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Jan 31

A Little Bird, Broken Out of the Egg

“In order to see birds it is necessary to become a part of the silence.”― Robert Lynd

“Pan, who and what art thou?” he cried huskily.
“I’m youth, I’m joy,” Peter answered at a venture, “I’m a little bird that has broken out of the egg.”― J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

A lunch trip to the Como Conservatory to get a taste of the tropics in 10 below harvested a lot of beautiful flower pictures that will make their way into posts over the next few weeks.
On the way out, I noticed the door to the tropics room that I’ve never seen before so I wandered in.
Birds dancing about, water flowing, green ablaze.
A field trip, a recess, a playground of wonder and beauty.
You don’t have to pack your bags and get on a flight.
Find the silence, adventure and color in ordinary days and knit them tightly into the fabric of your being.
A conservatory, museum, a class await your arrival.
No permission slip required.
Awe guaranteed.

“Without birds, where would we have learned that there can be song in the heart?”― Hal Borland

Jan 30

Angel Wings

“Whatever may be the tensions and the stresses of a particular day, there is always lurking close at hand the trailing beauty of forgotten joy or unremembered peace.”― Howard Thurman, Meditations of the Heart

“In the stillness of quiet, if we listen, we can hear the whisper of the heart giving strength to weakness, courage to fear, hope to despair.”― Howard Thurman

From stillness, an arising and awakening.
From reflection, an anchoring and tethering.
From quiet, a whisper of strength, courage, hope.

From the heart, a deepening and connection to a wellspring of love.
Brushed and brushing, the wisp an angel’s wing.
Joy and peace remembered, renewed.
Trailing beauty catches up.

“It is curious how one’s cup may be filled up by another and no words are passed to indicate the process that is taking place. . . It was as if, for a moment, I had been brushed by the angel’s wing.”― Howard Thurman, Meditations of the Heart

Jan 29

Same Landscape, Fresh Eyes, New Horizon

“Music in the soul can be heard by the universe.”― Lao Tzu

“There is no wealth but life.” – John Ruskin

Leave space and margin today.
For discovery and unknowing.
For seeking and searching.
Unfamiliar in the familiar.
The question behind the question.
The place beneath the surface.

For wonder and awe.
For serendipity and surprise.
For expansion and deepening.
For nuance and hue.
For color and symphony.
For belonging and home.

Invite, allow, embrace.
Put down, pick up, tread softly.
Compose, create, connect.
A holy ease, sacred ground.

Imagination and luminosity.
Light and shadow.
Contour and dimension.

No calculating, counting, or comparing.
Suspend opinion, assumption and judgment.
Narrative, story, unfolding.
Swept up in the current, flow, tide.

Same landscape, fresh eyes, new horizon.
Brimming in abundance.
Spilling over into joy.

“I may not know
What a day may bring
But I know
Who brings the day.” – Miracle Power Lyrics by We the Kingdom

Jan 28

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Enduring

“The insight and wisdom we gain in our journey through love and suffering is transformational and enduring.” Mark Nepo, Surviving Storms

“You may not control life’s circumstances, but getting to be the author of your life means getting to control what you do with them.”― Atul Gawande, Being Mortal

On the path.
Curves, hills, detours.
May you look up, around, ahead.
Wander off trail.
Slowing to see and absorb the full rich view, scenery and beauty.
Seeking and finding joy and delight in ordinary days.
Peace and endurance in struggle.
Blessings in the burdens.
Gratitude and patience in the mystery and unknowing.
Awe and wonder to author your life well.

“The battle of being mortal is the battle to maintain the integrity of one’s life—to avoid becoming so diminished or dissipated or subjugated that who you are becomes disconnected from who you were or who you want to be.”― Atul Gawande, Being Mortal

Jan 27

Full Immersion and Expression

“Love feels no burden, thinks nothing of trouble, attempts what is above its strength, pleads no excuse of impossibility; for it thinks all things lawful for itself, and all things possible.” – Thomas a Kempis

“What are the characteristics of the most wonderful people you know? The WONDERFUL ones? They said, Loving. Caring. Kind. And so I asked them, Is that not what success actually is? To be a wonderful person who touches someone else’s life?”― Julie Lythcott-Haims, Your Turn: How to Be an Adult

Above and beyond.
The extra mile.
Reaching out.
Going first to engage, not waiting or taking turns.
No calculation, measure, keeping score.
A smile that shouts “HELLO.”
An exclamation point.
A comma and semi-colon to pause.
Inquiry and observation.
A conversation, a real connection.
Listening to understand, not reply.
Responding with gentleness rather than judgment.
Generosity of spirit.
Soft heart.
A magnet.
Hospitality and welcoming.
Inviting and belonging.
This is love.
Tether and anchor in love and then go show it.
Loving. Caring. Kind.
This is how we save ourselves and the world.
The power of one, then another, and another…
No excuse of impossibility.
All things possible.
Light your wick.
Full immersion and expression.

