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Apr 12

Small Joys Stacking

“It is a great thing to know how to make use of the present moment.”― Maria Faustina Kowalska, Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska: Divine Mercy in My Soul

“Act in such a way that all those who come in contact with you will go away joyful. Sow happiness about you because you have received much from God; give, then, generously to others. They should take leave of you with their hearts filled with joy, even if they have no more than touched the hem of your garment.”― Maria Faustina Kowalska

We forego small joys in search of big demands and conditions.
Anchoring on others changing, the world changing, us remaining the same.
“Someday when” thinking.
Yield to this day alone.
All that is present and available.
Filled and flowing.
Seek moments of joy, delight through rapt attention.
Capture and give them away.
Compound interest of love in action.
Scatter seeds, sow happiness, cast light.

“The past does not belong to me; the future is not mine; with all my soul I try to make use of the present moment.”― Maria Faustina Kowalska, Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska: Divine Mercy in My Soul

Apr 11

Fluidity of Being

“So let the world go, but hold fast to joy.”― May Sarton, Selected Poems

“There has been a yearning in me that I’m only just beginning to understand, a craving for transcendent experience, for depth, for meaning-making. It’s not just that the world needs to change – I need to change, too. I need to soften, to let go of the tight empirical boundaries, to find a greater fluidity in my being.”― Katherine May, Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age

Loosening of grip.
Fluidity of being.
Entering the flow.
Softening to unfolding.
Ordinary days
Extraordinary becoming.
Hold fast to joy.
Grace and peace.
Make way.

“Now I become myself. It’s taken time, many years and places.”― May Sarton

Apr 10

Small Distillations of Beauty

“Our sense of enchantment is not triggered only by grand things; the sublime is not hiding in distant landscapes. The awe-inspiring, the numinous, is all around us, all the time. It is transformed by our deliberate attention.” ― Katherine May, Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age

“But seeking is a kind of work. I don’t mean heading off on wild road trips just to see the stars that are shining above your own roof. I mean committing to a lifetime of engagement: to noticing the world around you, to actively looking for small distillations of beauty, to making time to contemplate and reflect. To learning the names of the plants and places that surround you, or training your mind in the rich pathways of the metaphorical. To finding a way to express your interconnectedness with the rest of humanity. To putting your feet on the ground, every now and then, and feeling the tingle of life that the earth offers in return. It’s all there, waiting for our attention. Take off your shoes, because you are always on holy ground.”― Katherine May, Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age

Play break, get out, hone in.
Seeking without expectations, outcomes, productivity, measurement.
Out of the external noise, grind, churn.
Into enchantment, borne of attention, exploration, noticing.
In this very place.
Holy ground.

“That’s what you find over and over again when you go looking: something else. An insight that surprises you. A connection that you would never have made. A new perspective.

More often than not, I find that I already hold all the ideas from which my enchantment is made. The deliberate pursuit of attention, ritual, or reflection does not mystically draw in anything external to me. Instead, it creates experiences that rearrange what I know to find the insights I need today. This is how symbolic thought works. It offers you a repository of understanding that can be triggered by the everyday, and which comes in a format that goes straight to the bloodstream.”― Katherine May, Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age

Apr 9

Roots to Shoots

“We can’t expect roots to ground us, magnificent birds to surround us…or flowers to bloom from our deeds- without first planting the seeds.”― Selin Senol-Akin, Earth Up Your Roots

“Nothing is more fertile than a beautiful mind—a garden where kindness grows, wisdom blooms, and hope takes root.”― Bhuwan Thapaliya

Seeds, roots, bloom.
Plant, tend, gaze.
Kindness, hope, joy.
Right where you are planted today.
Grounded and growing.
Gratitude and grace.
Keep casting seeds. love, light.

“Change your opinions, keep to your principles; change your leaves, keep intact your roots.”― Victor Hugo, Intellectual Autobiography

Apr 8

Breathing Resurrection Air

“Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.” ― Wendell Berry

“True restfulness, though, is a form of awareness, a way of being in life. It is living ordinary life with a sense of ease, gratitude, appreciation, peace and prayer. We are restful when ordinary life is enough.”― Ronald Rolheiser, The Shattered Lantern

We’re good at “lent”-ing, lamenting, foreboding.
Not short on reasons.
And yet.
Easter, spring, bloom arrive.
Never skipping their turn.
Renewal, refreshment, restoration.
Showing up.
Right in the middle of the mess.
Where it will always be.
Calling us to breath resurrection air.
To succumb to joy.
In our ordinary, imperfect, abundant, overflowing, limited days.
Fresh eyes, light heart, trusting soul required.
Make tracks, practice resurrection.

