Mar 10
“The universe is transformation: life is opinion.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature, is a help. Gardening is an instrument of grace.” – May Sarton
Tilling soil
Planting seeds
Wait and weight
Time and timing
Anticipating and abiding
The work of seasons
Transitions
Transformation
Spring.
“In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.” – Margaret Atwood
“Everything in life has a pattern and a coincidence is simply the moment when the pattern becomes briefly visible.”― Anthony Horowitz, Moonflower Murders
“Pay attention to the world around you. Stories are hiding, waiting everywhere. You just have to open your eyes and your heart.” – Kate DiCamillo
Comma, Period.
Hard stop.
Look up.
Steep in beauty.
Pause in wonder.
Anchor to the sky.
Root in awe.
Peace. Light. Love.
“the birds … own nothing–the reason they can fly”― Mary Oliver, Felicity
“We sat in silence, letting the green in the air heal what it could.”― Erica Bauermeister, The Scent Keeper
“May you be capable of absurd joy,
ridiculous love,
audacious risk,
and even fear,
as your heart stretches to hold
this gloriously messy yes…and today.” – Kate Bowler
Melting into spring.
Slow and bumpy.
Sunday well.
Time out and off.
Hard stop.
Sit. Stay.
Up. Out.
Wander and wonder.
Absurd joy.
Love woven through it all.
Fresh meaning.
“Bless the poets, the workers for justice,
the dancers of ceremony, the singers of heartache,
the visionaries, all makers and carriers of fresh
meaning—We will all make it through,
despite politics and wars, despite failures
and misunderstandings. There is only love.”
― Joy Harjo, Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings: Poems
Mar 7
“…
May I live this day
Compassionate of heart,
Clear in word,
Gracious in awareness,
Courageous in thought,
Generous in love.”― John O’Donohue, Benedictus: A Book of Blessings
“I am making a home inside myself. A shelter
of kindness where everything
is forgiven, everything allowed—a quiet patch
of sunlight to stretch out without hurry,
where all that has been banished
and buried is welcomed, spoken, listened to—released.
A fiercely friendly place I can claim as my very own.
I am throwing arms open
to the whole of myself—especially the fearful,
fault-finding, falling apart, unfinished parts, knowing
every seed and weed, every drop
of rain, has made the soil richer.
I will light a candle, pour a hot cup of tea, gather
around the warmth of my own blazing fire. I will howl
if I want to, knowing this flame can burn through
any perceived problem, any prescribed perfectionism,
any lying limitation, every heavy thing.
I am making a home inside myself
where grace blooms in grand and glorious
abundance, a shelter of kindness that grows
all the truest things.
I whisper hallelujah to the friendly
sky. Watch now as I burst into blossom.” – Julia Fehrenbacher
Grace, grief, gratitude.
All at once.
In memories, in this moment
To be present.
To yield to joy.
To be at home.
On the ground of this day.
Abby and Sasha sitting by Mom’s chair.
Three years gone, yet everpresent in each day.
Grace, grief, gratitude.
“I do not at all understand the mystery of grace – only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us.” – Anne Lamott
“No one can build you the bridge on which you, and only you, must cross the river of life. There may be countless trails and bridges and demigods who would gladly carry you across; but only at the price of pawning and forgoing yourself. There is one path in the world that none can walk but you. Where does it lead? Don’t ask, walk!” – Friedrich Nietzsche
“My path is made of poetry and music, characterized by rowdiness and sunflowers, and given life by everyone I have met along the way in this process of becoming human. (When I say “everyone,” I don’t mean just us ornery two-legged beings.)”― Joy Harjo, Catching the Light
Keep walking
Crossing
Stay awake
Succumb to delight
Divine in the mundane
Extraordinary in the ordinary
Gratitude. Grace. Goodness.
Woven in this day.
“Who can open the door who does not reach for the latch?
Who can travel the miles who does not put one foot in front of the other, all attentive to what presents itself continually?”― Mary Oliver, New and Selected Poems, Vol. 2
“to know what you’re going to draw, you have to begin drawing” – Picasso
“Stepping out of a normal routine, finding novelty, being open to serendipity, enjoying the unexpected, embracing a little risk, and finding pleasure in the heightened vividness of life. These are all qualities of a state of play.”― Stuart Brown, Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul
Recess required everyday
Time out and away
Laughter and delight
Play, stir the drink
Feed the soul
Song. Dance. Serendipity.
