I came across a beautiful quote today, from a brilliant Italian architect, engineer and archeologist who lived in the late 1400’s. His name was Fra Giovanni Giocondo, and his counsel about living in happiness rolls across six centuries to us today.
“I am your friend,” he said, “and my love for you goes deep. There is nothing I can give you which you have not got. But there is much, very much, that, while I cannot give it, you can take. No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in today. Take heaven! No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present little instant. Take peace! The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within our reach, is joy.”
Think about that. “No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in today.” There is no other life but the one unfolding around us right now. And this life, this moment–if we look into it deeply enough, if we are awake and fully present within it, and sense how far it extends–holds everything: All beauty; all grace; all goodness; all truth. Right here, right now, perfection abounds.
“No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present little instant.” All that hides peace is our warring against what is, our wanting it to be otherwise. The moment we exchange our warring and wanting for acceptance, peace descends.
The faults we perceive, in ourselves, in each other, in the world, truly are but shadows. And it is we ourselves who cast them, with our storyboard judgments and beliefs. But once we learn to set aside our criticism and our theories about how things ought to be, and to open our hearts instead, seeing what is before us with clarity and love, the light of joy shines through.
And it’s all right there, within you, within me, within us all, for the taking. Take heaven. Take peace. Take joy.
Warmly,
Susan