“Compassion means the full immersion in the condition of being human.” – Henri Nouwen

Jan 26

Clumsily

“Peace is not something you can force on anything or anyone… much less upon one’s own mind. It is like trying to quiet the ocean by pressing upon the waves. Sanity lies in somehow opening to the chaos, allowing anxiety, moving deeply into the tumult, diving into the waves, where underneath, within, peace simply is.”― Gerald May, Simply Sane: The Spirituality of Mental Health

“And yet I decide, every day, to set aside what I can do best and attempt what I do very clumsily – open myself to the frustrations and failures of loving, daring to believe that failing in love is better than succeeding in pride.”― Eugene H. Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society

We curate and assemble.
The highlights.
Sure, that there’s a shortcut and bypass.
10 easy steps.
The formula to our best lives now.
#blessed
But it’s only part of the story.
Struggle, muddling, frustration.
Beauty, joy, laughter.
A potpourri of it all.
Welcome to the human race.
Allow it, wait (ugh, patience required in an instant world).
Gratitude loosens the grip of singularity.
A deeper and wider view, dimension and nuance.
Keep moving through.
Ready to begin and repeat.
Refreshed, renewed, readied.
In time (ugh again) and with patience (oof), grit and endurance to the finish line, to new starts.
The journey is the arriving, again and again.
Starting, stumbles and stops in between.
Underneath the messy, chaos and imperfect, peace simply is awaiting your arrival.
Available now, not someday when.
Get your footing, center, recalibrate, reach out.
Anchor in joy and wonder.
Carry on.

“Optimists focus on the place they are going. Pessimists focus on the obstacles along the route. To become an optimist simply look ahead.” — Simon Sinek

Jan 25

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In the Pauses

“Only in the pauses between things, in the brief contemplative spaces of just being, can we catch a glimpse of love itself.”― Gerald G. May, The Awakened Heart: Opening Yourself to the Love You Need

“Life is not a matter of reaching a stagnant end point, but is rather an ongoing process in which one, hopefully and with grace, grows ever more deeply in love.”― Gerald G. May, The Dark Night of the Soul: A Psychiatrist Explores the Connection Between Darkness and Spiritual Growth

Enter the flow of life and let it enter you.
A dialogue.
A conversation.
A deepening and lightening.
To see the same anew.
The familiar as if for the first time.
Beauty, wonder, awe to guide and lead.
Lay down the unnecessary, freeing your arms to catch and embrace glimpses of love, peace and joy.
To be moved from stagnancy to grace.
In the pauses, abundance overflows.

“Joy is the reaction one has to the full appreciation of Being. It is one’s response to finding one’s rightful, rooted place in life, and it can happen only when one knows through and through that absolutely nothing is being denied or otherwise shut out of awareness.”― Gerald G. May, Will and Spirit: A Contemplative Psychology

Jan 24

A Slice of Blue and Sliver of Sun

“At sunrise, the blue sky paints herself with gold colors and joyfully dances to the music of a morning breeze.”― Debasish Mridha

“It is written on the arched sky; it looks out from every star. It is the poetry of Nature; it is that which uplifts the spirit within us.” – John Ruskin

The sun has been in short supply as of late, on a cloud streak.
When it made a guest appearance yesterday morning for a few hours, I captured it as a reminder.
Remembering the slices of blue and the slivers of sun that will soon return in abundance.
Absence sharpens the senses.
Gratitude for them multiples in the meantime.
Clouds and winter have their own lessons in courses we don’t sign up for.
Transcending our reluctance, clarity with time.
All of them work together weaving a life.
Remain present in today, whether clouds, blue and sun.
Slices, slivers, crevices, corners.
Treasure to be found.
Beauty, truth teller.

“Complete people gaze into the blue sky above, plunge into the center of the earth below, and run freely in the eight directions without even a change of mood.”― Liezi, The Book of Master Lie

Jan 23

Like Never Before or Ever Again

“Animals praise a good day, a good hunt. They praise rain if they’re thirsty. That’s prayer. They don’t live an unconscious life, they simply have no language to talk about these things. But they are grateful for the good things that come along.” – Mary Oliver

“Today is life-the only life you are sure of. Make the most of today. Get interested in something. Shake yourself awake. Develop a hobby. Let the winds of enthusiasm sweep through you. Live today with gusto.” – Dale Carnegie

I take the girls to the dog park almost every day.
A few blocks out, Abby starts groaning with anticipation.
If no one is around, I let them off leash at the top of the hill and they barrel down the wooded path as if arriving somewhere new for the first time ever.
Every single time, enthusiasm overflowing, fresh and new joy.
We can make the ordinary daily activities extraordinary by entering them through doors of wonder and windows of awe.
Seeing the same from a different angle.
Like we’ve never been here before and that we won’t ever be in this day again.
One is in our control and the other is not.
Time is moving swiftly.
We slow it down when we savor and celebrate it while we are in it.
No where to be but here and now.
Like never before or ever again.
Praise this good day.
Hunt well.
Plenty to be found.

Jan 22

What to Leave Out

“In music, silence is more important than sound.” – Miles Davis

“Some day I’m gonna call me up on the phone, so when I answer, I can tell myself to shut up.”― Miles Davis

Our innate reaction to challenges is to figure out what to do.
Action is important to trigger change, shift behavior, make progress.
Often, the right action is not in doing and adding but in silence and subtracting.
Creating space to hear anew, see with fresh eyes.
To see what’s in right in front of us that we keep stepping over, going around, avoiding, bypassing.
In search of the “answer,” the “easy button,” that’s out there somewhere, in some day if and when this and that happens.
Many answers lie within, most require time and all require quiet to rise to the surface. Some never come at all, remaining a mystery, an unknowing.
Discerning what is in my control (me), what is not (others) and what just is.
We can then respond insightfully rather than react habitually.
Quiet your internal chatter, tune out external noise, inquire and observe, listen with an open heart and arms.
The sound of silence at work.

“I always listen to what I can leave out.”― Miles Davis

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