Who said the darkest moments of our lives are not to be buried

Resources for Teachers. Academy of American Poets. American Poets Magazine. Poems Find and share the perfect poems. The Buried Life. Light flows our war of mocking words, and yet, Behold, with tears mine eyes are wet! I feel a nameless sadness o'er me roll. Yes, yes, we know that we can jest, We know, we know that we can smile; But there 's a something in this breast, To which thy light words bring no rest, And thy gay smiles no anodyne; Give me thy hand, and hush awhile, And turn those limpid eyes on mine, And let me read there, love!

Are even lovers powerless to reveal To one another what indeed they feel? I knew the mass of men conceal'd Their thoughts, for fear that if reveal'd They would by other men be met With blank indifference, or with blame reprov'd; I knew they liv'd and mov'd Trick'd in disguises, alien to the rest Of men, and alien to themselves—and yet The same heart beats in every human breast.

But we, my love—does a like spell benumb Our hearts—our voices? Ah, well for us, if even we, Even for a moment, can get free Our heart, and have our lips unchain'd; For that which seals them hath been deep-ordain'd! Fate, which foresaw How frivolous a baby man would be, By what distractions he would be possess'd, How he would pour himself in every strife, And well-nigh change his own identity; That it might keep from his capricious play His genuine self, and force him to obey, Even in his own despite his being's law, Bade through the deep recesses of our breast The unregarded River of our Life Pursue with indiscernible flow its way; And that we should not see The buried stream, and seem to be Eddying at large in blind uncertainty, Though driving on with it eternally.

But often, in the world's most crowded streets, But often, in the din of strife, There rises an unspeakable desire After the knowledge of our buried life, A thirst to spend our fire and restless force In tracking out our true, original course; A longing to inquire Into the mystery of this heart which beats So wild, so deep in us, to know Whence our lives come and where they go.

And many a man in his own breast then delves, But deep enough, alas, none ever mines! And we have been on many thousand lines, And we have shown, on each, spirit and power, But hardly have we, for one little hour, Been on our own line, have we been ourselves; Hardly had skill to utter one of all The nameless feelings that course through our breast, But they course on for ever unexpress'd. And long we try in vain to speak and act Our hidden self, and what we say and do Is eloquent, is well—but 'tis not true!

And then we will no more be rack'd With inward striving, and demand Of all the thousand nothings of the hour Their stupefying power; Ah yes, and they benumb us at our call! Yet still, from time to time, vague and forlorn, From the soul's subterranean depth upborne As from an infinitely distant land, Come airs, and floating echoes, and convey A melancholy into all our day.

The eye sinks inward, and the heart lies plain, And what we mean, we say, and what we would, we know, A man becomes aware of his life's flow, And hears its winding murmur, and he sees The meadows where it glides, the sun, the breeze. And there arrives a lull in the hot race Wherein he doth for ever chase The flying and elusive shadow, Rest. An air of coolness plays upon his face, And an unwonted calm pervades his breast.

And then he thinks he knows The hills where his life rose, And the Sea where it goes. This poem is in the public domain. Isolation: To Marguerite We were apart; yet, day by day, I bade my heart more constant be.

I bade it keep the world away, And grow a home for only thee; Nor fear'd but thy love likewise grew, Like mine, each day, more tried, more true. The fault was grave! I might have known, What far too soon, alas!

I learn'd— The heart can bind itself alone, And faith may oft be unreturn'd. Self-sway'd our feelings ebb and swell— Thou lov'st no more;—Farewell! Yet she, chaste queen, had never proved How vain a thing is mortal love, Wandering in Heaven, far removed. But thou hast long had place to prove This truth—to prove, and make thine own: "Thou hast been, shalt be, art, alone. Of happier men—for they, at least, Have dream'd two human hearts might blend In one, and were through faith released From isolation without end Prolong'd; nor knew, although not less Alone than thou, their loneliness.

If you know something helpful and true, find the right time to say it. Daring greatly means the courage to be vulnerable. It means to show up and be seen. To ask for what you need. To have the hard conversations.

Meditation practice isn't about trying to throw ourselves away and become something better. It's about befriending who we are already. You are whole and also part of larger and larger circles of wholeness you may not even know about. You are never alone. And you already belong. You belong to humanity. You belong to life. You belong to this moment, this breath.

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. Nasrudin went into a bank with a check to cash. Nasrudin took out a mirror and peered into it. Mindfulness is simply being aware of what is happening right now without wishing it were different; enjoying the pleasant without holding on when it changes which it will ; being with the unpleasant without fearing it will always be this way which it won't.

Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in. One of the most satisfying feelings I know — and also one of the most growth-promoting experiences for the other person — comes from my appreciating this individual in the same way that I appreciate a sunset.

People are just as wonderful as sunsets if you can let them be. In fact, perhaps the reason we can truly appreciate a sunset is that we cannot control it.

I watch with awe as it unfolds. Our true nature is like a precious jewel: although it may be temporarily buried in mud, it remains completely brilliant and unaffected.

We simply have to uncover it. There is something in every one of you that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine in yourself. It is the only true guide you will ever have. And if you cannot hear it, you will all of your life spend your days on the ends of strings that somebody else pulls I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.

All of you are perfect just as you are I don't have to chase extraordinary moments to find happiness. It's right in front of me if I'm paying attention and practicing gratitude.

Listening is the art of entering the skin of the other and wearing it for a time as if it were your own. It does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work. It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart. Forgive others, not because they deserve forgiveness, but because you deserve peace - Jonathan Hule -. Being on a spiritual path does not prevent you from facing times of darkness. But it teaches you how to use the darkness as a tool to grow.

Arguments always begin with an answer in mind. Conversation begins with a question. Impermanence is both a process of continual loss, in which things exist and then disappear, and it is also a process of continuous rebirth or creativity, in which things that do not exist suddenly appear.

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself. The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself.

A difficulty is a light. An insurmountable difficulty is a sun. Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.

Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read. Alice laughed: "There's no use trying," she said; "one can't believe impossible things. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast. If I do not practice one day, I notice it. If I do not practice a second day, the orchestra notices it. If I do not practice a third day, the world notices it. Instead we are going to be looking deeply into each moment with full acceptance and not trying to force ourselves to be different from how we are right now.

In your meditation practice and in your daily life, can you be in touch, not only with the changing content and intensity of your thoughts and feelings, but also with the vast unwavering reservoir of awareness itself, residing below the surface of your mind?

The lake can teach this, remind us of the lake within ourselves. Through it all, the mountain just sits, experiencing change in each moment, constantly changing, yet always just being itself. It remains still as the seasons flow into one another and as the weather changes moment by moment and day by day, calmness abiding all change… - Jon Kabat-Zinn -.

These few words are enough. If not these words, this breath. If not this breath, this sitting here. This opening to the life we have refused again and again until now. Until now. When flowing water meets with obstacles on its path, a blockage in its journey, it pauses. It increases in volume and strength, filling up in front of the obstacle and eventually spilling past it.

You do not belong to you. You belong to the universe. The significance of you will forever remain obscure to you, but you may assume that you are fulfilling your significance if you apply yourself to converting all your experience to the highest advantage to others. You should sit in meditation for twenty minutes every day - unless you're too busy - then you should sit for an hour.

Conversations begin with a question. Mindfulness is about being fully awake in our lives. It is about perceiving the exquisite vividness of each moment.

We also gain immediate access to our own powerful inner resources for insight, transformation, and healing. If you think of your body as a musical instrument, the body scan is a way of tuning it.

If you think of it as a universe, the body scan is a way to come to know it. If you think of your body as a house, the body scan is a way to throw open all the windows and doors and let the fresh air of awareness sweep it clean. The range of what we think and do Is limited by what we fail to notice And because we fail to notice There is little we can do To change Until we notice How failing to notice Shapes our thoughts and deeds.

Laing -. The practice of meditation is not really about establishing inner stillness The moments of stillness are one of meditation's byproducts, not the practice itself. If the heart wanders or is distracted, bring it back to the point quite gently And even if you did nothing during the whole of your hour but bring your heart back, though it went away every time you brought it back, your hour would be very well employed.

Francis de Sales -. Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom. You can have compassion for yourself - which is not self-pity. As simple, and difficult, as that! To listen is to lean in softly With a willingness to be changed By what we hear. If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.

Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything.

Live the questions now. First, we all have an inner teacher whose guidance is more reliable than anything we can get from a doctrine, ideology, collective belief system, institution, or leader.

Second, we all need other people to invite, amplify, and help us discern the inner teacher's voice. Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken. It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are. Cummings -. For a seed to achieve its greatest expression, it must come completely undone.

The shell cracks, its insides come out and everything changes. To someone who doesn't understand growth, it would look like complete destruction. This is not an answering machine.

