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Jul 21

Simple Shifts, New Roads

“Simple shifts in points of view can open doors to expansions of consciousness as easily as rigid dispositions can close hearts and minds to such elevated awareness. It generally depends on whether you allow fear and violence to rule your actions or whether you give wisdom, courage, and compassion the authority to do so.”― Aberjhani, Splendid Literarium

“So few people are really aware of their thoughts. Their minds run all over the place without their permission, and they go along for the ride unknowingly and without making a choice.”― Thomas M. Sterner, The Practicing Mind

A new path
A pause to observe, to inquire, to allow
Gentle welcome
Tender response
Agency, authority, capacity
To shift thoughts, direct energy, elevate awareness
Replenish and restore
Release and renew
Kindness and grace
Give and receive.

“No one can do more good for you than your well-directed mind.” – Buddha

Jul 20

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Open as the Sky

“Peace comes when our hearts are
open like the sky,
vast as the ocean.”
― Jack Kornfield

“With an undefended heart, we can fall in love with life over and over every day. We can become children of wonder, grateful to be walking on earth, grateful to belong with each other and to all of creation. We can find our true refuge in every moment, in every breath.” – Tara Brach

In the pause
In ordinary moments
In the hustle and hurry
Deep breath, open heart, light spirit
Wonder, gratitude, delight
May you find peace
May peace find you
The dance.

“The art of living is neither careless drifting on the one hand or fearful clinging to the past on the other. It consist in being completely sensitive to each moment, in regarding it as utterly new and unique, in having the mind open and wholly receptive.” – Allan Watts

Jul 19

Pocketsized Joy

“Happiness compresses time, makes it dense and bright, pocketsized.”― Ann Patchett

“Never be so focused on what you’re looking for that you overlook the thing you actually find.”― Ann Patchett, State of Wonder

Love well today.
People, place, self.
Thoughts, words, actions.
Beauty, awe, wonder.
Scattered in abundance.
Fresh eyes, open heart, light spirit.
Moments spill into days into years.
Compress time.
Be present.
Love well today.

“You will find as you look back upon your life that the moments when you have truly lived are the moments when you have done things in the spirit of love.”― Henry Drummond

Jul 18

Gracefully Flowing

“May what I do flow from me like a river, no forcing and no holding back, the way it is with children.”― Rainer Maria Rilke

“Many different strands of your past experience begin to weave together until gradually the new direction announces itself. Its voice is sure with the inevitability of the truth. When your life-decisions emerge in this way from the matrix of your experience, they warrant your trust and commitment. When you can choose in this way, you move gracefully within the deeper rhythm of your soul. The geography of your destiny is always clearer to the eye of your soul than to the intentions and needs of your surface mind.” – John O’Donohue, Eternal Echoes

Deep waters.
Flowing with ease.
No forcing.
Nor turning back.
Rhythm of your soul.
Enter the waters.
Already in.

“Faith does not need to push the river because faith is able to trust that there is a river. The river is flowing. We are in it.”― Richard Rohr

 

Jul 17

Expectancy in Daily Delights

“Attention is vitality. It connects you with others. It makes you eager. Stay eager.”― Susan Sontag

“The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.” — Michelangelo

Expectancy
Not expectations
A shift from defining, demanding, control, our way
Expectancy is a way of being, an approach
Wrapped in yielding, inviting, allowing, opening, mystery, unknowing
Widening the lens
Broadening the view
Possibilities, anticipation, hope,
Enthusiasm and joy
Woven in ordinary days, simple delights
Walk lighter
Play more
Cast light.

“Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.” – Samuel Ullman

 

Jul 16

Follow the Arrows

 

“This is love: to fly toward a secret sky, to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment. First to let go of life. Finally, to take a step without feet.”― Rumi

“The breezes at dawn have secrets to tell you
Don’t go back to sleep!
You must ask for what you really want.
Don’t go back to sleep!
People are going back and forth
across the doorsill where the two worlds touch,
The door is round and open
Don’t go back to sleep!”― Rumi

Steep and slow
Look up and around
Pause and listen
Perpetual blooming
Unfurling beauty
Signs and signals
Follow the arrows
Compass within.

“Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.”― Rumi

Jul 15

Take the Long Cut

“Pay attention to the beauty surrounding you. – Anne Lamott

“When hope is not pinned wriggling onto a shiny image or expectation, it sometimes floats forth and opens.” – A Anne Lamott

Inches and hours
Anticipation and invitation
Attention and reverence
Take the long cut
Go off trail too.

“Nothing can be done but by inches. I write out my life hour by hour, word by word . . . imagining the existence of something uncreated this poem our lives.”― Adrienne Rich, Diving Into the Wreck

Jul 14

Sunshine Swimming

“When you regain a sense of your life as a journey of discovery, you return to rhythm with yourself. When you take the time to travel with reverence, a richer life unfolds before you. Moments of beauty begin to braid your days.”― John O’Donohue, Divine Beauty: The Invisible Embrace

“Awaken to the mystery of being here and enter the quiet immensity of your own presence.
Have joy and peace in the temple of your senses.
Receive encouragement when new frontiers beckon.
Respond to the call of your gift and the courage to follow its path.
Let the flame of anger free you of all falsity.
May warmth of heart keep your presence aflame.
May anxiety never linger about you.
May your outer dignity mirror an inner dignity of soul.
Take time to celebrate the quiet miracles that seek no attention.
Be consoled in the secret symmetry of your soul.
May you experience each day as a sacred gift woven around the heart of wonder.” – John O’Donohue

May beauty braid your day.
Wonder wander in, take your hand, come follow me.
Awe rise inviting reverence in.
Open hands, soft heart, quiet mind.

“When we approach with reverence, great things decide to approach us. Our real life comes to the surface and its light awakens the concealed beauty in things. When we walk on the earth with reverence, beauty will decide to trust us. The rushed heart and arrogant mind lack the gentleness and patience to enter that embrace.”― John O’Donohue, Beauty: A Study of Beauty in Celtic Spirituality and the Human Spirit

Jul 13

Endless Proper Work

“The beauty and mystery of this world only emerges through affection, attention, interest and compassion . . . open your eyes wide and actually see this world by attending to its colors, details and irony.”― Orhan Pamuk, My Name Is Red

“Attention is vitality. It connects you with others. It makes you eager. Stay eager.”― Susan Sontag

It’s Monday.
Stay here.
Not skipping to Friday.
To tasks.
To busy.
To rushing.
To the next thing.
Bypassing this thing, this day.
Abide and invite.
Be present and participate.
Inquire and listen.
There’s more.
So much more.
Right here.
Right now.
Endless and proper work.

“To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.”― Mary Oliver

Jul 12

Begin, Repeat, Delight

“One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began” – Mary Oliver

“Hello, sun in my face. Hello you who made the morning and spread it over the fields…Watch, now, how I start the day in happiness, in kindness.”― Mary Oliver

Good morning sunshine
Begin
And keep beginning
Again and again
New paths
Travel lightly
Grounded on grace
Sunrise to sunset
Abundance and awe.

“Sometimes I need
only to stand
wherever I am
to be blessed.”― Mary Oliver, Evidence: Poems

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