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Jul 31

Loving Us into Light

“In vain we search the heavens high above, The God of love is kneeling at our feet. Though we betray him, though it is the night, He meets us here and loves us into light.”― Malcolm Guite, Sounding the Seasons

“I have often noticed how interesting footpaths and bridleways start just beyond the brambles at the end of tarmacked roads marked ‘dead end’. And it seems to me that this is very often where prayer starts too.”― Malcolm Guite, The Word in the Wilderness

In, on, through the journey
Detours, delays, distractions
Arrivals, departures, middles
In the busy, rushing, performing
Vain searching, disappointments, celebrations
Kneeling at our feet
Always there. always
Loving us into light.

“Our God beyond, beside us, and within.”― Malcolm Guite, Sounding the Seasons

Jul 30

Brimming and Blooming

“The poetry of the earth is never dead.”― John Keats

“Earth’s crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
But only he who sees, takes off his shoes—The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries,” – Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Alive and brimming
Blooming and breathing
Afire and abundance
Not in the hurrying or hankering
But in full presence, steeping, reverence
Poetry, prose, song, dance, delight, beauty
Woven in this day
To seek, find, offer, receive
Crammed with heaven
Take off your shoes.

“Life is not hurrying on to a receding future, nor hankering after an imagined past. It is the turning aside like Moses to the miracle of the lit bush, to a brightness that seemed as transitory as your youth once, but is the eternity that awaits you.” – R.S. Thomas

Jul 29

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Dew of Little Things

“I want a brighter word than bright”― John Keats

“In the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.” – Kahlil Gibran

Refreshment of morning
Cast onto all things
Renewal, restoration, reclamation
Rejoicing rising from lament
Transformed and transfigured
In the dew of little things
Words brighter than bright
Fertile fields abloom
Glory ablaze.

“So I have taken up the tale
to tell it full and free.
The tale that makes the heart rejoice,
I tell it, for I have no choice—
I tell it till another voice
takes up the tale from me.”
― Malcolm Guite, Galahad and the Grail

Jul 28

Best Portion, Daily Tending

“the best portion of a good person’s life is ‘the little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and love.”― Allen Levi, Theo of Golden

“To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life.”― Robert Louis Stevenson, Familiar Studies of Men and Books

Participate in this day
Tending, steeping, rooting
See the brilliance, abundance, delight
Woven in moments
Through simple acts
Attention
Kindness
Laughter
Noticing and embracing
What is already here
Tender and gentle
In the unfolding and becoming
Bloom under construction
Seed, bud, burst
One petal at a time.

“simply help people sit still long enough to see what is already there.”― Allen Levi, Theo of Golden

Jul 27

Casting Seeds, Blooming Joy

“The best things are nearest: breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of God just before you. Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life’s plain common work as it comes certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things of life.”― Robert Louis Stevenson

“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.”― Robert Louis Stevenson

Daily duties.
Delight.
Kindness.
Laughter.
Beauty.
Enthusiasm.
Encouragement.
Listening.
Curiosity.
Harvest only comes from planting seeds.
Tending, watering, waiting.
Joy on the path.
Cast seeds, light too.

“There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy. By being happy, we sow anonymous benefits upon the world.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

Jul 26

Pause. Praise. Partake.

“If we allow ourselves to stay amazed and astounded at the vibrant instants of every day… we can uncover unsuspected sparkling gems hidden in the nooks and crannies of our mind.” — Erik Pevernagie

“Life is a sea of vibrant color. Jump in.”― A.D. Posey

Rejoice in the glory of this day.
Look up and around.
Open arms.
Tender heart.
In the pause, noticing.
In the praise, expansion.
In the partaking, restoration.
Sea of color.
Dive in.
Stay amazed.

“Mere color, unspoiled by meaning, and unallied with definite form, can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways. ”― Oscar Wilde

Jul 25

Absorb the Wonder

“Sabbath is the time set aside to do nothing so that we can receive everything, to set aside our anxious attempts to make ourselves useful, to set aside our tense restlessness, to set aside our media-satiated boredom. Sabbath is the time to receive silence and let it deepen into gratitude, to receive quiet into which forgotten faces and voices unobtrusively make themselves present, to receive the days of the just completed week and absorb the wonder and miracle still reverberating from each one, to receive our Lord’s amazing grace.”― Eugene H. Peterson, Tell It Slant: A Conversation on the Language of Jesus in His Stories and Prayers

“I do believe it is possible to create, even without ever writing a word or painting a picture, by simply molding one’s inner life. And that too is a deed.”― Etty Hillesum

Unplug
Shut down
Reboot
Sit in and with silence
Breathe in beauty
Soak up calm
Steep for flavor
Salt and light.

“Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.”― Anne Lamott

Jul 24

Slowly Born, Tending Peace

“To live is to be slowly born.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery

“Ultimately, we have just one moral duty: to reclaim large areas of peace in ourselves, more and more peace, and to reflect it toward others. And the more peace there is in us, the more peace there will also be in our troubled world.”― Etty Hillesum

Slowly born.
Each new day.
Intentions. Action. Inaction.
Observation and participation.
Deep breath.
Resting in pause.
Tending peace.

“Sometimes the most important thing in a whole day is the rest we take between two deep breaths, or the turning inwards in prayer for five short minutes.”― Etty Hillesum

Jul 23

Quiet Mystery Calling

“An awe so quiet I don’t know when it began.
A gratitude had begun to sing in me.
Was there some moment dividing song from no song?
When does dewfall begin?
When does night fold its arms over our hearts to cherish them?
When is daybreak?”― Denise Levertov

“Days pass when I forget the mystery.
Problems insoluble and problems offering
their own ignored solutions
jostle for my attention, they crowd its antechamber
along with a host of diversions, my courtiers, wearing
their colored clothes; caps and bells.
And then
once more the quiet mystery
is present to me, the throng’s clamor
recedes: the mystery
that there is anything, anything at all,
let alone cosmos, joy, memory, everything,
rather than void: and that, 0 Lord,
Creator, Hallowed one, You still,
hour by hour sustain it.”
― Denise Levertov, Sands of the Well

Gratitude
Not built on platitude
Sewn on pillows
Signs hung on walls
Deeper, wider, dense
Resilient, transcendent, grace
Woven in ordinary, trust, delight
In the letting go, letting it be, letting it become
In the mess, detours, delays
Remember the mystery
Partake in wonder, awe, laughter
Daily practice, habit, commitment
Capture and cast light.

“Gratitude is the ability to experience life as a gift. It liberates us from the prison of self-preoccupation.”― John Ortberg, When the Game Is Over, It All Goes Back in the Box

Jul 22

All-Surrounding Grace

“You have come to the shore. There are no instructions.”― Denise Levertov

“The Avowal

As swimmers dare
to lie face to the sky
and water bears them,
as hawks rest upon air
and air sustains them;
so would I learn to attain
freefall, and float
into Creator Spirit’s deep embrace,
knowing no effort earns
that all-surrounding grace.”― Denise Levertov

To the shoreline
Of grace
Peace
Awe and wonder
A few yards away
Awaiting your arrival
To sit and be held
Made new
Witnessing presence.

“Sometimes the mountain
is hidden from me in veils
of cloud, sometimes
I am hidden from the mountain
in veils of inattention, apathy, fatigue,
when I forget or refuse to go
down to the shore or a few yards
up the road, on a clear day,
to reconfirm
that witnessing presence.”― Denise Levertov

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