Nothing is wrong – whatever is happening is just “real life.
Stopping the endless pursuit of getting somewhere else is the perhaps most beautiful offering we can make to our spirit.
We wait for things to be different in order to feel okay with life. As long as we keep attaching our happiness to the external events of our lives, which are ever changing, we’ll always be left waiting for it.
We can find true refuge within our own hearts and minds-right here, right now, in the midst of our moment-to-momen t lives.
Sometimes the easiest way to appreciate ourselves is by looking through the eyes of someone who loves us.
Mindfulness is a pause – the space between stimulus and response: that’s where choice lies.
Compassion can be described as letting ourselves be touched by the vulnerability and suffering that is within ourselves and all beings. The full flowering of compassion also includes action: Not only do we attune to the presence of suffering, we respond to it.
Feeling compassion for ourselves in no way releases us from responsibility for our actions. Rather, it releases us from the self-hatred that prevents us from responding to our life with clarity and balance.
When we relax about imperfection, we no longer lose our life moments in the pursuit of being different and in the fear of what is wrong.
When someone says to us, as Thich Nhat Hanh suggests, “Darling, I care about your suffering,” a deep healing begins.