My online journal where I share my interests in photography, nature, journaling, fountain pens, bicycling, coffee life, spirituality and the mystery of it all.
Solitude is important to man…
Margaret E. Mulac
It is his refuge when the very foundation of his life are being shaken by disastrous events.
I stopped and took this image of the predawn colors over the Lory Student Center on campus this past week on my ride to the coffee shop. Posting this late and hoping everyone has a wonderful weekend!
Sooner or later all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together in peace, and thereby transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. If this is to be achieved, mankind must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
We now teach that mankind has evolved physically and mentally. However, we have repeatedly proved we have not evolved as much in wisdom and maturity. For example, to solve human conflict with a method of love requires wisdom and maturity. And, without evolving in our wisdom and maturity we have shown conflict only adds to conflict. I do believe Dr. King is correct.
The foundation of all spiritual practice is love.
the Dalai Lama
That you practice this well is my only request.
My hope is to practice love, as a spiritual practice, and that it’s not just something I preach. Have a great Memorial Weekend!
Generous listening is powered by curiosity, a virtue we can invite and nurture in ourselves to render it instinctive. It involves a kind of vulnerability – a willingness to be surprised, to let go of assumptions and take in ambiguity. The listener wants to understand the humanity behind the words of the other, and patiently summons one’s own best self and one’s own best words and questions.
Krista Tippett, Becoming Wise: An Inquiry into the Mystery and Art of Living
Over the years I’ve discovered how poorly I listen. Some of the discovery is from encountering people who are poor listeners, enabling me to see the reflection of myself in them. Becoming a better listener allows me to be the student rather than thinking I need to mansplain it. I agree with Krista that listening is a virtue we can invite and nurture and overtime becomes instinctual. It seems to me listening is the very foundation to any healthy relationship with another human and all of creation. With that in mind, my curiosity begs to ask the question, what do we learn when listening to the silence of a winter snowfall?