December 2021 (Vol. XXXIV, No. 11)

Dear Friends ~ This is the season of wonder. Wonder is the doorway to so many things, among them joy, gratitude, and wisdom. How do we open the door of wonder in our lives?

Time to apprentice again
to my earliest teachers
of wonder and mystery

Time to walk again
in the dark forest
under a night star sky

Time to walk again
through the fallen leaves
under the black shadow of tree

No longer asking
Who I am

That I am is the biggest
mystery of all

A single red leaf
One night star —
Enough to explode in me

~ Bob

The quotes in this Letter are inspired by a new website, Wisdom Waypoints, which I have been instrumental in creating. Wisdom Waypoints is the website of Cynthia Bourgeault, a modern-day mystic, Episcopal priest, writer, and theologian. Find more wisdom quotes on wonder and other topics at wisdomwaypoints.org/wisdom-quotes.

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Only Being is real

Sunyata
States aren't real. They come and go. Only Being is real.

I know that I have life

Wendell Berry Leavings

I know that I have life
only insofar as I have love.

I have no love
except it come from Thee.

Help me please to carry
this candle against the wind.

In wonder

If you are searching, you must not stop until you find. When you find, however, you will become troubled. Your confusion will give way to wonder. In wonder you will reign over all things.

There is no description of you

Beatrice Bruteau PRAYER AND IDENTITY
The first task, clearly, is to detach the sense of identity from the descriptions of yourself. This does not mean to find another description that would be the correct one. It means to realize there is no description of you.

Fluent

John O'Donahue CONAMARA BLUES
I would love to live
like a river flows,
carried by the surprise
of its own unfolding.

Art thou in the darkness?

James Naylor
Art thou in the darkness?
Mind it not, for if thou dost
it will feed thee more.
But stand still, and act not,
and wait in patience
till light arises out of darkness
and leads thee.

Wisdom in the first place

Valentin Tomberg Meditations on the Tarot
If you seek Wisdom in the first place, you will find that Wisdom is joyous. If you seek the joy of Wisdom in the first place, you will fall prey to illusions.

Faith is a continual inner effort

Maurice Nicoll The New Man
Faith is a continual inner effort, a continual altering of the mind, of the habitual ways of thought, of the habitual ways of taking everything, of habitual reactions.

Stay with the hunger of the question

Bruno Barnhart SECOND SIMPLICITY
All those magical, predestined, and irreplaceable people and places are not really that, not really the answer. Rather, we have to stay with the hunger of the question and from its energy fill the space with our own choices, and then with the new things which will be called forth from us in the unexpected poverty and limitation in which our necessarily imperfect choices necessarily situate us.

The Place Where We Are Right

Yehuda Amichai A TOUCH OF GRACE
From the place where we are right
Flowers will never grow
In the spring.

The place where we are right
Is hard and trampled
Like a yard.

But doubts and loves
Dig up the world
Like a mole, a plow.

And a whisper will be heard in the place
Where the ruined
House once stood.

The world in cohesion

Raimundo Panikkar Blessed Simplicity
Contemplation is that activity which situates us in an open space from which we can observe and contribute to the course of the universe ... that activity that delights in the well-being of all beings, that maintains the world in cohesion.

The wellsprings of life

Thomas Kelly A Testament of Devotion
The wellsprings of life are bubbling up anew each moment. So when the angel is troubling the waters, it is no time to stand on the bank and recite past wonders.

Cushion for Your Head

Hafiz The Gift
Just sit there right now
Don't do a thing
Just rest
For your separation from God
Is the hardest work in this world
Let me bring you trays of food
And something that you like to drink
You can use my soft words
As a cushion for your head

The precious wildness we seek

Parker J Palmer A Hidden Wholeness
The soul is like a wild animal — tough, resilient, savvy, self-sufficient and yet exceedingly shy. If we want to see a wild animal, the last thing we should do is to go crashing through the woods, shouting for the creature to come out. But if we are willing to walk quietly into the woods and sit silently for an hour or two at the base of a tree, the creature we are waiting for may well emerge, and out of the corner of an eye we will catch a glimpse of the precious wildness we seek.

Creative love

Kabir Helminski

The person who makes all cares into one care— the care for simply staying present— will be cared for by that presence which is creative love.