Right Here and Now: Navigating Life's Burdens with Wisdom

"Each of us has a burden to carry in the heat of the day."
--Robert Lookup

I have been on somewhat of a cleaning binge lately. Yesterday, while shuffling through some notebooks, I found the quote above about burdens. It made me think of a Rumi quote, "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle."

No, actually, I thought of the Rumi quote because I thought it ended with "carrying a heavy burden." Turns out that was wrong.

What's funny, though, is how it was not Rumi who originated this quote many attribute to Rumi. A fellow named John Watson is cited as the source, until you dig deeper and see that Plato made the same statement 2500 years ago. 

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Here are five quotes about Burdens that I thought were insightful:

I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.
--Dr. Martin Luther King

People become attached to their burdens sometimes more than the burdens are attached to them.
--George Bernard Shaw

I do not pray for a lighter load, but for a stronger back.
--Phillips Brooks

None knows the weight of another's burden.
--George Herbert

Remember, the burden of sorrow is doubled when it is borne alone.
--Goran Persson

* * * 

For what it's worth, here's one more quote that came to mind after reading all these others. Matthew 11:28-30

[28] Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
[29] Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
[30] For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

Flashback Friday: Start A Huge Foolish Project

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED OCTOBER 2011

In one of my files of notes and quotes I found this poem by Rumi and it spoke to me this morning. Its title is "These Spiritual Window Shoppers."

These spiritual window-shoppers,
who idly ask, 'How much is that?'
Oh, I'm just looking.
They handle a hundred items and put them down,
shadows with no capital.

What is spent is love and two eyes wet with weeping.
But these walk into a shop,
and their whole lives pass suddenly in that moment,
in that shop.

Where did you go? "Nowhere."
What did you have to eat? "Nothing much."

Even if you don't know what you want,
buy something, to be part of the exchanging flow.

Start a huge, foolish project,
like Noah.

It makes absolutely no difference
what people think of you.

--Rumi


I like the instruction here, "Start a huge, foolish project..." Why not? Why puddle around in the glum fog of nothingness when you have so much stirring inside of you that you don't know where to begin? Isn't it true that we concern ourselves too much with what others will think?

The poem makes me think of our Red Interactive project and the attempt by John Heino and myself to use an abstract concept, like the color red, to spark the imaginations of a whole world... engaging hearts and minds and cultures by spreading the red.

I think, too, of my effort to publish four books in two months. What a crazy notion when six months ago I had never published a one, though I did sell a book as part of a series that never was completed. Alas, this weekend my second book was published on Amazon.com as a Kindle edition. If all goes well, by mid-October -- and maybe next week! -- there will be a third, with the fourth to be available by November 11, two months after the launch of the first.

How about you? Where lies the dream that you are passionate about, but have been afraid to share for fear of what another will say. Treasure it. Nurture it. Feed it. And maybe one day your ark will save a world.

* * * *
15 September 2017
Booklovers: SATURDAY is the Zenith Bookstore Grand Opening in Spirit Valley on Central Avenue, West Duluth. Zenith carries my first volume of short stories, Unremembered Histories.
We dropped the price and there's no shipping expenses like when you buy from Amazon. The store is located across the parking lot from Beaners in the old Wild West. Any excuse is a good excuse to visit a bookstore. Grand Openings only make it that much sweeter.

Meantime, life goes on all around you. Dream.

Start a Huge Foolish Project

In one of my files of notes and quotes I found this poem by Rumi and it spoke to me this morning. Its title is "These Spiritual Window Shoppers."

These spiritual window-shoppers,
who idly ask, 'How much is that?'
Oh, I'm just looking.
They handle a hundred items and put them down,
shadows with no capital.

What is spent is love and two eyes wet with weeping.
But these walk into a shop,
and their whole lives pass suddenly in that moment,
in that shop.

Where did you go? "Nowhere."
What did you have to eat? "Nothing much."

Even if you don't know what you want,
buy something, to be part of the exchanging flow.

Start a huge, foolish project,
like Noah.

It makes absolutely no difference
what people think of you.

Rumi


I like the instruction here, "Start a huge, foolish project..." Why not? Why puddle around in the glum fog of nothingness when you have so much stirring inside of you that you don't know where to begin? Isn't it true that we concern ourselves too much with what others will think?

The poem makes me think of our Red Interactive project and the attempt by John Heino and myself to use an abstract concept, like the color red, to spark the imaginations of a whole world... engaging hearts and minds and cultures by spreading the red.

I think, too, of my effort to publish four books in two months. What a crazy notion when six months ago I had never published a one, though I did sell a book as part of a series that never was completed. Alas, this weekend my second book was published on Amazon.com as a Kindle edition. If all goes well, by mid-October -- and maybe next week! -- there will be a third, with the fourth to be available by November 11, two months after the launch of the first.

How about you? Where lies the dream that you are passionate about, but have been afraid to share for fear of what another will say. Treasure it. Nurture it. Feed it. And maybe one day your ark will save a world.

Read a preview of my newest volume, Unremembered Histories.

On Self Awareness

Notes and quotes on self-awareness snatched from readings and various places on the net. Be sure to take your time to reflect along the way.

“Above all, do not lie to yourself. A man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point where he does not discern any truth either in himself or anywhere around him, and thus falls into disrespect towards himself and others.”
~Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

"We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done."
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone you may still exist, but you have ceased to live."
~Mark Twain

"People of the world don't look at themselves, and so they blame one another."
~Mevlana Rumi

"If we are too busy, if we are carried away every day by our projects, our uncertainty, our craving, how can we have the time to stop and look deeply into the situation--our own situation, the situation of our beloved one, the situation of our family and of our community, and the situation of our nation and of the other nations?"
~Thich Nhat Hanh

"It's surprising how many persons go through life without ever recognizing that their feelings toward other people are largely determined by their feelings toward themselves, and if you're not comfortable within yourself, you can't be comfortable with others."

~Sydney J. Harris

"Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself."

~William Faulkner

"Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't."

~Margaret Thatcher

"It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching."

~St. Francis of Assisi

Please click on photos to enlarge.