end of the year cleaning

"Imagine that God is a great musician and that you are a flute He wants to play the most glorious music on. If the stops of your flute are filled with mud, how can the music that is meant to be played through you sound at all?" ~Father Bede Griffths

Forget spring cleaning. It's the end of the year and the end of the decade. It's a perfect time to lighten your load so that the path can be clearly seen again. New resolve and renewed intentions all around!

silence

In contemplating the way of Baba Hari Dass I began to picture all the extraneous thoughts in life as that friend who comes over to constantly raid your pantry and your refrigerator. As long as there is food to be had - as long as the mind runs wild, he keeps coming round. As the mind get quieter there's less for the thoughts to snack on. Maybe I just like the image of thoughts being a perpetually hungry friend...

Kaayedriya siddhir ashuddhi ksayaat tapasah (Yoga Sutra II.42)
By austerity, impurities of body and senses are destroyed and the yogi is made perfect.