The Book of Awakening

This lovely book by Mark Nepo (subtitled "Having the Life You Want By Being Present to the Life You Have") has a reading for every day of the year:


                                                        December 11:


                                                       Inside gravity

          Inside gravity,

          the same things happen,

          just slower.


          When a plate breaks, we call it an accident.  When a heart breaks, we call it sad.  If it is ours, we say tragic. When a dream breaks, we sometimes call it unfair. Yet ants drop dirt and manage more and birds drop food and peck again. But as humans, when we drop what we need, philosophies and complaints abound.

          It's not just that we moan, but that we stop living to hear ourselves moan. Still, stars collide and histories begin. In our world, something is always letting go and something is always hitting the Earth. Often that which lets go survives by releasing, bu not holding on until that which needs to go is ripped from it. Often that which is hit survives by staying soft, by allowing that which hits it to temporarily shape it as stones shape mud.

         As humans, we take turns letting go and being hit. Love softens this process, and peace slows it down, until in moments that are blessed, we seem to play catch with what we need.