Dear friends,

How are you doing?

I hope this finds you keeping well in these times. The concept of time has shifted since Covid began, don’t you find? I cannot believe it is May 10 (Mother’s Day) already and everything is now simply “Pandemic time.” Strange concept, and strange times…

This is a post I’ve been meaning to write for some time. This will be a short and sweet one – as you can see by the title, this is also one of my mantras, which of course you see on my Home page and on my cards.

It has been an overwhelming time, and I have been experiencing the waves of grief.

However, I am also deeply grateful for the gifts of this time, and for the gifts of nature ~ and for the gifts of mindfulness and yoga.

How have you been keeping in this time, and what has been helping you? I would love to know so please feel free to comment below

In this post, I’d mainly like to share a poem that speaks to the essence of this mantra ~ and to the journey of Mindful Living.  I know that this poem, which I first learned at my MBSR teacher training intensive, has greatly helped me – and it’s one that I often refer to.  It reminds me that it is okay to create the space (within us and around us) to hold and lean into whatever arises for us, no matter how difficult.  As it will undoubtedly pass.  However, it also cannot be rushed.  It can only be tenderly held and supported – sometimes with the support of another – and be allowed to take its course, transforming us in the process, and leaving us better because of it.

The image of the lotus flower is one I find most helpful on this path. In the words of Thich Nhat Hanh, “No mud, no lotus.”

Be gentle, friends.  Here is the poem by one of my favourite poets, Rainer Maria Rilke – who, like many of the great poets, had a difficult life.  I hope it may help you during this time, and during difficult times.

We have no reason to harbour any mistrust against our world, for it is not against us.  If it has terrors, they are our terrors.  If it has abysses, these abysses belong to us.

If there are dangers, we must try to love them, and only if we could arrange our lives in accordance with the principle that tells us that we must always trust in the difficult, then what now appears to us to be alien, will become our most intimate and trusted experience.

How could we forget those ancient myths that stand at the beginning of all races – the myths about dragons that at the last moment are transformed into princesses.  Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are only princesses waiting for us to act, just once, with beauty and courage.  Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.

So you must not be frightened if a sadness rises before you larger than any you’ve ever seen, if an anxiety like light and cloud shadows moves over your hands and everything that you do.  You must realize that something has happened to you.  Life has not forgotten you, that it holds you in its hands and will not let you fail.

Why do you want to shut out of your life any uneasiness, any miseries, or any depressions?  For after all, you do not know what work these conditions are doing inside you.

Thanks for reading everyone, and feel free to leave any comments or sharings below. Keep safe and steadfast, and remember ~ the only way out is through.