Winter chill upon us again here. Predictions are for snow — in the south of France, in the back country above Nice and the Côte d’Azur!
The unexpected never ceases.
How funny, then, that most of the time we wander along living within the confines of what we expect.
I know that I expect the unexpected to be disruptive. That’s why I avoid it. But the unexpected is only disruptive if I am holding tight to my expectations — such as that it does not snow in the south of France, for example.
Without the expected, there is no unexpected. There are just beautiful snowflakes falling where they will.
The unexpected never ceases
About the Author: zenscribe
Enseignante Zen et poète, Sensei Amy “Tu es cela” Hollowell est née et a grandi à Minneapolis, aux Etats-Unis. Arrivée en France en 1981 pour étudier la littérature et l’histoire, elle y est restée, s’installant à Paris, où elle élève ses deux enfants et gagne sa vie en tant que journaliste.
The Zen teacher and poet Amy “Tu es cela” Hollowell Sensei was born and raised in Minneapolis, but came to France in 1981 to study literature and history and has lived in Paris ever since, raising her two children and making a living as a journalist.
Mourning its loss, the heart indeed hurts.
Until it doesn’t. Because everything is merely passing. If we let things be, we can experience the ease of their impermanence.
But if we don’t "let it be," if we grapple and resist, sometimes the heart keeps hurting, now because the hurt has stopped, and we thus mourn this new loss (of mourning). Et ainsi de suite…
That’s what the Buddha was indicating with his "life is suffering."
mourn mourning??? mourning is fysical – the heart hurts –
Mourning is in fact a testimony to love, a passage of letting go. It’s a process of acknowledging loss, and acknowledging connection, therefore, too.
The key is to recognize that it is not static — like all beings and things, it moves. We need only let it be — be it, in fact. Go with it on its organic course.
As usual, trouble comes when we cling to it. Some people end up having to mourn mourning!
i mean i was not sereen – but that will have a reason – so that’s ok too.
what is this: "mourning" ?
not able to let go –
and when i find the courrage to let go – it comes back every time
what is this "mourning" ?
We can be confined by our expectations of "serentity," too.
Not sure what you mean by "everything comes from somewhere."
In any case, everything is what it is.
thanks for the quote on serenety sensei.
didn’t mean i was sereen though…
i wished i was
but even that i wasn’t is ok
i guess everything comes from somewhere…
Such a beautiful life-koan: No confines: just being each snowflake, falling wherever. Beautiful!
With gratitude,
Tomas
Indeed, there is no life without death, no death without life.
Someone reminded me the other day of this line from Ralph Waldo Emerson:
"Serenity is not the freedom from the storm but peace within the storm."
And peace within the storm? There is no peace elsewhere, no love or loss elsewhere, no darkness or light elsewhere.
or the pain of a lost love …
we want the sun – but sun gives shadow
yesterday evening i found myself laying on my seat in my livingroom – curtains wide open – looking to fast driving white and grey clouds on a dark-blue-night-sky with the full moon shining through so strong. Such a special light. Changing every second. Astonishing… I was full of wonder –
while hours before everything was black as coal
if we cannot die – we will not live…