Start close in,
don’t take the second step
or the third,
start with the first
thing
close in,
the step
you don’t want to take. ~ David Whyte
What is your first step?
Start close in
A new year
A new year lies ahead. Where will it take us? What unknown and uncharted waters lie ahead? Imagine a sign at the entrance “Peace to all who enter here.”
What are you moving toward?
Enough light
“How will next year be for me? Where will I be five or ten years from now?” There are no answers to these questions. Mostly we have just enough light to see the next step: what we have to do in the coming hour or the following day. The art of living is to enjoy what we can see and not complain about what remains in the dark. When we are able to take the next step with the trust that we will have enough light for the step that follows, we can walk through life with joy and be surprised at how far we go. Let’s rejoice in the little light we carry and not ask for the great beam that would take all shadows away.” Henri Nouwen
How much light is enough this New Year?
Sunset
As the sun is setting on this year, what a tumultuous year it has been. What trauma are you carrying with you? is your favorite memory? What would you like to have done differently? What is your favorite memory? For what are you grateful?
How has this year shaped you?
Response
So many times life requires a response from us. Sometimes we can only react while at other times we have time or space to chose our response.
What is the distance between reaction and response? What factors open up that space?
This is life
You have been pulled into the fierce winds
Carrying you over the barren hills
Leaving you bruised
On the shores of this rocky coast.
…
Come falling
On your knees
On this bed of sand
Where the stones have washed away
And the softened earth awaits,
Take all the time you need
To be undone
And breathe ~ Morgan Harper Nichols
What softened space gives you breath?
With the Eyes of the Heart 