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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

Oct 30

Rooted and Reaching

“To be rooted is perhaps the most important and least recognized need of the human soul.”― Alister McGrath, Mere Apologetics: How to Help Seekers and Skeptics Find Faith

“Silent listening is a particular way of being active, not passive, in the world.” – Thomas Moore

Re-enchantment and delight.
Wide and deep.
Wonder, wander, awe
Engagement and immersion.
Root and reach.

“The human quest for beauty is thus really a quest for the source of that beauty, which is mediated through the things of this world, not contained within them.”― Alister McGrath, Mere Apologetics: How to Help Seekers and Skeptics Find Faith

Oct 29

To Touch the Sky

“Only from the heart can you touch the sky.” – Rumi

“Away, away, from men and towns,To the wild wood and the downs—
To the silent wilderness
Where the soul need not repress
Its music lest it should not find
An echo in another’s mind,
While the touch of Nature’s art
Harmonizes heart to heart.”
― Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Complete Poems

Glorious, luminous, brilliance
Pull over, look up
Wander without aim
For a bit, drift
Let peace in
Touch the sky

“The clouds don’t overthink; they just drift.”― Avijeet Das

Oct 28

Autumn Waving

“October, crisp, misty, golden October, when the light is sweet and heavy.”― Angela Carter, The Magic Toyshop

Grace by Wendell Berry

“The woods is shining this morning.
Red, gold and green, the leaves
lie on the ground, or fall,
or hang full of light in the air still.
Perfect in its rise and in its fall, it takes
the place it has been coming to forever.
It has not hastened here, or lagged.
See how surely it has sought itself,
its roots passing lordly through the earth.
See how without confusion it is
all that it is, and how flawless
its grace is. Running or walking, the way
is the same. Be still. Be still.
“He moves your bones, and the way is clear.”

Waves of fall colors linger
Holding out
A spell longer
Time and timing
Thresholds
A foot on each side
Lingering, abiding, tending
The work of this day, each day
Grace and gratitude
Harvesting presence.

“And autumn ain’t so shabby for wow, either. The colors are broccoli and flame and fox fur.” – Anne Lamott

 

Oct 27

Magnificent Blooming

“We need beauty because it makes us ache to be worthy of it.”― Mary Oliver

“Allow the beauty of creation to soak deep within our souls with eye candy such as mountain or lake or ocean or countryside or forest. It reminds us how small we are and how utterly magnificent God is, and that makes His love for us all the more breathtaking.”― Laura Thomas

Captured by beauty.
Held by grace.
Flowing with love.
May this be the path I take each day.

“I believe in the me God made and in the me God can make. I believe he made me on purpose and didn’t make any mistakes when it came to my creation. I believe he is doing a good work in me, and in you. And that though I am flawed, God is loving me and refining me and reminding me that God in me is where I can place my trust. And that is the place where I find my courage.”― Annie F. Downs, Let’s All Be Brave: Living Life with Everything You Have

Oct 26

Finishing, Not Finished

“The thing about finishing a story is that finishing is really only the beginning.”― William Herring

There are days when it feels like we are finished.
It’s over, gone.
Some things are, they had their season.
Make space for new things, fresh seasons, for new buds to bloom.
Glancing back we see the path of finishing, becoming.
Change past tense to active present to witness and partake in the unfolding and finishing

“May you have the courage to begin; the patience to persist; and the strength to finish.”― Michael Bassey Johnson

Oct 25

Faith, Trust, with a Side of Pixie Dust

“All the world is made of faith, and trust, and pixie dust.”― J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”― Theodore Roosevelt

Many start lines.
Running and life.
5 marathons, first one at 39 years old.
(Never too late to start.)
Dozens of half marathons and 10-milers.
Rarely taking one for granted or with disregard borne of familiarity.
Each day can take a twist or turn.

The next half marathon in a few hours has a different “twist”
On October 1, I broke my wrist
Surgery to “untwist”, put in a plate.
Cast off, stitches out last week.
Temporary cast for 6 more weeks.

Today, I am not sure what will happen.
Other that that I am showing up and starting.
One step at a time, prayer too.
In the arena, daring the best I can.
With faith, trust, side of pixie dust.
Keep swinging, stay in the game.

“It’s the job that’s never started as takes longest to finish.”― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

Oct 24

Long Smiles and Hammocks

“Breathe Deep – Smile Long.”― Anthony T. Hincks

“Sit now very quietly in some lovely wild place, and listen to the silence. And I say that this, too, is a poem.” – Mary Oliver

Long smiles
Deep breath
Extended exhale
In the slowing
Respite
In play
Restoration
In the silence
Poetry

“Just breathing can be such a luxury sometimes.”― Walter Kirn, Up in the Air

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