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May 11

Make Waves, a Drop at a Time

“do good, bestow kindness, strive for beauty, seek and find the river that leads to life everlasting, and draw from the fountain that never runs dry.”― Allen Levi, Theo of Golden

“I did not save the world today,
Or change the course of history,
I walked the small and quiet way,
The life that God has given me. I woke up with the morning sun,
I sat awhile to think and pray,
I did my work till the day was done,
But I did not save the world today. I tried to live with gratitude,
To do the good that I could do,
To love the people close to me,
My neighbors and my family,
To share the kindness I’ve been shown,
To trust the Love that is my home,
To celebrate the tiny part I play,
But I did not save the world today. I hear the politicians speak,
Such big ideas and lofty claims,
My life, to theirs, seems small and weak,
But in God’s big hand we weigh the same. The saints and poets seem to know,
The law behind the ocean tide,
The world gets changed and moved along,
By little gestures multiplied. So I try to live with gratitude,
To do the good that I can do,
To love the people close to me,
My neighbors and my family,
To share the kindness I’ve been shown,
To trust the Love that is my home,
To celebrate the tiny part I play,
But I did not save the world today.”
― Allen Levi, The Last Sweet Mile

Small acts
Seeds planting
Drops to rolling waves
Smile, laughter, delight
Joy out loud
Encouragement, noticing, interest
Slowing to witness, partake, participate
Ordinary days rich with color, nuance, light
In small deliberate acts, love multiples, compounds
Changing the world
Kindness, generosity, enthusiasm
Love well, cast light.

“the best portion of a good person’s life is ‘the little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and love.”― Allen Levi, Theo of Golden

May 10

Happy Mother’s Day

“By cultivating the beautiful we scatter the seeds of heavenly flowers, as by doing good we cultivate those that belong to humanity.”― Vernon Howard

Happy Mother’s Day
To all women present and gone, yet remain within our hearts
Strength, tough, beauty, resilience, tenderness, grit, home
Holding up the world
Love

 

May 9

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Open Like the Sky

“Peace comes when our hearts are
open like the sky,
vast as the ocean.”
― Jack Kornfield

“We need the courage to learn from our past and not live in it.”― Sharon Salzberg, The Force of Kindness: Change Your Life with Love & Compassion

Overflowing in presence
Living this moment
Leaving the rest in its place
Foregoing, forgiving, yielding
Craft, carve, create this day
Blank canvas, paint beauty, joy, delight
No do overs, no predictions, no overthinking
May this day be more than enough
Grace, goodness, generosity
Open like the sky, deep waters
Cast light.

“In the end
these things matter most:
How well did you love?
How fully did you live?
How deeply did you let go?”― Jack Kornfield, Buddha’s Little Instruction Book

May 8

Found World

“Spring work is going on with joyful enthusiasm.”― John Muir, The Wilderness World of John Muir

“Spring is nature’s way of saying, ‘Let’s party!’” – Robin Williams

Flowers peaking, trees bursting, blue skies lingering
Spring trifecta
Fireworks of color, fragrance, freshness
Rebirth, creation, transformation
Accept the invitation
Join the party in delight, awe, wonder.

“Put on the mind of morning
To feel the rush of light
Spread slowly inside
The colour and stillness
Of a found world.” – John O’Donohue

May 7

Microscope, Telescope, Kaleidoscope

“Life is like an ever-shifting kaleidoscope – a slight change, and all patterns alter.”― Sharon Salzberg

“Life is a dance. Mindfulness is witnessing that dance.”― Amit Ray, Mindfulness Living in the Moment – Living in the Breath

Unhurrying
Undoing
Unwinding
Untangling
Untying
Unification
Resuscitation
Refreshment
Reimaging
Restoration
Recreating
Resurrection
In the stops and starts
Thresholds and bridges
Giving and receiving
Unknowing and knowing
Transitions to transformations
And the beautiful winding path inbetween, detours and delays
Life beating
Join the rhythm, dance and flow
Partake, witness, cherish the ride
Awake, anew, aware

“Mindfulness helps us get better at seeing the difference between what’s happening and the stories we tell ourselves about what’s happening, stories that get in the way of direct experience. Often such stories treat a fleeting state of mind as if it were our entire and permanent self.”― Sharon Salzberg, Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation

May 6

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Breathing in Beauty of Presence, Rapt Attention

“What would it be like if I could accept life–accept this moment–exactly as it is?”― Tara Brach, Radical Acceptance

“Perhaps the biggest tragedy of our lives is that freedom is possible, yet we can pass our years trapped in the same old patterns…We may want to love other people without holding back, to feel authentic, to breathe in the beauty around us, to dance and sing. Yet each day we listen to inner voices that keep our life small.”― Tara Brach, Radical Acceptance

Slow entrance
Autopilot disengaged
To do list put aside
Looking up, in, around
Soaking in fullness, depth, dimension of surroundings
Places, people, self
Foregoing rearview mirror replays
Not rushing ahead, arriving before getting there
Feet planted on the ground of this day
Open door for gratitude to enter
Reflection, inquiry, attention
Take the long cut
Wander, fritter, abide
Joy, beauty, peace in anchored presence
Receive and cast light.

