We live in a world that responds to our longing; it is a place where the echoes always return, even if sometimes slowly. We need to have reverence always for the immensity that is inside us. We must remember, only in moments of breathing, of quiet, however quick or fleeting, can we discover a sense of our own beauty.
It deserves to be remembered that from ancient times, in quiet and solitude, we would discover that our soul had depth, danger, and unpredictability precisely because it was seen as the presence of the divine within us, precisely because in quiet and solitude we could hear The Still Small Voice. That same Holy Spirit which hovered over the surface of the waters before time existed? She hovers inside our very souls, quivering, waiting to be called upon, waiting to activate, waiting to create.
If we live outside ourselves, always reaching beyond ourselves, quickly pushing from one moment to the next, we avoid the call of our own mystery. To be holy is to be natural; but it is very difficult to be natural. It takes moments of breathing, of quiet, however quick or fleeting, to find what is natural. To be natural is to be at home with our own nature, not a nature of convenience, not a nature we put on every morning to solve the worlds problems, but the essence of the Eternal which makes up ever cell of our being.
If we expect the worst we will surely find it. If we expect nothing, that too we shall find, with abundance. Our expectation is both a creative and constructive force. If we expect to find nothing within ourselves, then we walk around a hollow shell. If we expect to find nothing but the repressed, abandoned, and shameful elements of our past, or if all we hear are echoes of a haunted hunger, all we will find is emptiness and desperation.
If we do not bring the kind eye of creative expectation to our inner world, we shall never rest in peace, or bring peace and comfort to any in our path. We'll only express our disappointment that nothing we can offer is perfect. Yet the very fact that we offer anything at all is the miracle, which is completed when what we offer is accepted. It's that circle of kindness which makes the angels sing and pleases God so ... Why do we make everything so complicated ... God is so simple ...
We put terrible pressure on our minds. When we tighten them or harden our views or beliefs, we lose all the softness and flexibility that makes for real shelter, belonging, and protection; we’re just quivering captives in a fortress of fear … that’s no shelter, that’s a prison.
Sometimes the best way of caring for our soul is to make flexible again some of the views that harden and crystalize our mind; for these alienate us from your own depth and beauty.
Where the imagination is alive with beauty, our spirit is refreshed with possibility, wonder is completely alive within our breast. Where the imagination is alive with beauty and possibility, we are safe to be awake and alive, to trust and fly.
~a lot of this is John O'Donohue
