uses of sorrow

“The uses we make of sorrow

are the measure of our spiritual growth.” 

- Diana Lampen

brooding over muck

"Rake the muck this way.  Rake the muck that way.

It will still be muck.  In the time you are brooding,

you could be on your way, stringing pearls

for the delight of heaven."

(Hasidic teaching)

 

Art: The Brooding Woman - Paul Gauguin (1848-1903)

 

brooding: preoccupied with depressing,

morbid, or painful memories or thoughts. 

 muck: soft, moist, farmward manure. 

or defamatory remarks.  (aren't those the same?)

 

 found myself brooding over my muck today.

the idea of raking it in one direction

and then another shows how absurd & pointless

 it is to try to move it around.  

put down the rake. pick up the pearls.

especially that one pearl of great price. 

magpie mind

"Suffering cleanses us of the falsities that have accumulated in our hearts.

So often our minds are like magpies.

We pick up and take on everthing that glitters,

even though it may have no substance. 

In a magpie's nest, one finds random collections of colourful but useless debris.

The fire of suffering cleanses completely the falsities

to which our longing has attached itself. 

This liberates us from the emptiness of false belonging and

 allows us to belong in a real and truthful way in our lives again."

 

from John O'Donohue's "Eternal Echoes - Exploring our Yearning to Belong"  p.162