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Sep 15

Consent to Presence

“To make bread or love, to dig in the earth, to feed an animal or cook for a stranger—these activities require no extensive commentary, no lucid theology. All they require is someone willing to bend, reach, chop, stir. Most of these tasks are so full of pleasure that there is no need to complicate things by calling them holy. And yet these are the same activities that change lives, sometimes all at once and sometimes more slowly, the way dripping water changes stone. In a world where faith is often construed as a way of thinking, bodily practices remind the willing that faith is a way of life.”― Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith

“The treasure we seek requires no lengthy expedition, no expensive equipment, no superior aptitude or special company. All we lack is the willingness to imagine that we already have everything we need. The only thing missing is our consent to be where we are.”― Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith

Slowing to attention
Falling into presence, reverence
Slow drip to rhythm of waves, beating of heart
Canopy of the sky
Treasure on the ground of this day.

“Busy? The word loses all meaning under the canopy of this sky.”― Barbara Brown Taylor, Learning to Walk in the Dark: A Study of Spiritual Growth Through Darkness

Sep 14

Rhythm of Bloom

“Hoping to live days of greater happiness, I forget that days of less happiness are passing by.”― Elizabeth Bishop

“There is a magic made by melody:
A spell of rest, and quiet breath, and cool
Heart, that sinks through fading colors deep
To the subaqueous stillness of the sea,
And floats forever in a moon-green pool,
Held in the arms of rhythm and of sleep. ”― Elizabeth Bishop

Letting go
Losing the unnecessary
Releasing into rest
Awakening anew
Crisp air
Colors brilliant
Fresh bloom in different stages
Some seed
Some dormant
Some bud
Some full bloom
Some potpourri
Rhythm of bloom.

“The art of losing isn’t hard to master;
so many things seemed filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster”
― Elizabeth Bishop, The Complete Poems 1927-1979

Sep 13

Lightly Darling

“The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which means never losing your enthusiasm.”― Aldous Huxley

“Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly.
Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply.
Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them.” – Aldous Huxley

Ease and delight
Rest and vitality
Presence and praise
Walking lightly
Wings wide.

“So throw away your baggage and go forward.
There are quicksands all about you, sucking at your feet,
trying to suck you down into fear and self-pity and despair.
That’s why you must walk so lightly.
Lightly my darling,
on tiptoes and no luggage.” – Aldous Huxley

Sep 12

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Shortcut to Awe

“GET OUTDOORS.”― Dacher Keltner, Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life

“Tap into your childlike sense of wonder. Young children are in an almost constant state of awe since everything is so new to them. During your walk, try to approach what you see with fresh eyes, imagining that you’re seeing it for the first time. Take a moment in each walk to take in the vastness of things, for example in looking at a panoramic view or up close at the detail of a leaf or flower. Go somewhere new. Each week, try to choose a new location. You’re more likely to feel awe in a novel environment where the sights and sounds are unexpected and unfamiliar to you. That said, some places never seem to get old, so there’s nothing wrong with revisiting your favorite spots if you find that they consistently fill you with awe. The key is to recognize new features of the same old place.”― Dacher Keltner, Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life

Small things
Abundant in ordinary days
A walk in the woods
Blue sky
Flowers unfolding
Fresh air
Wander and wonder
Vastness, depth, expanse
Same transformed by awe.

“Awe is the feeling of being in the presence of something vast that transcends your current understanding of the world.”― Dacher Keltner, Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life

Sep 11

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Rememberance and Honoring

“For the righteous will never be moved; they will be remembered forever.” – Psalm 112:6

Honor
Remember
Live differently
Love well
25 years
Courage, sacrifice, humanity
Grief, gratitude, grace
Sacred ground, unmoved.

“No day shall erase you from the memory of time” – Virgil

 

Sep 10

Blue Sky View, Pull Over

“Gratitude, not understanding, is the secret to joy and equanimity.” – Anne Lamott

“Rest and laughter are the most spiritual and subversive acts of all. Laugh, rest, slow down.” – Anne Lamott

Fresh start
Subtle shif
New approach
Play, laughter, rest
Gratitude, grace, love
Delight in ordinary days

“Love was life’s secret purpose.”― Martine Murray, How To Make A Bird

Sep 9

Rising with the Sun

“Ô, Sunlight! The most precious gold to be found on Earth.”― Roman Payne

Morning Poem by Mary Oliver

“Every morning
the world
is created.
Under the orange

sticks of the sun
the heaped
ashes of the night
turn into leaves again

and fasten themselves to the high branches–
and the ponds appear
like black cloth
on which are painted islands

of summer lilies.
If it is your nature
to be happy
you will swim away along the soft trails

for hours, your imagination
alighting everywhere.
And if your spirit
carries within it

the thorn
that is heavier than lead–
if it’s all you can do
to keep on trudging–

there is still
somewhere deep within you
a beast shouting that the earth
is exactly what it wanted–

each pond with its blazing lilies
is a prayer heard and answered
lavishly,
every morning,

whether or not
you have ever dared to be happy,
whether or not
you have ever dared to pray.”

Morning has broken.
Lavishing light.
Poetry and prayer.
Gratitude and grace.
Brilliance and beauty.
May I rise with the light.
See the world anew.

Sep 8

Streaming Wonder

“Take time to see the quiet miracles that
eek no attention”― John O’Donohue

“When our eyes are graced with wonder, the world reveals its wonders to us. There are people who see only dullness in the world and that is because their eyes have already been dulled. So much depends on how we look at things. The quality of our looking determines what we come to see.”― John O’Donohue, Beauty: A Study of Beauty in Celtic Spirituality and the Human Spirit

Quality of looking, glance to gaze
Streaming, weaving wonder
Revealing and unfolding
Angle of awe
Flowing, looking with fresh eyes.

“I would love to live like a river flows,
carried by the surprise of its own unfolding.”― John O’Donohue

 

Sep 7

Fruits of Labor

“Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.”― John Lubbock, The Use Of Life

“Most of the things we need to be most fully alive never come in busyness. They grow in rest.”― Mark Buchanan, The Holy Wild

To slow, pause, pull over.
Daily rest.
Refueling, replenishment, regeneration.
Becoming, being, blooming.
Work, put it down, play.
Enjoy the fruits of labor.

“The most valuable thing we can do for the psyche, occasionally, is to let it rest, wander, live in the changing light of room, not try to be or do anything whatever.”― May Sarton

Sep 6

Summer, Waxing and Waning

“Bless the feet that take you to and fro.
Bless the eyes and the listening ears.
Bless the tongue, the marvel of taste.
Bless touching.” – Mary Oliver

The Summer Day by Mary Oliver

“Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean—
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down—
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?”

Life, one day, one minute at a time.
Simple, ordinary, brilliant.
Blessed on this ground.
In the quiet and chaos, all in between.
Forever in the stream.
Precious, wild, presence.

“May I stay forever in the stream.” – Mary Oliver

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