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Come meander with me on the pathless path of the Heart
in these anecdotal,
sometimes inspiring, sometimes personal meanderings of the Heart's opening in the every-day-ness of life...

Tuesday, June 6, 2023

The Soul's Rhythm - John O'Donohue



We should not force ourselves to change by hammering our
lives into any predetermined shape.  We do not need to operate
according to the idea of a predetermined program or plan for
our lives.  Rather, we need to practice a new art of attention
to our inner rhythm
of our days and lives.  This attention 
brings a new awareness of our own human and divine presence.

It is far more creative to work with the idea of mindfulness than
with the idea of will.  Too often people try to change their lives
by using the will as a kind of hammer to beat their life into 
proper shape. The intellect identifies the goal of the program,
and the will accordingly forces the life into shape.  This way of
approaching the sacredness of one's own presence is externalistic
and  violent.  It brings you falsely outside of your own self and
you can spend years lost in the wilderness of your own mechanical,
spiritual programs.  You can perish in a famine of your own
making.


If you work with a different rhythm, you will come easily and 
naturally home to your self. Your soul knows the geography of
your destiny.  Your soul alone has a map of your future, therefore 
you can trust this indirect, oblique side of your self.  If you do,
it will take you where you need to go, but more importantly, it
will teach you a kindness of rhythm in your journey.  There are no
general principles for this art of being.  Yet the signature of this
unique journey is inscribed deeply in each soul. If you attend to
your self and seek to come into your own presence, you will find
exactly the right rhythm for you life.
The senses are generous
pathways which can bring you home.

John O'Donohue
from Anam Cara

with thanks to The Beauty We Love

~

Where you belong should always be worthy of your dignity.
You should belong first in your own interiority.  If you belong,
and if you are in rhythm with yourself and connected to that
deep, unique source within, then you will never be vulnerable
when you are outside belonging is qualified, relativised, or 
taken away.  You will be able to stand.....on the ground of
your soul where you are not tenant, where you are at home.

John O'Donohue
from Anam Cara

~



Art - Mystic Meandering
Craypas oils done with fingers
2012


 

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