Make life lively.
“and engage fully with the world… Life without play is a grinding, mechanical existence organized around doing the things necessary for survival. Play is the stick that stirs the drink. It is the basis of all art, games, books, sports, movies, fashion, fun, and wonder—in short, the basis of what we think of as civilization. Play is the vital essence of life. It is what makes life lively.”― Stuart Brown, Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul
Mar 4
“Kiss the joy as it flies.” – William Blake
“Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won’t come in.”― Alan Alda
A slight adjustment
Break in routine
Intentional interruption
Play hooky
No grand gestures, perfect circumstances
Putting aside “should” and “someday when”
Releasing false sense of control and order
No fixing, just allowing, inviting
Get out of your head, to do list, expectations, demands
Into play, wandering, inquiry, blank canvas
To immerse self into this day, each day
Slivers of 10 minutes scattered throughout will do
On the hunt for beauty, delight, wonder
Opening the door, cross the threshold into awe
Clean and clear windows into the world to see the same anew
Let surprise, serendipity, light in
Kiss joy, embrace presence, sit a while.
“To insist on a certain outcome–one outcome–is to deny yourself the surprise experiences life was going to give you–the things you didn’t know you wanted until they came knocking and you were daring enough to let them in. By tying yourself to an ending, you’re making arrangements to be miserable if you don’t get exactly what you want. Or worse, you get exactly what you want and it doesn’t make you as supremely happy as you thought it was going to.”― Samara O’Shea
“March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.” – Charles Dickens
“Within the grip of winter, it is almost impossible to imagine the spring. The gray perished landscape is shorn of color. Only bleakness meets the eye; everything seems severe and edged. Winter is the oldest season; it has some quality of the absolute. Yet beneath the surface of winter, the miracle of spring is already in preparation; the cold is relenting; seeds are wakening up. Colors are beginning to imagine how they will return. Then, imperceptibly, somewhere one bug opens and the symphony of renewal is no longer reversible. From the black heart of winter a miraculous, breathing plenitude of color emerges.
The beauty of nature insists on taking its time. Everything is prepared. Nothing is rushed. The rhythm of emergence is a gradual slow beat always inching its way forward; change remains faithful to itself until the new unfolds in the full confidence of true arrival. Because nothing is abrupt, the beginning of spring nearly always catches us unawares. It is there before we see it; and then we can look nowhere without seeing it.”― John O’Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings
Slow softening of ground
Seeds opening beneath
Snow turning to steady streams
Warm sun, crisp cool air lingers
Mud, earth opening up for business
Of bloom, renewal, awakening
Join the slow waltz into spring.
Attune. Open. Awake.
“Keep everything open and live from openness to openness.”― Francis Lucille, The Perfume of Silence
“As the seasons shift, remember that just as winter surrenders to spring, so too can your heart transform in time.”― An Marke
“We live in cycles. Cycles, how simple is that? It’s just like the tug and pull of the tides, the inhale and exhale of the wind, the ease of the trees letting loose their leaves, knowing full well they’ll regrow next spring.”― Kassandra Dick
Summer brisk then light shortens
Fall colors blaze in harvest abundance
Giving way to wintering, rest if we allow
The place where spring prepares, plans, plots
To burst and break out in brilliant color, fragrance, confetti
Seasons, cycles, rhythms
The poetry of ordinary days, thresholds to cross, and transformation unfolding.
Join the dance of bloom and fresh hope.
“As the seasons change, so do the rhythms of our lives; may we learn to flow with grace through every cycle.”― An Marke
“Wherever you are, be all there.” – Jim Elliot
“Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.”― C.S. Lewis
No map.
No list.
No destination.
But to be fully present.
Rapt attention.
Wander and wonder.
Imagination and anticipation.
The journey unfolding as you step into it.
To be here and awake.
Walk it out.
All of it.
“There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.”― C.S. Lewis
