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Nov 9

Best, Simple, Things

“You’ll miss the best things if you keep your eyes shut.”― Dr. Seuss, I Can Read with My Eyes Shut!

“Oh the places you’ll go! There is fun to be done! There are points to be scored. There are games to be won. And the magical things you can do with that ball will make you the winning-est winner of all.”― Dr. Seuss, Oh, The Places You’ll Go!

Eyes open
Heart light
Spirit alive
Joy woven in the ordinary, silly, simple, fun
Smile spilling into laughter
Carbonate, anticipate, participate
Holy ground

“Laughter is carbonated holiness.”― Anne Lamott

Nov 8

Golden Clasp

“Sunday is the golden clasp that binds together the volume of the week.”― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“I don’t want a religion that I put away with my Sunday clothes, and don’t take out till the day comes around again; I want something to see and feel and live day by day.”― Louisa May Alcott, An Old-Fashioned Girl

To set aside, put down
Rest, reflect, renew
Pause and praise
Sacred ground
Sunday peace
Weave it through the week

“Sunday, the day for the language of leisure.”― Elfriede Jelinek, The Piano Teacher

Nov 7

Garden Work

“When we walk on the earth with reverence, beauty will decide to trust us. Beauty is mysterious, a slow presence who waits for the ready, expectant heart.” – John O’Donohue

“I’m tending to my garden, I’m making it my place,
Where I can spend my moments, in this nurturing space.
I too, am like a flower, needing sunshine and rain,
With gentle hands that guide me, I can flourish once again.

With every season changing, the blooms may come and go,
Yet in the quiet shadows, there’s beauty still to show.
For in the depths of winter, when all seems cold and bare,
New dreams begin their stirring, bringing hope beyond despair.

So as I sow my blessings, and patiently I wait,
I learn to trust the timing, and embrace my natural fate.
For reaching towards the sunlight, I find my truest spark,
In this garden of my making, I can leave my mark” – C.E. Coombes

Expectancy
Anticipation
Enthusiasm
Delight
Enchantment
Hope
Joy
Laughter
Light
Kindness
Generosity
Abundance
Reverence
Wonder

In the nurturing, tending to your garden
These are the fruits of labor, garden work
Tend, nurture, plant
Standing on sacred ground.

“When we devote some calm time to the heart and come off the treadmill of stress and distraction we can enter into the beauty within.  Each of us can prepare for that inner arrival: where ‘night holds sway’ and the inner forest becomes ‘free of strangers’.” – John O’Donohue

Nov 6

Off We Go, On to This Day

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”― Theodore Roosevelt

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”― Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of “A Course in Miracles”

In the daily ordinary
In showing up
In listening
In kindness, laughter, play
In ups and downs
In plenty and scarcity
In the middle, mix, mess
Potholes, detours, delays
Celebrations, milestones, progress
Create, recreate, unlearn, learn
Ease up, slow down, look around
Lighten up
Be present where you are
May you offer and find joy, delight, hope
Wherever the path leads today.

“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”― George Bernard Shaw

Nov 5

Dwelling Spaces

“Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.”― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“Do not indulge in dreams of having what you have not, but reckon up the chief of the blessings you do possess, and then thankfully remember how you would crave for them if they were not yours.”― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

Run with the stars
Dance with delight
Letting up and go
Making space for the mystery and unkown
Releasing the familiar and worn
To be present and in conversation with life
Dwell and root
Gratitude, grace, joy
Find your strength and power here.

“You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

Nov 4

Color of Thoughts

“The soul becomes dyed with the colour of its thoughts.”― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“When you arise in the morning think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love …”― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

On today’s path
May colors blaze
Fresh air crisp, deep breath
Light stream through thoughts, words, deeds
Encouragement, kindness, grace
Love well.

