Chelan Harkin: To Be Fully Human

This speaks to the heart of extending loving-kindness and compassion towards ourselves and others. My response: Yes! Yes!! YES!!! 💗 Molly

Photo by Molly

 To Be Fully Human

 

Comedians need a space to cry

And spiritual leaders need a space

to share their insecurities

and how vulnerable they feel.

Religious people need a space

to share their doubts

And priests need a space to confess

their desires

Mothers need a space to wail

about how regularly

we long to escape motherhood

And parents need permission

to curl their hurts into fetal position

and to cradle their hearts.

It must be okay for saints

to also have scuff marks

And for the monk to long

to come down from the mountaintop.

Doctors need a space

to talk about their addictions,

Mystics must be allowed

to also trudge

through the mundane,

And we need to be able to tell God

we hate Him

now and then

to stay in honest and whole relationship.

Dear one, to be fully human,

we must be allowed to share

our full experience

of strength and struggle

in a way that doesn’t threaten our belonging

We must grow into hearts

that can hold all parts of each other.

For our light

to go on sustaining itself

it must be allowed its shadow.

 

— Chelan Harkin

 

https://chelanharkin.com/ 

 

Pema Chödrön: Cultivating Loving-Kindness Toward Yourself

Whatever our religious and spiritual tradition and practice, I've found that cultivating loving-kindness towards ourselves is the foundation of evolving and growing consciousness, kindness, tenderness, and love — and how it is that we are able to experience these qualities in the way that we live our lives. May we all be blessed with rooting into practices which nourish and deepen our capacity for kindness, a quality so needed in our hurting beautiful world. 🙏 Molly

Photo by Molly

Cultivating Loving-Kindness Toward Yourself

Some people find the teachings I offer helpful because I encourage them to be kind to themselves. The kindness that I learned from my teachers, and that I wish so much to convey to other people, is kindness toward all qualities of our being. The qualities that are the toughest to be kind to are the painful parts, where we feel ashamed, as if we don't belong, as if we've just blown it, when things are falling apart for us. Maitri, or loving-kindness, means sticking with ourselves when we don't have anything, when we feel like a loser. And it becomes the basis for extending the same unconditional friendliness with others.

 

 — Pema Chödrön

From The Pocket Pema Chödrön

and from

Practicing Peace In Times of War 

 

John O'Donohue: For Courage

 For Courage

When the light around you lessens
And your thoughts darken until
Your body feels fear turn
Cold as a stone inside,

 When you find yourself bereft
Of any belief in yourself
And all you unknowingly
Leaned on has fallen,

When one voice commands
Your whole heart,
And it is raven dark,

Steady yourself and see
That it is your own thinking
That darkens your world.

Search and you will find
A diamond-thought of light,

Know that you are not alone,
And that this darkness has purpose;
Gradually it will school your eyes,
To find the one gift your life requires
Hidden within this night-corner.

Invoke the learning
Of every suffering
You have suffered.

Close your eyes.
Gather all the kindling
About your heart
To create one spark.
That is all you need
To nourish the flame
That will cleanse the dark
Of its weight of festered fear.

A new confidence will come alive
To urge you towards higher ground
Where your imagination
Will learn to engage difficulty
As its most rewarding threshold!

— John O'Donohue

From To Bless the Space Between Us:

A Book of Blessings