In the Absence of the Ordinary - Francis Weller 2025

  

"The skill of grieving well enables us to become current - to live in the present moment and be available to the electricity of life. We gradually turn our attention to what is here, now, and pay less attention to our need to repair history. We remember we are more verb than noun, more a jumpy rhythm, a wild song, a fluid leap than a fixed thing in space."

"In his book Beauty: The Invisible Embrace, O'Donohue writes, 'What you encounter, recognize or discover depends to a large degree on the quality of your approach... When we approach with reverence, great things decide to approach us."

"It is not about resolving our issues or repairing the past but becoming more spacious and capable of holding all that psyche and life brings to us."

"We need to hold, contain, and cook the material before sharing it with the world. It must be allowed o go through its own process of distillation prior to being revealed to questioning eyes. The value of restraint acknowledges this truth and creates a space where something can take shape according to its nature." 

"Let us come to see the value of restraint, of creating space through the practice of not doing. It may be there that we find ourselves escorted into the chamber of what it is the soul truly longs for." 

"Our senses and minds were synchronized to streams and night skies, to times around the fire, to the long, patient wait of the hunger, to the listening to stories told by elders. We moved slowly and drank in the entire spectrum of life through our bodies. We need to take up an apprenticeship with slowness and remember this ancient mode of being." 

"Slow down, uncenter and forget about yourself for a moment, let the world find you, love what is nearby, share your grief with others, say thank you, learn the stories from where you live and from where your ancestors came, be a wee bit wild in your imagination, and come home."

"In the absence of the ordinary, it falls to us to kindle bonds of kinship with all that is near to us. We are at a threshold for our world. In the days to come, everything we do will be significant. Never doubt that each of us is essential to the welfare of the commons. Everyone is a vector. Choose what you spread. It all tuns on affection."