I am here alone for the first time in weeks, to take up my 'real' life again at last. That is what is strange — that friends, even passionate love, are not my real life unless there is time alone in which to explore and to discover what is happening or has happened. Without the interruptions, nourishing and maddening, this life would become arid. Yet I taste it fully only when I am alone here ...
Walking mindfully on the Earth can restore our peace and harmony, and it can restore the Earth's peace and harmony as well. We are children of the Earth. We rely on her for our happiness, and she relies on us also. When we practice walking meditation beautifully, we massage the Earth with our feet and plant seeds of joy and happiness with each step.
~from THE LONG ROAD TURNS TO JOY by Thich Nhat Hanh
Wisdom is a living stream, not an icon preserved in a museum. Only when we find the spring of wisdom in our own life can it flow to future generations.
Please call me by my true names so I can hear all my cries and my laughs at once, so I can see that my joy and pain are one. Please call me by my true names so I can wake up, and so the door of my heart can be left open, the door of compassion.
