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Feb 12

Spell Against Stagnation

“May you be present in what you do.
May you never become lost in the bland absences.
May the day never burden you.
May dawn find you awake and alert, approaching your new day with dreams.” – John O’Donohue

“To begin anything — a new practice, a new project, a new love — is to cast upon yourself a spell against stagnation. Beginnings are notation for the symphony of the possible in us. They ask us to break the pattern of our lives and reconfigure it afresh — something that can only be done with great courage and great tenderness, for no territory of life exposes both our power and our vulnerability more brightly than a beginning.” – Maria Popova

New beginnings.
Small and big.
In between.
A step at a time.
Momentum and fidelity.
To not succumb to bland absences and stagnation.
Leap, jump, dance.
Pour some color on this day.
Cast light.

“Sometimes the greatest challenge is to actually begin; there is something deep in us that conspires with what wants to remain within safe boundaries and stay the same… Sometimes a period of preparation is necessary, where the idea of the beginning can gestate and refine itself; yet quite often we unnecessarily postpone and equivocate when we should simply take the risk and leap into a new beginning.” – John O’Donohue

Feb 11

The Pause…to Peace

“Practice the pause. Pause before judging. Pause before assuming. Pause before accusing. Pause whenever you’re about to react harshly and you’ll avoid doing and saying things you’ll later regret.”― Lori Deschene

“Regardless of our circumstances, we always have a choice. We can choose more of the same; or we can recognize this moment is different and that we can be different, too.”― Lori Deschene, Tiny Wisdom: On Mindfulness

Turn off autopilot
Disrupt habit
Resist busy
Interrupt spiraling
Ground in gratitude
Wait in wonder
Rest in stillness
Pause, peace, presence.

“If we can observe and understand how our thoughts are impacting us, we can change who we’re being and how we’re experiencing the world.”― Lori Deschene, Tiny Wisdom: On Mindfulness

Feb 10

Voice Under Silence

“Love is the voice under all silences, the hope which has no opposite in fear; the strength so strong mere force is feebleness: the truth more first than sun, more last than star…”― e.e cummings

“may my heart always be open to little
birds who are the secrets of living
whatever they sing is better than to know
and if men should not hear them men are old

may my mind stroll about hungry
and fearless and thirsty and supple
and even if it’s sunday may i be wrong
for whenever men are right they are not young

and may myself do nothing usefully
and love yourself so more than truly
there’s never been quite such a fool who could fail
pulling all the sky over him with one smile”
― e.e. Cummings, E.E. Cummings: Complete Poems 1904-1962

May you greet this day
With anticipation, delight, curiosity
A shift, a tilt, a deep breath
In an instant
The world is made new
By the renewing of your mind, heart, soul.
Fresh eyes, fresh day.

“We can never be born enough.”― E. E. Cummings

Feb 9

Surrender to Air

“If you surrendered to the air, you could ride it.”― Toni Morrison

“For things to reveal themselves to us, we need to be ready to abandon our views about them.”― Thich Nhat Hanh, Being Peace

Freedom in not thinking I have all the answers
Of releasing the need to control what is not mine
Of picking up what is mine to carry
Of inquiry, wonder, reverence, imagination.

“The beginning is always today.”― Mary Wollstonecraft

Feb 8

Planting Peace

“If we are peaceful, if we are happy, we can smile and blossom like a flower, and everyone in our family, our entire society, will benefit from our peace.”― Thich Nhat Hanh, Being Peace

“There is peace even in the storm.”— Vincent van Gogh

Drops to waves
Seeds to bloom
Calm to peace
Kindness, generosity, encouragement, a smile
Transform the world
One small act at a time
Compound interest
Cast light.

“Calming, Smiling. Present moment, Wonderful moment”― Thich Nhat Hanh, Being Peace

Feb 7

The Hard and Only Way

“Love is or it ain’t. Thin love ain’t love at all.”― Toni Morrison, Beloved

“Anger … it’s a paralyzing emotion … you can’t get anything done. People sort of think it’s an interesting, passionate, and igniting feeling — I don’t think it’s any of that — it’s helpless … it’s absence of control — and I need all of my skills, all of the control, all of my powers … and anger doesn’t provide any of that — I have no use for it whatsoever.”― Toni Morrison

To thick, dense, gritty, tough, resilient, scrappy, unflinching, deep love
To overcome
To rise again and again
To keep moving
To not get distracted, delayed, distraught
Jumping, leaping, building, creating, compounding, strengthening, bold and bright
Hope, light, love
The real kind that doesn’t waiver or wane, keeps swinging
Cast light.

“Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.”― Maya Angelou

Feb 6

Soft Days

“Be still. Stillness reveals the secrets of eternity”― Lao Tzu

“Soft days are not wasted days. They are how you remember your breath. Your worth was never tied to your pace.”― Ajmal, The Border of a Mind

Space, margin, blank canvas
Slow pace, no pace
Stillness to clarity, discovery
Rest spilling into restoration
Soft days, creative womb.

“Space and silence are two aspects of the same thing. The same no-thing. They are externalization of inner space and inner silence, which is stillness: the infinitely creative womb of all existence.”― Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment

Feb 5

Walking Out Love

“For it is from love that we are born. And to love that we must return. This is the journey of the soul we call Life.”― Michael J. Tamura, You Are the Answer

a blessing for everyday empathy (because, hey, SENSITIVITY ISN’T A BAD THING) by Kate Bowler

“Blessed are you, the sensitive one,
attuned to the feelings of others.
You couldn’t turn it off if you tried.

Blessed are you with the
emotional bandwidth to hear hard things,
without fixing or minimizing or deflecting,
You know the gift of presence.

Blessed are you who
chooses to show up without judgment
with little gifts or small acts of practical help.
You know the gift of compassion.

Blessed are you, too,
when you are utterly exhausted by
other people’s problems.
(And actually now that we’re talking about it
it’s getting even more annoying.)
Your empathy is a precious gift
that deserves to be protected too.

Today, help me stand ready to hear
those divine whispers nudging me
to give compassion away.
Naturally. Freely.

And help me find those who,
to my surprise, want to pour back into me.
(Which, fine, you know I hate receiving.)

Love given and received,
without shame or embarrassment.
Because what else can a big-hearted person”
do but learn to give and get?”

Be kind
Love well
Cast light.

“Look at how a single candle can both defy and define the darkness.”― Anne Frank

Feb 4

Opened to Air, Carrying Love

“Likewise, every disturbance, whether resolved or not, is making space for an inner engagement. As a shovel digs up and displaces earth, in a way that must seem violent to the earth, an interior space is revealed for the digging. In just this way, when experience opens us, it often feels violent and the urge, quite naturally, is to refill that opening, to make it the way it was. But every experience excavates a depth, which reveals its wisdom once opened to air.”― Mark Nepo, Seven Thousand Ways to Listen: Staying Close to What Is Sacred

“Hope is the hardest love we carry.”― Jane Hirshfield, The Lives of the Heart

Beneath the surface
Above the noise
Beyond the chaos
Quiet and calm
Soft whisper
Invitation
Pause, abide, engage
Breaking ground
Open to air
Carrying hope, light, love.

“I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.”― Thomas Paine

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

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