“The resurrection tells us it is never too late. Every so often we will be surprised. We must believe that the stone will be rolled back, and we must be ready to poke out our timid heads, take off the linen bindings of death, and walk free for a time, breathing resurrection air.”― Ronald Rolheiser, Prayer: Our Deepest Longing

Apr 7

Nose to the Joy Trail

“Keep your nose to the joy trail.” – Buffy Sainte-Marie

“Joy bursts in our lives when we go about doing the good at hand and not trying to manipulate things and times to achieve joy.” —C.S. Lewis

Ordinary moments.
Good toy.
Play and delight.
Connection.
Grace and gratitude.
Small things stacking.
Encouragement.
Soft breeze.
Quiet moments.
Laughter.
Color and fragrance.
Music.
Glimmers, beams, slivers.
Attention and awe.
Nose to the joy trail.
Gather and scatter.
Seed, bloom, burst.

“It is a kind of transcendence; joy is a glimmer of love and forgiveness and wholeness that lifts us out of reality for a moment and gives us back to ourselves, anew.” Kate Bowler, Joyful Anyway

Apr 6

A Little More String

“You will find truth more quickly through delight than gravity. Let out a little more string on your kite.” – Alan Cohen

“Let’s go fly a kite
Up to the highest height!
Let’s go fly a kite and send it soaring
Up through the atmosphere
Up where the air is clear
Oh, let’s go fly a kite!” – Song lyrics by David Tomlinson and Dick Van Dyke, Mary Poppins

Like Christmas, Easter is a season not a day, a mere occurrence
A way to live, love, be
A daily choice
To begin again
To hope, imagine, delight
Still tethered and held
And soaring with fresh joy.
Let out a little more string.

“The great gift of Easter is hope.” — Basil C. Hume

Apr 5

1 Comment

Gardener of Souls, Lilies Spring to New Life

And the Glory by Ann Weems
“The silence breaks into morning.
That One Star lights the world.
The lily springs to life and
not even Solomon …
Let it begin with singing
and never end!
Oh, angels, quit your lamenting!
Oh, pilgrims,
upon your knees in tearful prayer,
rise up
and take your hearts
and run!
We who were no people
are named anew
God’s eople,
for he who was no more
is forevermore.”

“To love means loving the unlovable. To forgive means pardoning the unpardonable. Faith means believing the unbelievable. Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless.”― G.K. Chesterton

Desert to garden.
Good Friday Cross to Sunday empty tomb.
The Gardener meets Mary, a woman, who walked all the way through.
Saved by love.
To this very day.
To receive and give.
With grace and joy.
To pass it on.
As it was given.
Unconditionally and overflowing.
Again and again.
Love prevails, carries through, on, forward.
Happy Easter.
Cast light.

“This is an invitation,
a choice,
a threshold, a gate.

This is your life
calling to you
from a place
you could never
have dreamed,
but now that you
have glimpsed its edge,
you cannot imagine
choosing any other way.

So let the tears come
as anointing,
as consecration,
and then
let them go.

Let this blessing
gather itself around you.

Let it give you
what you will need
for this journey.

You will not remember
the words—
they do not matter.

All you need to remember
is how it sounded
when you stood
in the place of death
and heard the living
call your name.”
—Jan Richardson, Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons

Apr 4

Grace. Love. Light

“As high over the mountains the eagle spreads its wings, may your perspective be larger than the view from the foothills. When the way is flat and dull in times of gray endurance, may your imagination continue to evoke horizons.” – John O’Donohue

“Grace doesn’t add up
it sits with betrayers,
washes the feet of backstabbers,
breaks bread with the disloyal,
and shares a cup with double-dealers.

Blessed are you when guarantees slip,
as love shows becomes costly,
asking for everything and promising nothing.

May you see beauty in this sacrifice,
love that begs us to keep loving,
even as hearts are broken.

Blessed are you, remembering,
when forgetting feels easier,
that in this undoing,
the world is being remade.” – Kate Bowler

Hope. Grace. Love.
Horizons. Tomorrow. Light.
Redemption. Resurrection. Easter.

“In vain we search the heavens high above, The God of love is kneeling at our feet. Though we betray him, though it is the night, He meets us here and loves us into light.”― Malcolm Guite, Sounding the Seasons

Apr 3

Radical Love

“Don’t forget: hold somebody’s hand through the dark.”― Joy Harjo, Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings: Poems

“Eat, drink, remember:
“Is it I?”
And on that darkest of days, each of us must stand
beneath the tree
and watch the dying
if we are to be there
when the stone is rolled away.
The only road to Easter morning
is through the unrelenting shadows of that Friday.
Only then will the alleluias be sung;
only then will the dancing begin.” – Ann Weems

Just another day.
For some.
For others.
Radical stunning love.
Still pouring out.
Whether we receive or not.
Relentless.

“Still
For Good Friday

This day
let all stand still
in silence,
in sorrow.

Sun and moon
be still.

Earth
be still.

Still
the waters.

Still
the wind.

Let the ground
gape in stunned
lamentation.

Let it weep
as it receives
what it thinks
it will not
give up.

Let it groan
as it gathers
the One
who was thought
forever stilled.

Time
be still.

Watch
and wait.

Still.”

—Jan Richardson, Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons

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