This is a questioning machine. You think you understand one. You think you understand two, because one and one make two. But, you must also understand "and". I am not nearly so interested in what monkey man was derived from as I am in what kind of monkey he is to become. We ourselves cannot put any magic spell on this world.

The world is its own magic. There is no enlightenment outside of daily life. There's no problem so great it can't be solved. If it can't be solved, it's not a problem, it's reality.

Most of the calls we receive and ignore are Our lives are measured out The great breakthroughs in our lives generally happen only as a result of the accumulation of innumerable small steps and minor achievements. We're called to reach out to someone, to pick up an odd book on the library shelf, to sign up for a class even though we're convinced we don't have the time or money, to go to our desks each day, to turn left instead of right.

These are the fire drills for our bigger calls. When I do not know who I am, I serve you. When I know who I am, I am you. Perhaps ultimately, spiritual simply means experiencing wholeness and interconnectedness directly, a seeing that individuality and the totality are interwoven, that nothing is separate or extraneous. If you see in this way, then everything becomes spiritual in its deepest sense.

Doing science is spiritual. So is washing the dishes. Hillel the sage, who was asked to relate the whole of Torah while standing on one foot: "Do not do to others that which is hateful to you. All the rest is commentary. Now go study. The saints are what they are, not because their sanctity makes them admirable to others, but because the gift of sainthood makes it possible for them to admire everybody else. Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn, A cool breeze in summer, snow in winter.

If your mind isn't clouded by unnecessary things, This is the best season of your life. Today like every other day We wake up empty and scared. Don't open the door of your study And begin reading.

Take down a musical instrument. Let the beauty we love be what we do There are hundreds of way to kneel And kiss the earth. Tell me what you pay attention to and I will tell you who you are. I dreamt I was a butterfly, fluttering hither and thither; then I awoke. Now I wonder: Am I a man who dreamt of being a butterfly, or am I a butterfly dreaming that I am a man?

But if they ask me, "Why were you not Zusya? It is only with the heart that one can see rightly: what is essential is invisible to the eye. When I look inside and see that I am nothing, that's wisdom. When I look outside and see that I am everything, that's love.

I say, He is not dead—he is just away. I told him I'd scatter his ashes at Neiman Marcus—that way, I'd visit him every day. That is so much more important than the idea I will see him someday. Everyone feels differently after a death, but experiencing a fear of living alone is a common sentiment after a wife passes away. Death, that hath suck'd the honey of thy breath Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty.

Or if you prefer, one ship. The starboard engine has gone. I, the port engine, must chug along somehow till we make harbour. Or rather, till the journey ends. It is an infinite debt, which can only be discharged through eternity. How can you even begin to describe the feelings of sadness when a child dies? The grief is enough to render anyone speechless. In those moments, reflecting on the kind words of others can help some move forward when the world seems to stand still.

And now I will miss you every day. If the flowers die or wither, thank God for a summer loan of them. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition, and of unspeakable love.

I must let it all in. Sometimes the water is calm, and sometimes it is overwhelming. All we can do is learn to swim. Love leaves a memory no one can steal. Losing a child, no matter how young, can be traumatic and heartbreaking.

While no words could ever truly heal a grieving parent, reflecting on these quotes may help console them. I am not gone but merely walk within you. And whispered as she closed the book, 'Too beautiful for earth.

But what an imprint your footsteps have left upon our hearts. Because the majority of miscarriages occur during the first trimester—often before the parents announce their pregnancy—mourning the loss of a pregnancy can be a lonely experience. They were never cold, never hungry, never alone, and importantly always knew love.

Whether they were a seasoned veteran or a young active-duty member, it's never easy to lose someone who gave so much to their country and community.

The following quotes can be used to honor a fallen military member's service and sacrifice. Rather we should thank God that such men lived. Even when the death of a grandparent is expected, it can still be a difficult thing for grandchildren to experience. These quotes might resonate with those reflecting on the lives of their grandfathers and grandmothers as they mourn their passing. Grandparents sort of sprinkle stardust over the lives of little children.

Grandmother was that person to me. Everything smelled older, worn but safe; the food aroma had baked itself into the furniture. Grandmas are short on criticism and long on love. Losing a brother can have a direct impact on your mental health. But not to brothers and sisters. We know each other as we always were.

We know each other's hearts. We share private family jokes. We remember family feuds and secrets, family griefs and joys. We live outside the touch of time. Stories about us could, from then on, be told from only one perspective. Memories could be told but not shared" — John Corey Whalley.