“Clearly recognizing what is happening inside us, and regarding what we see with an open, kind and loving heart, is what I call Radical Acceptance. If we are holding back from any part of our experience, if our heart shuts out any part of who we are and what we feel, we are fueling the fears and feelings of separation that sustain the trance of unworthiness. Radical Acceptance directly dismantles the very foundations of this trance.”― Tara Brach, Radical Acceptance

May 5

Woven Beauty

“We do not grow absolutely, chronologically. We grow sometimes in one dimension, and not in another; unevenly. We grow partially. We are relative. We are mature in one realm, childish in another. The past, present, and future mingle and pull us backward, forward, or fix us in the present. We are made up of layers, cells, constellations.”― Anais Nin

“To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never to forget.” – Arundhati Roy

Layers
Nuance
Depth
Complexity
Simplicity
Unseen
Opposites
Sames
Ordinary
Extraordinary
A mix of contradictions
At the same time
Bridges
Beauty overflowing
Imagination
Inquiry
Joy
Curiosity
Patterns
Mystery
Light
So much light
Life in this day
Be present
Love well
Cast light.

“Our life is composed greatly from dreams, from the unconscious, and they must be brought into connection with action. They must be woven together. ”― Anais Nin

May 4

Dancing with Daffodils

“I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.” – William Wordsworth

May

May, and among the miles of leafing,
blossoms storm out of the darkness—
windflowers and moccasin flowers. The bees
dive into them and I too, to gather
their spiritual honey. Mute and meek, yet theirs
is the deepest certainty that this existence too—
this sense of well-being, the flourishing
of the physical body—rides
near the hub of the miracle that everything
is a part of, is as good
as a poem or a prayer, can also make
luminous any dark place on earth. – Mary Oliver

Vibrancy
Light
Unfolding and unfurling
Rhythm of spring
Unfolding and unfurling
Breathing in flowers
Pay attention
Enter the delight and bloom bursting
Dance with daffodils, spiritual honey.
Nectar of awe, wonder, grace, gratitude.

“Keep everything open and live from openness to openness.”― Francis Lucille, The Perfume of Silence

May 3

What a Ride!

“Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body. The goal is to skid in broadside; tires smoking, body all dented, leaking fluids, and your fuel gauge on empty; thoroughly used up and worn out, and loudly proclaiming, ‘Holy shit, what a ride!”― Steve Leder, The Beauty of What Remains: How Our Greatest Fear Becomes Our Greatest Gift

“the single most important thing in life is showing up.”― Steve Leder, More Beautiful Than Before: How Suffering Transforms Us

Show up.
To this day.
To others.
To self.
To the world beneath your feet.
Holy, sacred ground.
Of today, presence in it, full participation.
Give and receive.
Embrace and let go.
Wonder and believe.
Imagine and delight.
Imperfect, messy, detours and delays.
All of it.
This is it.
What a ride.
Do your part to make it an amazing one.
One beautiful day at a time.

“And this is it. This is the life we get here on earth. We get to give away what we receive. We get to believe in each other. We get to forgive and be forgiven. We get to love imperfectly. And we never know what effect it will have for years to come. And all of  it…all of  it is completely worth it.”― Nadia Bolz-Weber, Accidental Saints: Finding God in All the Wrong People

May 2

Till Soil, Root in Love

“I am in love with this world… I have tilled its soil, I have gathered its harvest, I have waited upon its seasons, and always have I reaped what I have sown. I have climbed its mountains, roamed its forests, sailed its waters, crossed its deserts, felt the sting of its frosts, the oppression of its heats, the drench of its rains, the fury of its winds, and always have beauty and joy waited upon my goings and comings.”― John Burroughs, The Summit of the Years

“Love is a great thing, yea, a great and thorough good.
By itself it makes that which is heavy light;
and it bears evenly all that is uneven.
It carries a burden which is no burden;
it will not be kept back by anything low and mean;
It desires to be free from all wordly affections,
and not to be entangled by any outward prosperity,
or by any adversity subdued.
Love feels no burden, thinks nothing of trouble,
attempts what is above its strength,
pleads no excuse of impossibility.
It is therefore able to undertake all things,
and it completes many things and warrants them to take effect,
where he who does not love would faint and lie down.
Though weary, it is not tired;
though pressed it is not straightened;
though alarmed, it is not confounded;
but as a living flame it forces itself upwards and securely passes through all.
Love is active and sincere, courageous, patient, faithful, prudent, and manly.”
― Thomas A Kempis

Love
Not the fluffy, surface, fleeting kind
Thoughts, words, actions
Weary yet not tired
Pressed yet not straightened
Alarmed yet not confounded
Gritty, tough, resilient
On the ground beneath your feet
Till soil
Root in love
Gather the harvest
Peace, kindness, love
Cast light.

“The lesson which life constantly repeats is to ‘look under your feet.’
You are always nearer to the divine and the true sources of your power than you think.
The lure of the distant and the difficult is deceptive.
The great opportunity is where you are.
Do not despise your own place and hour.
Every place is under the stars.
Every place is the center of the world.”― John Burroughs, Studies in Nature and Literature

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