Class Reading from week of November 2nd

This week I chose a quote from Thomas Merton's book, Seeds.   Thomas Merton' was a Trappist Monk, political activist, social visionary, and literary figure.  I have not read his entire book, but find myself reading it in bits and pieces.  The following quote begins on page 107. 

"One who is content with what he has, and who accepts the fact that he inevitably misses very much in life, is far better off than one who has much more but who worries about all he may be missing.  For we cannot make the best of what we are, if our hearts are always divided between what we are and what we are not...

We cannot be happy if we expect to live all the time at the highest peak of intensity.  Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance and order and rhythm and harmony...

Let us, therefore, learn to pass from one imperfect activity to another without worrying too much about what we are missing."  (NM 127-28)

This is a challenge for me, not worrying about what I am missing and with grace "to pass from one imperfect activity to another".   It is relevant to our work class because we are exploring balance poses that often feel different from moment to moment, day to day.  It is the act of paying attention, making our best efforts, and then moving on that helps deepen our practice.