A tale from Attar of Nishapur:
The lover knocked at the door of his beloved. “Who knocks?” said the beloved from within. “It is I,” said the lover. “Go away. This house will not hold you and me.”
The rejected lover went away into the desert. There he meditated for months on end, pondering the words of the beloved. Finally he returned and knocked at the door again.
“Who knocks?”
“It is you.”
The door was immediately opened.
“100 percent and 100 percent,” I said. “They cannot be separated.”
Such a beautiful story from Fr Anthony de Mello… Malik, son of Dinar, was upset about the profligate behavior of a youth who lived next door. For…… Read more “To be a Friend of the Divine!”
When I desire the happiness in our children, and mark our progress as humanity by that, I am not referring to children as never crying. I am not ruling out other marks of a progressive society, but merely desiring a shift in priority. What does our society claim as proof of our progression? Happiness is something more than self-satisfied, self-interested, and self-serving. It something greater than an innocent or unaware naivety.
Yesterday evening, I came home looking forward to seeing my doggy and found four intestinal explosions (pick your end of choice) around the house. She is definitely sick. So we fed her and comforted her and later went to bed. I am beginning to see that spirituality starts with nature. There is no linear way to describe the difference between the flight pattern of a chickadee and a woodpecker. There is no scientific way that describes the emotion of a cat lounging in the sun. And there is no way but soulfully to describe the look on Coco’s face when she is “happy” to see us or when she is sick.
A vision with a task can change the world. How are you changing the world? That’s what I want to hear! And if it has a “You are so naive” attached to it… that’s ok with me. Where there is no vision, the people will perish.
Nathan Bettger | Oshkosh, WI 