Wow, seek and ye shall find. I posted those thoughts on grieving yesterday and just now stumbled on this article, Stay with the Soft Spot, by Pema Chodron, which my friend Kristin sent a few days back:

Take grief, for instance. Grief is completely pregnant with bodhichitta—it’s full of heart, love and compassion. But we tend to freeze or harden against grief because it’s so painful. We bring in the clouds. In fact, we’re good at bringing in the clouds and keeping them in place. We’re good at fixating on them.

But when you practice the teachings that say, “Stay with the grief, see it as your link to all humanity,” you begin to understand that grief is a doorway to realizing that the sun is always shining. You begin to understand that the weather is transient like clouds in the sky. You begin to have more trust in the underlying goodness—the underlying “sun quality”—of your being.

I am trying to trust in the underlying goodness of  my heart – celebrating its ability to be so clear in its choices (I saw Ponyo yesterday and, believe me, I felt a very kindred spirit in that hugely certain, bounding, loving little girl), while also trying to practice patience.

Ah, patience…  A friend reminded me of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice. While I haven’t been to the underworld–San Francisco wasn’t that whacked– and I’m certainly not playing mournful songs of longing, I do share Orpheus’ impatience and anxiety. Instead of being in the now, I am wondering and canoodling about the future and its possibilities. “Don’t look back,” said my friend, though he should have added, “or foward.” Just sit HERE with your big, beautiful heart and be thankful for all of its power. Ba boom. Ba boom.

Alright, sermon dismissed!

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