Readings week of August 31st.

Readings from last week's Daily Contemplative Pauses

*All previous readings & reflections can be found here*

Monday, August 31st

Reading: “The ego is the interior movement we experience when we do not get what we want; it is also the experience of near uncontainable highs when we do get what we want. Obviously the ego is the experience of extremes—extreme feelings, that is—and for this reason it can easily imbalance the whole psyche or consciousness.... The ego is the experience of self-will, a will turned solely on itself that seeks its own fulfillment and benefit.... Thus the ego is a particular self-energy or power that can go either way—negatively toward what is not good for self, positively toward what is good for self. If we believe that the divine is our highest good, then the ego (self-energy or self-will) goes in pursuit of the divine, and this pursuit is the ego's true, proper, developmental direction. The ego is, therefore, basically good; it is only bad when it goes against its own highest good.”

— Bernadette Roberts 

Chant: We were born of the light, there where light is born of light — Susan Latimer

Tuesday, September 1st

Reading: “Even a wounded world is feeding us. Even a wounded world holds us, giving us moments of wonder and joy. I choose joy over despair. Not because I have my head in the sand, but because joy is what the earth gives me daily and I must return the gift.”

— Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass

Chant: The earth is full, full of your [wonder, joy, goodness, mercy, despair, wonder] the earth is full, full of you, your [wonder, joy, goodness, mercy, despair, wonder] fills the whole earth  — Darlene Franz 

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