No Promises

       While the Universe is abundant and generous, always working with us toward our highest good, it’s not at ego’s beck and call.  It’s not a cosmic vending machine, offering just the refreshment we desire at the insertion of a dollar and the push of a button. 

       When I need a grown-up dose of spiritual medicine, Pema Chodron often has just the right prescription.  Yesterday, I opened a small book of hers, The Pocket Pema Chodron, to passage 77.  Here’s what greeted me. 

There are no promises

       When we are training in the art of peace, we are not given any promises that because of our noble intentions everything will be okay.  In fact, there are no promises of fruition at all.   Instead, we are encouraged to look deeply at joy and sorrow, at laughing and crying, at hoping and fearing, at all that lives and dies.  We learn that what truly heals is gratitude and tenderness.

Pema Chodron