Everyday Sacred

I have realised recently that I often use books and quotes as "plasters" to support my well-being. I think I developed this methodology independently, but, it possibly became a habit after attending many practical philosophy courses, both locally and further afield.

Some of my favourite books include:

• Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy by Sarah Ban Breathnach. 

• Everyday Sacred by Sue Bender. 

• Guide to Life by Dorothy Rowe. 

• How to Focus by Thich Nhat Hanh. 

• The Comfort Book by Matthew Haig. 

• A Thousand Mornings by poet Mary Oliver. 

• Drawing from Observation by Mary Newcomb

One of my favourite “go to” quotes currently is from the Anchoress, Julian of Norwich:-

ALL SHALL BE WELL & ALL SHALL BE WELL & ALL MANNER OF THINGS SHALL BE WELL .

I didn’t realise T. S. Eliot incorporated these words into Little Gidding, the fourth and final poem of his Four Quartets:- 

And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well
When the tongues of flames are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one.

The source of the quotes I acquire sometimes appear in books gifted to me by friends or, more often, they tend to select me by popping up on my radar; for example when reading a newspaper or looking at my Instagram feed.

I love to share the quotes with my friends - Edie, Andy, Chris, Jenny… I sent Jenny “The Comfort Book” when I heard her saying “What’s the Point?

One quote that I love is “Breath in Joy, Breath out Joy” - this I now regularly use as a mantra to support my well-being.

The following quote I hand wrote years ago; I cannot remember where or via whom it came:-

When you have the humility to be with people in the simplicity of what you are, not pretending to be what you are not, not trying to hide what you are, then communion takes place. You understand the other person more deeply than all knowledge could make possible. You notice that a new tenderness of affection begins to blossom. Learning how to commune with Life requires humility. When you are caught up in the arrogance of knowing or are repeating mechanically predetermined patterns, humility and learning cannot happen. On a beautiful morning you walk in the woods, the light, & the shadows, the shades of green leaves freshly bathed with rain, sun rays dancing on the branches through the leaves to the ground. You did not go there to acquire something. You went there to be with the trees, with other beings. To be, not to obtain, not to acquire. 

And I acquired the following quote from a tutor at college:-

To hear is to forget

To see is to remember

To do is to know

This ancient Sanskrit poem particularly resonates:-

Look well to this day

For it is life

The very best of life.

In its brief course lie all

The realities and truths of existence,

The joy of growth, the splendour of action,

The glory of power.

For yesterday is but a memory 

And tomorrow is only a vision

But today if well lived makes

Every yesterday a memory of happiness

And every tomorrow a vision of hope.

Look well therefore to this day.

And to conclude “The Lake of Beauty” by Edward Carpenter 

Let your mind be quiet, realising the beauty of the world, and the immense, the boundless treasures that it holds in store.

All that you have within you, all that your heart desires, all your nature so specifically fits you for - that or the counterpart of it waits embedded in the great whole, for you. It will surely come  to you.

Yet equally surely not one moment before its appointed time will it come. All your crying and forever reaching out of hands will make no difference.

Therefore do not begin that game at all…