“ ~ live and respond to grace in the here and now. … Listen closely. … Don’t cultivate someone else’s garden. Grow where you are planted.”   ~St. Francis de Sales

~ Sage counsel to anyone who seeks to hear and to learn with an open mind and an open heart. Simple notions;there are no involved, complicated steps to pursue – just a straightforward commitment to yourself. Through a clear attitude of trust within yourself, you will be able to find the grace and the wisdom to grow moment by moment. Whatever comes your way, therefore, offers you an opportunity to learn and deepen your roots. That is, if you can simply cultivate this openness to receive whatever comes to you.

While I know in my heart that this is the way to inner peace, I still struggle to accept that I can grow in grace by simply be-ing present. My religious upbringing has steeped me well in notions of elaborate rituals and acts of penance as the vehicles for finding grace. Implicit in these things I am required ‘to do’ is the underlying idea that, ‘as I am’, is not enough. Thus, I hold a sense that I must work hard to achieve grace and I disdain and regret my flaws and weaknesses.

Can I just ‘be’? Can I come ‘as I am’? Can I open myself ever wider and fall ever deeper into the Source of all that is? Can I trust that presence? Can I let go more completely? Can I allow for the possibilities?

My heartful , seeker’s response is: YES

And so it is that I hope to seed and cultivate my garden. May I nurture responsiveness to the present moment; may I listen to learn more closely the language of silence; may I unfold toward all that is.

“Silence appears at the moment when we position ourselves at the very source of being.”  Raimon Panikkar