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Feb 3

In Such a Moment

“When your world moves too fast
and you lose yourself in the chaos
introduce yourself to each color of the sunset,
reacquaint yourself with the earth beneath your feet,
thank the air that surrounds you
with every breath you take
find yourself in the appreciation of life.”– Christy Ann Martine

“One breath taken completely; one poem, fully written, fully read – in such a moment, anything can happen.”― Jane Hirshfield, Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry

Abiding in gratitude
Perfection not required
Steeping in grace
Unearned and generous
Dancing with joy
In the middle of winter
Waiting with anticipation
Spring in the making

“One breath taken completely; one poem, fully written, fully read – in such a moment, anything can happen.”― Jane Hirshfield, Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry

Feb 2

Ask, Listen, Pay Attention

“Zen pretty much comes down to three things — everything changes; everything is connected; pay attention.”― Jane Hirshfield

“There are years that ask questions and years that answer.” – Zora Neale Hurston

Living the answers with grace and gratitude
Allowing more questions without knowing the answers
In thin spaces, quiet places, gentle throughways
Releasing the grip of control and knowing
Inviting and allowing
Sacred, holy ground of
Curiosity, inquiry, nuance, noticing, imagination, connection, laughter, gratitude, joy
Rooted in trust, fidelity, love
Different seasons
Each with its own gifts to bear
Opening the gifts
Of presence, awe, wonder, planting, abiding, slowing, savoring
No rushing to get to the other side, in a hurry or to be first
Alignment, attunement, rooting, rising
The work of eternal blooming.

“The most sublime act is to set another before you.”― William Blake, Proverbs of Hell

Feb 1

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Fresh Coat, New Day

“He who kisses joy as it flies by will live in eternity’s sunrise.”― William Blake

APACHE Blessing

“May the sun bring you new energy by day,
May the moon softly restore you by night,
May the rain wash away your worries,
May the breeze blow new strength into your being,
May you walk gently through the world and know its beauty all the days of your life.

Scratch the surface of her joy,
And you will find a well of sorrow.
Dive into the well,
And discover her spring of hope.
Follow that spring to the river of her strength,
Compassion, and faith . . .
And you will have touched her soul.” – Terri St Cloud

Fresh coat of snow this morning
Brightening and refreshing the landscape
New day, new month, new start
Brilliant white, bold colors
Wakeup call
Invitation to seeing the same in different ways
Beneath the surface
Into a wellspring
Make space for joy today.

“And we are put on this earth a little space that we might learn to bear the beams of love.”― William Blake

Jan 31

Opening Doors, Crossing Thresholds

“The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity… and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself.”― William Blake

“There is a kindness that dwells deep down in things; it presides everywhere, often in the places we least expect. The world can be harsh and negative, but if we remain generous and patient, kindness inevitably reveals itself. Something deep in the human soul seems to depend on the presence of kindness; something instinctive in us expects it, and once we sense it we are able to trust and open ourselves.” – John O’Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us

Releasing. Putting down. Untangling.
The weight of opinion.
The ties of judgment.
The gravity of assumption.
The certainty of knowing.
Into unknowing.
Lightness of being.
Generosity of spirit.
Asking. Listening. Witnessing.
Curiosity. Proximity. Complexity.
Kindness. Beauty. Grace.
Opening doors, crossing thresholds.

“In the universe, there are things that are known, and things that are unknown, and in between, there are doors.”― William Blake

Jan 30

Add Joy with a Side of Hope

“If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy,
If a blade of grass springing up in the fields has the power to move you,
If the simple things of nature have a message that you understand,
Rejoice, for your soul is alive.” – Eleonora Duse

“I Am
I Know not whence I came,
I know not whither I go;
But the fact stands clear that I am here
In this world of pleasure and woe.
And out of the mist and murk
Another truth shines plain –
It is my power each day and hour
To add to its joy or its pain.” – Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Time out, away
Pause, pullover
Look up, around
Restore, refill
From grinding to grounding
Myopia to horizon
Chaos to calm
Hope, joy, laughter
Woven through each day
Teaspoons, cups, buckets
If we choose to pay attention
Enter the dance
Carrying and casting light.

“if you see for yourself, hear for yourself, and enter deeply enough this seeing and hearing, all things will speak with and through you.”― Jane Hirshfield, The Heart of Haiku

Jan 29

Bewilderment and Beauty

“Holy unanticipated occurrences!”― Kate DiCamillo, Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures

“Life is easy to chronicle, but bewildering to practice.”― E.M. Forster, A Room With A View

Detachment and distancing
Emergence and embrace
Deepening and weaving
Leaning in and leaning back
Grief and grace
Color and hue
Gratitude and gravity
Reverence and awe
Metaphor and paradox
Dance of poetry
Beauty in motion.

“Poetry might be defined as the clear expression of mixed feelings.”― W.H. Auden, New Year Letter

Jan 28

Dappled with Light and Love

“A garden to walk in and immensity to dream in–what more could he ask? A few flowers at his feet and above him the stars.”― Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

“Like most hearts, it was complicated, shaded with dark and dappled with light.”― Kate DiCamillo

Love
Not the surface greeting card stuff
The kind that sticks and stays
That accompanies and sits quietly in grief
That leaps with joy in the wins
And all of the ordinary days in between
Tough, resilient, soft, kind
Sees humanity in others
That does not diminish in disagreement
Nor demand agreement
No lectures, shame, othering, pontificating, I told you so, I was right
Found in small acts
Yielding
Conversation and connection
May you find this kind of love today
And offer it first without condition
Be a helper, a door opener, a homecoming
Cast light, love well

“Do you know what hurts so very much? It’s love. Love is the strongest force in the world, and when it is blocked that means pain. There are two things we can do when this happens. We can kill that love so that it stops hurting. But then of course part of us dies, too. Or we can ask God to open up another route for that love to travel.”― Corrie Ten Boom, The Hiding Place: The Triumphant True Story of Corrie Ten Boom

Jan 27

Poetry in Flowers

“I must have flowers, always, and always.”― Claude Monet

“Nobody sees a flower – really – it is so small it takes time – we haven’t time – and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time.”― Georgia O’Keeffe, Georgia O’Keeffe

Make time
A sliver, a slice
For beauty
Noticing
Attention
Awe
Wonder
Light
Color
Joy
Poetry in flowers
In the pause, peace rises
Spilling into the day.

“In joy or sadness, flowers are our constant friends.”― Okakura Kakuzo, The Book of Tea

Jan 26

Part the Veil

“Be the lighthouse in the ocean.”― Delphanie Frank

“Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.”
– Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi (Prayer for Peace)

In rupture, seeds of repair.
In grief, roots of love.
In hope, the path forward.
Be kind.
Be present.
Be help.
Be the lighthouse.
Peace. Hope. Love.
Cast light.

“My continuing passion is to part a curtain, that invisible veil of indifference that falls between us and that blinds us to each other’s presence, each other’s wonder, each other’s human plight.”― Eudora Welty

Jan 25

The Cliff

“Be like the cliff against which the waves continually break; but it stands firm and tames the fury of the water around it.”― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“Long before morning I knew that what I was seeking to discover was a thing I’d always known. That all courage was a form of constancy. That it is always himself that the coward abandoned first. After this all other betrayals come easily.”― Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses

Steadfast
Constancy
Fidelity
Care
Calm
Courage
Right action
Rooted in love
Walked out in peace.

“How will the world change if we do not question it?”― Kate DiCamillo, The Magician’s Elephant

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