No bird soars too high
If it soars with it’s
Own wings.
William Blake
This is a more subtle task than one might at first imagine.
On Whose Wings Do You Fly?
Category Archives: Daily Life
R.I.P. Chester
Chester died at 3.00 am Pacific Time. The vet said the underlying cause of death was a slow growing brain tumor.
Abba and her person, a regular blog reader, came to the service and sat in the front row. Abba is fast finding a ‘dog of the blog’ spot.
This morning there was a funeral for Chester to which local congregation and their dogs were invited as well as monks and their dog friends. All went smoothly, no doggy upsets, and Chester now rests in the animal cemetery.
At the end of the burial the monk who has looked after Chester for so many years spoke of how many people loved this dog and he had shown love to many. The lesson we need to learn from Chester, he said, is to love as he did. By that I took him to mean to love unconditionally.
Animal Rescue – Animal Friends
I met a woman today who said, People give up too soon. She was talking about animal adoption and she would know being completely devoted to ‘placing’ animals. There is always somebody somewhere, she said. This is a woman who certainly doesn’t give up, and encourages others not to do that either.
The monastery has had it’s share of animals turning up looking for a home. Chester came eleven years ago, a beautiful dog, he was found wandering along the fence which bounds the property on the freeway side. There’s a lot of spaniel but there’s a lot of other in there too. What ever the mix it makes for a most beautiful long lustrous coat. I’ve always been a devoted fan.
I’m thinking of Chester this evening. He’s in the animal hospital, with his carer, suffering from heat stroke. Have a thought for him, and his person too. Our animals are close family and no mistake.
See Foundling for photos.
Renewed
Jim, loyal blog reader, with Nancy his wife and Mugo.
We all look tired after the five day retreat, yet renewed within. As too my camera which has been mended.
Reflections on an Undivided Life
I received the follow text in an email this morning that thought it good to share. It is published with the authors permission.
A recent book title spoke to me. The title was An Undivided Life and it asked the questions, what does that mean for you? do you live an undivided life? It sounds lovely, doesn’t it? An undivided life. Exactly what is it then that separates a divided life from an undivided life? Is it that a divided life is full of shoulds and if onlys? Full of how could I do that. and why didn’t I do thus and so? Perhaps it is not that an undivided life is absent of those insistently self denigrating questions, but that an undivided life is full of the willingness to accept those aspects of our self that seem to our mind less than lovely, and recognize that it is those very attributes, unpleasant as they may be for us to look at, that are the open doors through which we can walk to the other side of those habits of speech and behavior.
A colleague told me today that he is really afraid of doing something in the office that I might disapprove of because my reaction when that happens is so overwhelming. And we’re not talking major mistakes here, we’re talking little things, like where you put the teaspoons after you’ve made tea. Where does the need to control come from? Isn’t there room in my personal universe for more than one way to do something? And when I’m no longer there in the office, how will things be done? And when I die, how will things be done then? Any-place is a good place to start, right now is a good time to begin.
Please let me see myself as others see me, let me be as my heart wishes others to be. Please let me step through the mirrored doorway into that open spaciousness (fearlessness?) that allows us all to be a compassionate universe within ourselves, and with and for others.
Here ends my correspondents words.