June 30
On the one hand I felt the call of God; on the other, I continued to follow the world. All the things of God gave me great pleasure, but I was held captive by those of the world. I might have been said to be trying to reconcile these two extremes, to bring contraries together; the spiritual life on the one hand and worldly satisfactions, pleasures, and pastimes on the other.
Saint Teresa of Avila

We tend to split our worlds we label things as spiritual or as material. If we have chosen the spiritual life we try to renounce the material world but we are often unable to do so. The spiritual goals can appear unrealistic and far out of reach. We live the world. Our spiritual practice is to remain in the world. We can welcome all of life's situations as opportunities to practice being kind and loving. If we feel too deprived it is difficult to walk the spiritual path and if we have an overabundance of material goods, we become attached to comfort and convenience and aren't willing to change.
We in the United States have a great challenge. Many of us have much comfort and convenience while others are wandering homeless in the streets. Our task is to reconcile these extremes. To do so we need to renounce attachment. It is not pleasure we want to deny: It is the pursuit of pleasure that we need to transcend. When the goal of our life is no longer the pursuit of pleasure we are able to enjoy the pleasures we have without feeling guilty and denying the pain of those less fortunate. When attachment is lessened, there is greater energy to warmly embrace all of life. Compassion ripens and is extended to all.