'Learn to find ease in risk'
Reading corner For a New Beginning
By John O’Donohue
In out-of-the-way places of the heart,
Where your thoughts never think to wander,
This beginning has been quietly forming,
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.
For a long time it has watched your desire,
Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,
Noticing how you willed yourself on,
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.
It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the gray promises that sameness whispered,
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,
Wondered would you always live like this.
Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream,
A path of plenitude opening before you.
Though your destination is not yet clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is at one with your life’s desire.
Awaken your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.
Healing notes
Healing during a pandemic has been, well I suppose I should not even begin. I don't really know how to respond to all these difficult circumstances but it has been deeply sobering. I have been listening, reading and trying to understand the depths of the pain and loss borne by people both whom the pandemic touched intimately, and those who are fighting battles of social justice and climate change together. I have been left feeling out of water. There are no words. No words for this moment in our time. I have been struggling to read and thus finding myself doing everything else but. All the news consumption and the processing of information has left me drained. I don't know how anyone else has been reading.
I did look for others who speak of struggles and hope. There is that famous Rebecca Solnit essay which I love. But I wanted more. That's when I stumbled upon this conversation and I wanted to share this bit with you:
Fritz Raddatz: How do you want to write with this bitterness? You’re currently working on a novel – can you write a book with such bile, with hatred?
James Baldwin: It’s neither bitterness nor hatred, especially not a personal one. The largest part of my life is already lying behind me, and I could grow old as a kind of “elder statesman” here on the Côte d’Azur. But it’s a kind of schizophrenia when I don’t want to lose hope, when I want to be able, at least, to give hope to young people. When I once had a similar conversation with Margaret Mead, she used an image that I memorized for its horrible intensity: when a snake with two heads divides itself above or below its stomach, then it knows if it is one individual or not. If it has two stomachs, one head will try to eat up the other. I’m a snake with two heads, but one stomach. I’m an American Negro writer – which means that I live a hope despite my knowing better. If I stayed away, I’d really soon stop writing. You called me a preacher – you may call me a missionary. A black missionary for the white heathens in America. What’s happening in this country is unacceptable for me. And if it perishes in the flames – this country is bad enough. I’ll disappear with it, but I won’t accept it.
It just felt like an appropriate sentiment for these times. To keep our hope alive. To keep the fight going.
Creative experiments
I have been struggling to cook innovative things and Sabudana khichidi came to me in a dream. I woke up at 3 am, put the sabudana to soak and ate the khichdi all day long, the next day.
It just needs to soak well in water (for 3-4 hours) and it becomes a delicious mix when you cook it in some oil, with peanuts and some spices.
I hope you will eat something your heart desires this week! Cook it with some joy and savour it.
Dear you,
These times are difficult and I cannot imagine the effects of the pandemic on each of you
and your loved ones. I wish for you the support you need. I began writing a column for
FirstPost in this time and wanted to share it with you.
Let me know what you think <3
Love, kindness and warmth,
Nidsitis
'I’ve been circling for thousands of years and I still don’t know: Am I a falcon, a storm, or a great song?' - Rainer Maria Rilke