Accept your Weaknesses

I’m learning to accept who I am…

I’m lucky enough to be surrounded by people who forgive my faults and flaws as I forgive theirs. I can never hold a grudge for very long because I know how it feels to make mistakes look inside myself and explore what happened, what triggered my anger, or my fears and how I can help make it less likely to happen in the future.

I’m working on accepting myself as I am, including the part of that that gets angry and sometimes loses control of that anger.

When I think about all the mistakes I’ve made in that regard, and especially when I feel myself starting to get lost in the shame and regret, I remind myself that if that me that I’m ashamed of were a friend of mine, I’d be able to forgive her.

I’d also be able to look on her flaws with compassion and understanding. I’d understand that she still has some work to do on her faults, and that she’s doing the best she can.

In those moments, I remind myself that if I can feel that kind of compassion for someone else, I can feel it for myself.

When you’re in the throes of self-hate, regret, or shame, accept it: breathe in the pain of every other person who struggles with that same problem, and breathe out healing and love, for all .  This can remind you that you are not the only one who is imperfect.

Posted in The Armchair | 2 Comments

The aviary

Love birds

On my morning walks I sometimes pass an aviary – a large enclosure that gives the birds a larger living space that allows them to fly and is made to resemble the natural habitat. I often watch those birds – cockatoos and other parrots. They seem happy, well fed and playful. Do they know that they are confined? Do they care? Would they change the security of their sheltered environment with the life of the crows living in the trees nearby?

Continue reading

Posted in The Window Seat | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Mums

Chrysanthemums come from China. They are named from the Greek “chrysous”, which means golden. They are the golden flowers and they are a large family. Where I live they are typically associated with graveyards, so it is always a little risky to gift them. But to me they are  sheer miracles of nature.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Posted in Photographs | Tagged | Leave a comment

Just being still

Ducks gliding across dark water,
chattering softly .

A dog barks from afar.

Posted in Original Poetry | Leave a comment

Freedom by Rumi

The beauty of form

Ghazal 1419 is about freedom and it is about the path to liberation. Liberation means to de-condition, de-identify from all that we think we know. It takes a while until the body and the mind have adapted to a life suspended upside down. There is doubt, fear and agony until one day there is this knowing: I am free.  And then I look up at my toes and smile….

Continue reading

Posted in All things Rumi | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

The wisdom of Rumi

 

woven colour

 

“Fountain of Fire” is one of my favorite Rumi books. Everything in it resonates with me and I often use it for guidance or inspiration. “My dear friend” has a symbolic meaning – never lose hope, or despair if one day you feel you have fallen out of grace. This is a poem about faith. ‘Ah, I better keep silence, I know this endless love will surely arrive for you and you and you….’

Continue reading

Posted in All things Rumi | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

The Two

Sezession, Vienna

Beautiful symbolism in this gem of a poem by Hugo von Hoffmannsthal, who wrote the poem when he was only 22 years old. The place was fin de ciecle Vienna, and the sense of awakening, departure from the old, death and transformation found it’s expression in the arts, an iconoclastic period called “Secession”.

Continue reading

Posted in Books & Poetry | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Chants for the masses

This is a beautiful example of how one does not find purpose – purpose finds you.

 

Stift Heiligenkreuz

 

Posted in Classical Music, Music & Movies, Musica Sacra | 2 Comments

Come sweet hour of death

Cantata BWV 161

Komm du süße Todesstunde
Come Sweet Hour of Death

  Komm, du süße Todesstunde,
Come, sweet hour of death,
Da mein Geist
when my spirit
Honig speist
feeds on honey
Aus des Löwen Munde;
from the lion’s mouth;
Mache meinen Abschied süße,
make my departure sweet,
Säume nicht,
do not delay,
Letztes Licht,
last light
Dass ich meinen Heiland küsse.
so that I may kiss my saviour.
   

 

Posted in Classical Music, Music & Movies, Musica Sacra | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Love by Rumi

A mirror tells the truth

Come on sweetheart
let’s adore one another
before there is no more
of you and me

a mirror tells the truth
look at your grim face
brighten up and cast away
your bitter smile

a generous friend
gives life for a friend
let’s rise above this
animalistic behaviour
and be kind to one another

spite darkens friendship
why not cast away
malice from our heart

once you think of me
dead and gone
you will make up with me
you will miss me
you may even adore me

why be a worshipper of the dead
think of me as a goner
come and make up now

since you will come and throw kisses
at my tombstone later
why not give them to me now
this is me
that same person
I may talk too much
but my heart is silence
what else can I do
I am condemned to live this life

 

From: Rumi ” Fountain of Fire
translated by Nader Khalili
Posted in All things Rumi | 5 Comments