The Muslim festival of Eid Al-Adha marks the end of the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca, and honors Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son Ishmael at Allah’s command. The name Islam itself means submission.
What, if anything, are you willing to submit yourself to that is larger than your own desires?
Empty swings at dawn might look lonely or forsaken, but really they are just paused in a moment of potential, holding the possibility of all the children who will play on them in the day to come. Like the pause at the top before the swing comes swooping down, the moment of stillness holds a space for the energy and motion to come.
What place of stillness propels you into motion?
You put together a jigsaw puzzle by looking for the tiniest details—the exact shape of a bump, a single line of blue. None of these details gives you a sense of the picture you are creating. But without determined attention to the little fussy details, the picture never gets built.
Are you someone who focuses on the big picture or the fine details? What do you learn when you pay attention to the version that doesn’t come naturally?
Most paint jobs cover other paint jobs, changing with the fashion of the time. What the world sees is rarely the whole story of what is there. But sooner or later the older layers are likely to show through. In moments of stress, or moments of quiet reflection, we might find a shade of ourselves that we had forgotten coming through the cracks.
If each major phase of your life had a different color, how many layers of color would you have by now?
“Forgiveness is the needle that knows how to mend.”
―Jewel
