image credit: lee krasner
i was given a book with this title by a woman i know after she came to me in complete panic because she had relapsed. she cried for about 20 minutes and we talked for a while after.
i gave her my fun house analogy. you just got fooled looking in a funhouse mirror thinking that was your true refection. it can happen to anyone.
it is my experience that it does happen to people. especially people with addiction issues.
she gave the book the next day with a lovely inscribed note and i have been very taken with its concept. the author pema chodron has quite a story. she is the first buddhist nun in the country in which she resides. she was a "regular" housewife who was scorned and fled to the east to repair her heartache. she has done exactly that and so much more.
pema chodron's belief is that when things fall apart they are not just in ruin. they are actually making way for something beautiful and wonderful to grow. this gives me hope and i believe it. it speaks to my truth. so true, but definitely not so easy to find my way there. this is a definition of faith to me. believing that more will be revealed.
a bit more of her heart:
Pema Chodron quotes:
Begin to develop curiosity, not caring whether the object of inquisitiveness is bitter or sweet.
The truth you believe and cling to makes you unavailable to hear anything new.
When things are properly understood, one's whole life is like a ritual or ceremony.
If you follow your heart, you're going to find that it is often extremely inconvenient.
Compassion starts with making friends with ourselves -- particularly with our poisons.
Feeling irritated, restless, afraid, and hopeless is a reminder to listen more carefully.
Gloriousness and wretchedness need each other. One inspires us, the other softens us.
We work on ourselves in order to help others, but also we help others in order to work on ourselves.
We cannot be present and run our story-line at the same time.
Only to the extent that we expose ourselves over and over to annihilation can that which is indestructible in us be found.
3 comments:
Deep stuff. I think I told you I got that book and intend to take it with me on my vacation.
She's a wise woman. I've seen here speak and it's pretty inspiring. I'd also enjoyed another book of hers called "Start Where You Are: A Guide to Compassionate Living"
The excerpt spoke deeply to me. A couple points hit me with a thud. Things that are staring me in the face, but whose stare I refuse to return. Especially the insight about making friends with our poisons, and embracing genuiness by dropping artifice.
I'm enjoying your blog a lot. Recovery meth head here, in Seattle. Blog is Boy Grows Up.
Peace, and thanks for being here.
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