Dhammadinna – She Who Has Given Herself to the Dhamma

For so long
I thought only of the river’s end.

Then one morning, I set my paddle down
to watch the sun rise over the eastern hills –

only to find myself floating – somehow gently upstream.
I promise it was not what I had expected.

by Matty Weingast

Heather read this poem at the end of a wonderful teacher training retreat which finished last week, and it’s stayed with me as an invitation to effort less, and appreciate more. It’s so easy to come to that which is important to me with a level of striving, a reaching towards our desired end-goal. And yet, how much easier and more joyful things become when I let go a bit, appreciate what is here now and open to pause with a sense of gratitude for the many beautiful moments that constitute the journey…

Matty Weingast has put this with simple words into a powerful image, in this poem from his book The First Free Women which is inspired by his understanding of the Therigatha, or “Verses of the Elder Nuns”.

I’m going to let myself be surprised more often by what is possible without the habitual effortful grasping after what I think I need!