core illusion of the human condition, and penetrating this illusion is what awakening is all about.” — Cynthia Bourgeault “Trust in the Slow Work of God Above all, trust in the slow work of God We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay We should like to skip the intermediate stages. We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new. And yet it is the law of all progress that it is made by passing through some stages of instability- and that it may take a very long time. And so I think it is with you. your ideas mature gradually – let them grow, let them shape themselves, without undue haste. Don’t try to force them on, as though you could be today what time (that is to say, grace and circumstances acting on your own good will) will make of you tomorrow. Only God could say what this new spirit gradually forming within you will be. Give Our Lord the benefit of believing that his hand is leading you, and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself in suspense and incomplete. — Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
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