People say that what we're all seeking is a meaning for life.
I don't think that's what we're really seeking.
I think that what we're seeking
is an experience of being alive...
so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.
-- Joseph Campbell
I have a card stuck on my refrigerator that shows a woman standing in reverence before an open freezer door, saying, "Amazing! Perfect ice cubes again!" That's the kind of simple rapture I'm taking about.
I realise we are not put on this earth to stand around open freezers ranting like idiots about ice cubes. But a good question to ask yourself is this: If perfect ice cubes or an evening sky or an old song on the radio has not made your heart flip-flop lately, why not?
What is keeping you from feeling the rapture?
I can assure you, you won't find the answer in a lighted room.
What stands between you and a full-bodied life can be found only in the shadows. What wants to live in you may be waiting -- as it was for me -- at the end of a long loneliness.
Elisabeth Lesser
Broken Open: How Difficult Times Can Help Us Grow
Thank you for sharing these wonderful quotes Kat. I have to say that keeping my gratitude journal does help me celebrate 'perfect ice cubes' when they fall into my life!! =-)
ReplyDeleteWhat is keeping you from feeling the rapture?
ReplyDeleteUsually it´s because I opened the freezer in a mad dash to have dinner made on time. ;) I´m only partially joking as it´s the speed of the lives we are leading what doesn´t leave space for a breathless rapture. It is usually just breathless but as in "I´mlateI´mlateI´mlate" breathless not "this is magnificent" breathless.