“What we do now echoes in eternity.”― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

Nov 3

Scatter Joy, Bloom Love

“Small wins little things look for the beauty in everything.”― Donna Ashworth, I Wish I Knew: Poems to Soothe Your Soul & Strengthen Your Spirit

“JOY CHOSE YOU Joy does not arrive with a fanfare on a red carpet strewn with the flowers of a perfect life joy sneaks in as you pour a cup of coffee watching the sun hit your favourite tree just right and you usher joy away because you are not ready for her your house is not as it should be for such a distinguished guest but joy, you see cares nothing for your messy home or your bank balance or your waistline joy is supposed to slither through the cracks of your imperfect life that’s how joy works you cannot truly invite her you can only be ready when she appears and hug her with meaning because in this very moment joy chose you.”― Donna Ashworth, Wild Hope: Healing Words to Find Light on Dark Days

Thoughts of hope
Words of encouragement
Acts of kindness
Not for others or institutions to do
Small but mighty, adding up
Daily devotion
Showing up
No advice, mere presence
In the messy, flawed, imperfection
Joy to be found
Look longer
Offer it first, second, third
Cast light.

“Follow the flawed, the real, the messy. Follow the women who say it like it is, no filter, no glossing, no bull. Follow those people who accept themselves, and you, as you are. And leave the rest to edit their lives to perfection,”― Donna Ashworth, I Wish I Knew: Poems to Soothe Your Soul & Strengthen Your Spirit

Nov 2

Open Road, Wandering Trails

“The work of minding your mind is a skill most people aren’t taught. It takes awareness and attunement. It takes spaciousness and curiosity. It takes tenacity and intentionality. It takes prayer and rationality. But as you get good at it, the process of minding your own mind—of noticing and reflecting on your inner dialogue, thoughts, and emotions—becomes one of the most rewarding parts of being an image-of-God-bearing human.”― Alison Cook

Song of the Open Road, 1 by Walt Whitman

“Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before me,
The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose.

Henceforth I ask not good-fortune, I myself am good-fortune,
Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing,
Done with indoor complaints, libraries, querulous criticisms,
Strong and content I travel the open road.

The earth, that is sufficient,
I do not want the constellations any nearer,
I know they are very well where they are,
I know they suffice for those who belong to them.

(Still here I carry my old delicious burdens,
I carry them, men and women, I carry them with me wherever I go,
I swear it is impossible for me to get rid of them,
I am fill’d with them, and I will fill them in return.)”

Open road
Wandering trails
Abundant light
Color ablaze
Go off path today
Luggage of worries, burdens put down for a bit
Minding and mining your mind
A few minutes off and away
Deep breath
Fresh eyes
Cup of hope
Bucket of joy
Permission to laugh, sing, dance
To be made new, filled up, restored
Afoot and light-hearted
Re-enchantment under construction.

“The fate of our times is characterized by rationalization and intellectualization and, above all, by the disenchantment of the world.”― Max Weber

Nov 1

Streaming Light, Love, Kindness

“There is the music of Heaven in all things.”― Saint Hildegard of Bingen

“May today there be peace within. May you trust that you are exactly where you are meant to be. May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith in yourself and others. May you use the gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you. May you be content with yourself just the way you are. Let this knowledge settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love. It is there for each and every one of us.” …”― Saint Terese of Liseaux

Thoughts, words, actions.
May love be the intention and outcome.
Peace, light, sabbath.
Dance and delight in this day.

“Preach the Gospel, use words when necessary.”― Saint Francis of Assisi

Oct 31

Gifts of Moments, Presence

“one of those things about getting older was knowing that so many moments weren’t just moments, they were gifts.”― Elizabeth Strout, Olive Kitteridge

“Had they known at these moments to be quietly joyful? Most likely not. People mostly did not know enough when they were living life that they were living it.”― Elizabeth Strout, Olive Kitteridge

It’s easy to mistake “doing” with living
Busy and hurry
Dopamine hit of checking thing off the bottomless “to do“ list
Comparison, counting for worthiness
To those thin spaces, detours, delays
Simple moments
That redirect attention to the present moment
To quiet joy
Live and love well this day
The only place to tend to
Walk lightly
Skip in step
Hopscotch and swings

“When my vision is numbed by apathy and narrowed by mediocrity, I can stand in the presence of great things and fail to see even the smallest of things.”― Craig D. Lounsbrough

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