When we do not trouble ourselves about whether or not something is a work of art, if we just act in each moment with composure and mindfulness, each minute of our life is a work of art. Even when we are not painting or writing, we are still creating. We are pregnant with beauty, joy, and peace, and we are making life more beautiful for many people.
Sometimes it is better not to talk about art by using the word “art.” If we just act with awareness and integrity, our art will flower, and we don’t have to talk about it at all. When we know how to be peace, we find that art is a wonderful way to share our peacefulness. Artistic expression will take place in one way or another, but the being is essential. So we must go back to ourselves, and when we have joy and peace in ourselves, our creations of art will be quite natural, and they will serve the world in a positive way.
Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life, p. 40
Thanks John. The 14 precepts of TNH offer great spiritual and practical and compassionate wisdom. Scroll down the page to them.
ReplyDelete+ Love + John A Wilde + Whitesboro NY + www.abundancetrek.com + love, john + www.abundancetrek.com + We are intimately, intricately and infinitely connected by a matrix of unconditional, unlimited and uniting love which is miraculous, mysterious and marvelous.
I know you will like the comment I just offered at Naming His Grace
ReplyDeleteViola Larson's policing efforts are definitely not in the best interests of the PC(USA). She seems to be obsessed with a desire to see you chastized. She is the one who needs to be chastized. So, I did some chastizing!
+ Love + John A Wilde + Whitesboro NY + www.abundancetrek.com"The day will come when, after harnessing space, the winds, the tides and gravitation, we shall harness for God the energies of love. And on that day, for the second time in the history of the world, humankind will have discovered fire." -- Teilhard de Chardin
Obsessed with something, that's for sure. Obsession. It's not just a cologne anymore.
ReplyDeleteShe does know you're married, right John S? I mean, with every other blog post she writes being about you, I just wonder if someone should clue her in not to get her hopes up.
Seriously, though ... Sheesh ... It's like watching a middle schooler flirt. If she starts passing you notes during lunch time, run for the hills.
It is nice to be loved.
ReplyDeleteThe policing. The policing. Even presbyweb posted her latest bit of busybodyness. The strategy is to try to shame my presbytery or perhaps the evangelicals within my presbytery to do something about me! Viola and her pals don't even know how our form of governance works. If I have done something wrong, anyone is welcome to file a charge. Since I have done nothing wrong, in fact, actually do a lot of good, she and her pals have nothing but slander and slime.
"she and her pals have nothing but slander and slime."
ReplyDeleteOr flirting.
You know, it's not that dissimilar from the supposedly straight busybodies, fusspots, tattletales, and scolds we know who spend more time contemplating gay sex than any gay person I know.
The guilty dog barks loudest. ;)
BTW, John, I appreciate your defense of me over there! That's nice! The guy you have been sparring with over there has been on my case since my first blog post. He couldn't stand to be in a denomination or a presbytery that would allow the likes of me so he left. He removed himself from the denomination. Which is fine. He is simply not PCUSA.
ReplyDelete@Alan, flirting, eh? Me and Viola?
I'm blushing...
:)
ReplyDeleteSeems to be going only one way, though. Too bad for her. Perhaps you could end all this by telling her, as the kids say these days, "You know, I'm just not that into you."
On the other hand, as Oscar Wilde observed, the only thing worse than being talked about, is not being talked about. :) And as a friend of mine once observed, you haven't really experienced the internet until you've earned a stalker.
I know I'm asking for it but I have to tell you that you guys are making me laugh a lot today and I love that. I hope the laughter is not seen by Viola and Father Chris Larimer and Debbie and others as anything but good fun. I think they need to lighten up a lot.
ReplyDeleteOscar Wilde also said: "Life is too important to be taklen seriously."
love, john + www.abundancetrek.com + "Why 99, you know we have to murder and kill and destroy in order to preserve everything that's good in the world." --Maxwell Smart to Agent 99
Um... Er... Yeah, uh obviously I was *totally* kidding about her weird & unnatural obsession with John. Uh... Absolutely. Totally joking, of course.
ReplyDelete*cough*
First they flirt with you, then they fit you for a millstone.
ReplyDeleteI guess flirting with you is the best way to get close enough to measure your neck, eh John?
ReplyDeleteHeh. Now we've got sort of a Black Widow thing going on here now which is definitely skeezing me out.
ReplyDelete