Dissolve Resistance

 

From: When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times

By Pema Chödrön

“The way to dissolve our resistance to life is to meet it face to face. When we feel resentment because the room is too hot, we could meet the heat and feel its fieriness and its heaviness. When we feel resentment because the room is too cold, we could meet the cold and feel its iciness and its bite. When we want to complain about the rain, we could feel its wetness instead. When we worry because the wind is shaking our windows, we could meet the wind and hear its sound. Cutting our expectations for a cure is a gift we can give ourselves. There is no cure for hot and cold. They will go on forever. After we have died, the ebb and flow will still continue. Like the tides of the sea, like day and night – this is the nature of things.’

More from Pema Chödrön

More Buddhist writings on Allspirit

 

Reach for the Light Lyrics

Song Lyrics on Allspirit

Steve Winwood

(Weil)

Balto Soundtrack 1995

Deep in the night
the winds blow cold
and in a heartbeat
the fear takes hold

Deep in the storm
there’s a place that’s soft and still
where the road waits to be taken
if you only will

The voices inside you
can lead your soul astray
Believe in what you dream
Don’t turn away
don’t you turn away

Reach for the light
You might touch the sky
Stand on the mountaintop
and see yourself flying
Reach for the light
to capture a star
Come out of the darkness
and find out who you are

Somewhere in time
the truth shines through
and the spirit knows
what it has to do

Somewhere in you
there’s a power with no name
It can rise to meet the moment
and burn like a flame

And you can be stronger
than anything you know
Hold on to what you see
Don’t let it go
don’t you let it go

Now, there’s no turning back
when your destiny is calling
Listen to the thunder roll
and let your heart break free

Reach for the light

Index of Lyrics on Allspirit

 

The Rainy Day

By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Written at the old home in Portland

THE day is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains,and the wind is never weary;
The vine still clings to the mouldering wall,
But at every gust the dead leaves fall,
And the day is dark and dreary.

My life is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains,and the wind is never weary;
My thoughts still cling to the mouldering past,
But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast,
And the days are dark and dreary.

Be still, sad heart, and cease repining;
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.

Read more poems from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Index of poets on Allspirit

I measure every grief…

 

Emily Dickinson

I measure every grief I meet
With analytic eyes;
I wonder if it weighs like mine,
Or has an easier size.

I wonder if they bore it long,
Or did it just begin?
I could not tell the date of mine,
It feels so old a pain.

I wonder if it hurts to live,
And if they have to try,
And whether, could they choose between,
They would not rather die.

I wonder if when years have piled–
Some thousands–on the cause
Of early hurt, if such a lapse
Could give them any pause;

Or would they go on aching still
Through centuries above,
Enlightened to a larger pain
By contrast with the love.

The grieved are many, I am told;
The reason deeper lies,–
Death is but one and comes but once
And only nails the eyes.

There’s grief of want, and grief of cold,–
A sort they call ‘despair,’
There’s banishment from native eyes,
In sight of native air.

And though I may not guess the kind
Correctly yet to me
A piercing comfort it affords
In passing Calvary,

To note the fashions of the cross
Of those that stand alone
Still fascinated to presume
That some are like my own.