Chance = Change

....finishing up Sharon Salzberg's book called FAITH before heading off to the Menla Retreat Center...she will be there, speaking to us and leading us in meditations , so I wanted to read at least a couple of her writings before i got to be in her presence , so FAITH is the 2nd of the two i read...the first being LOVINGKINDNESS....both books impressed me with their clear-eyed, specific experiences of her deepening spiritual journey through her life....as a result of her clarity, the concise writing style and inspired choice of words, I feel something shifting inside my thinking, and possibly my experience as well....maybe there is a more practical component to this journey I am on than I have heretofore realized....something that will palpably dig under my innate cynicism (no matter how I try to avoid it) and show me the truth in this: we ARE all the same and interconnected in ways unavoidable, and WHAT WE DO IN THE WORLD DOES MATTER...and that WE CAN MAKE A REAL DIFFERENCE, no matter how futile it seems at times. Salzberg's writing is powerful....not poetic or imagistic: real and experiential. Which of course often makes the best kind of poetry....but for now, I will settle for being deeply moved by it, whatever it is. I need to send this latest book to my mother-in-law, as it directy addressses something she and I talked about the last time we visited th United Nations...IS THERE A WAY TO REALLY MAKE A DIFFERENCE? Suddenly, I understand that yes, there is a way. Possibility is all I ask for.

Talk about thresholds! We leave for the Retreat in a few hours.

I wonder what it will be like there.

Anyway......more to report ,when I return in five days. So for now, once again, bye,dear readers.

xxevalyn