Aligning with Grace

There is often one special holiday card that touches me each year during this season. It  becomes a special favorite for both its endearing and enduring message. It is the one I will retain and that will evade making its way into a pile of oblivion. Sometimes I happen to buy the card - unexpectedly running into it, and surprised by the joy it instantly gives me. Sometimes I receive it - its simple message warming my heart as soon as it arrives in the mail. Most cards simply leave me unaffected these days, and this year in particular, I had to search harder for ones I wanted to send out in the mail to those souls in distant places, that I have managed to keep in touch with, sometimes over decades... I almost inadvertently came across a card this year that I have enjoyed posting as my Facebook or Twitter status daily - choosing one sentence at a time, savoring it slowly,  absorbing and reflecting deeply on its meaning for me. I reproduce the entire message here, for I can think of no

"A simple but radical spiritual practice  is to accept whatever arises in the Now -  within and without."  ~Eckart Tolle The river was perfectly still this morning. And I considered how there is stillness, even in the eye of a storm - perhaps reminding me how the coming season becomes very much like a storm as we forget the reason for the season and why we celebrate the various traditions that we do. It's all ultimately about love - it's experience and expression in community with those we love, and those that are difficult to love as well... Those of you who have followed this blog over the years know that river is a metaphor for my life. It either reflects my current state of being - or teaches me what I need to learn... Last week, a dear friend gave me the book Stillness Speaks by Eckhart Tolle. I had read it years ago, but took it as a sign that I should read it again. And so I placed it on my nightstand, that I could absorb small morsels at a time.