Look to this day
for it is life
the very life of life.In its brief course lie all
the realities and truths of existence
the joy of growth
the splendor of action
the glory of power.For yesterday is but a memory
And tomorrow is only a vision.
But today well lived
makes every yesterday a memory
of happiness
and every tomorrow a vision of hope.Look well, therefore, to this day….
~ ancient Sanskrit poem ~
Spirituality means waking up. Most people, even though they don’t know it, are asleep. They’re born asleep, they live asleep, they marry in their sleep, they breed children in their sleep, they die in their sleep without ever waking up. They never understand the loveliness and the beauty of this thing that we call human existence. You know, all mystics—Catholic, Christian, non-Christian, no matter what their theology, no matter what their religion—are unanimous on one thing: that all is well, all is well. Though everything is a mess, all is well. Strange paradox, to be sure. But, tragically, most people never get to see that all is well because they are asleep.
– Anthony de Mello
Song of the Builders
On a summer morning
I sat down
on a hillside
to think about God –a worthy pastime.
Near me, I saw
a single cricket;
it was moving the grains of the hillsidethis way and that way.
How great was its energy,
how humble its effort.
Let us hopeit will always be like this,
each of us going on
in our inexplicable ways
building the universe.~ Mary Oliver ~
(Why I Wake Early)