Wow. This is my favorite of all I’ve read by you. Life is so full of unsettling changes and, for me, fears of inconsolable grief. The desire to be above and beyond it is quite compelling. It wasn’t until my mother died that I could begin to relax into it because I had no choice. Leonard Cohen said that the understanding that your suffering is exactly the same as everyone else’s is the beginning of a responsible adulthood. That is so true. ❤️
So beautifully expressed with such caring attention. ❤️
I do like that Gangaji quote. I can see it extending to everything. I, as well, am not a fan of the set-up and promise of fantasies to cure imagined ills. The profound and the profane being equal.
The truest, most natural thing in my experience, is this astounding, undeniable aliveness, being, awareness, existence with its unresolvable miraculousness, (and i like to affirm that) including, but not *exclusive*, identification with form. My nature seems to prefer balance in life.
So, simultaneously, in line with that quote, i can see that if there is freedom to engage in imaginative fantasies of salvation, there is freedom to stop. All inclusive.
The gift of human imagination/metacognition can really seem like a double edged sword sometimes :)
Joan, this piece is helpful to me at this time of grieving an important relationship that has become untenable. Except for the fact that it is actually not possible for me to fully accept where it has landed up right now. I can’t imagine that I will ever be able to. I have read your books and Substack, it is very helpful. Thank you.
a lovely question to start: "Is it enough to simply be alive, to not know why we’re here or how the whole universe works, to simply be this ever-changing, breathing, sensing, experiencing aliveness?"
a wonderful truth: "And while each of us is an absolutely unique, unrepeatable expression of life—no two snowflakes, fingerprints, or human beings are identical—none of us exists independently of everything else in the whole universe. We need to be ourselves and find our own unique path in life, and yet we never stand alone or start from scratch. We exist as ever-changing relationship or interbeing, like the jewels of Indra’s Net, each of which is only a reflection of all the others. Thich Nhat Hahn explains this very beautifully by giving the example of how the whole universe is present in a single sheet of paper. How? Well…that paper wouldn’t exist without the trees it was made from and the soil in which the trees grew and the lumberjacks that cut down the trees and the lumberjacks’s parents and grandparents and the food they all ate and the sunshine and rain that grew the food and the explosion that created the sun and so on all the way back to the Big Bang and everything in between."
Thank you.
🙏🙏♥️
Love your writing, your honesty Joan. A welcome sanity check for me, thank you.
Joan, I love your mind. It strips away all of the bullshit. ❤️
Being...present...welcoming.
Living life as it is..comfortable with the unknown. Always grateful Joan❣️🙏
What an incredible read. Thank you.
I really needed this this morning, thank you!
Thank you, Joan. 💕
Wow. This is my favorite of all I’ve read by you. Life is so full of unsettling changes and, for me, fears of inconsolable grief. The desire to be above and beyond it is quite compelling. It wasn’t until my mother died that I could begin to relax into it because I had no choice. Leonard Cohen said that the understanding that your suffering is exactly the same as everyone else’s is the beginning of a responsible adulthood. That is so true. ❤️
Beautiful piece. Thanks, Joan.
Wonderful. Thank you, Joan.
So beautifully expressed with such caring attention. ❤️
I do like that Gangaji quote. I can see it extending to everything. I, as well, am not a fan of the set-up and promise of fantasies to cure imagined ills. The profound and the profane being equal.
The truest, most natural thing in my experience, is this astounding, undeniable aliveness, being, awareness, existence with its unresolvable miraculousness, (and i like to affirm that) including, but not *exclusive*, identification with form. My nature seems to prefer balance in life.
So, simultaneously, in line with that quote, i can see that if there is freedom to engage in imaginative fantasies of salvation, there is freedom to stop. All inclusive.
The gift of human imagination/metacognition can really seem like a double edged sword sometimes :)
Thank you Joan ❤️
Thank You, Joan. I feel more at ease with how Life is living through this human 🙏❤️
Joan, is there any question you did not elucidate here? You shine the light all the way down! Brilliant. Thank you.
Joan, this piece is helpful to me at this time of grieving an important relationship that has become untenable. Except for the fact that it is actually not possible for me to fully accept where it has landed up right now. I can’t imagine that I will ever be able to. I have read your books and Substack, it is very helpful. Thank you.
dear joan,
thank you for this beautiful piece!
a lovely question to start: "Is it enough to simply be alive, to not know why we’re here or how the whole universe works, to simply be this ever-changing, breathing, sensing, experiencing aliveness?"
a wonderful truth: "And while each of us is an absolutely unique, unrepeatable expression of life—no two snowflakes, fingerprints, or human beings are identical—none of us exists independently of everything else in the whole universe. We need to be ourselves and find our own unique path in life, and yet we never stand alone or start from scratch. We exist as ever-changing relationship or interbeing, like the jewels of Indra’s Net, each of which is only a reflection of all the others. Thich Nhat Hahn explains this very beautifully by giving the example of how the whole universe is present in a single sheet of paper. How? Well…that paper wouldn’t exist without the trees it was made from and the soil in which the trees grew and the lumberjacks that cut down the trees and the lumberjacks’s parents and grandparents and the food they all ate and the sunshine and rain that grew the food and the explosion that created the sun and so on all the way back to the Big Bang and everything in between."
thank you for sharing, as always!
much love
myq