Skip to content

Archive for

Jan 21

Within Time

“Meditation is not about what’s happening, it is about how we’re relating to what’s happening.”
― Sharon Salzberg, Real Happiness at Work: Meditations for Accomplishment, Achievement, and Peace

“Order us, that we may stand within time holding your hand. That we may know we are enough, not because what we make of these hours, but because within these hours – with you – we are being made.”― Micha Boyett

More is here, unnoticed.
Enough, more than enough overflowing.
Ease, woven in slowing.
Delight, in the rising of the sun.
Brilliance, in the color and curve of a flower.
Joy, in a smile that breaks into laughter.
All of it, prayer.
When we recognize what already is present for our savoring.
An invitation and welcoming, the messy and beauty.
A returning to wonder, a response of praise and awe.
We are being made, written, painted, created each day.
Witness the work of the Author, Artist, Creator.

“Prayer is not an act I perform, words I recite, a behavior I strive to maintain. It is a returning. It is a broken life finding healing, a misplaced soul recognizing home.”― Micha Boyett, Found: A Story of Questions, Grace & Everyday Prayer

Jan 20

Blazes of Gladness

“Happiness is a choice that requires effort at times.”― Aeschylus

“Remember that happiness is as contagious as gloom. It should be the first duty of those who are happy to let others know of their gladness.” – Maurice Maeterlinck

May the door to delight and awe be unlocked and open.
Letting play and fun do their work in you.
Lightening the load.
Creating space.
Putting down the unnecessary.
Making room for the breath of life.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Smile, laugh, let your guard down.
Rejoice and be glad in this day.
Cultivate, create, and share gladness to spark and kindle joy for others.
Be contagious with zest, enthusiasm and encouragement.
Unexpected sparks, brightest blazes.
Make it a “I got three balls in my mouth” kind of day.

“Our brightest blazes of gladness are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks.”― Samuel Johnson, The Idler

Jan 19

Watch and Stay Found

“One bird sits still Watching the work of God:”― Thomas Merton, A Book of Hours

“Minds don’t rest; they reel and wander and fixate and roll back and reconsider because it’s like this, having a mind. Hearts don’t idle; they swell and constrict and break and forgive and behold because it’s like this, having a heart. Lives don’t last; they thrill and confound and circle and overflow and disappear because it’s like this, having a life.” – Kelly Corrigan, Tell Me More

Allow it all.
The opposites, inconsistencies, contradictions, contrasts.
Thorns and brambles.
Desert and wilderness.
For in all of it lies beauty, wonder, awe, joy, grace, delight, delicious, reverence, holy, sacred.
Awaiting our attention, savoring and care.
Watch and stay found.

“Good Shepherd, You have a wild and crazy sheep in love with thorns and brambles. But please don’t get tired of looking for me! I know You won’t. For You have found me. All I have to do is stay found.”― Thomas Merton, A Book of Hours

Jan 18

Only Kinship

“There is no force in the world better able to alter anything from its course than love.”― Gregory Boyle, Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion

“No daylight to separate us.

Only kinship. Inching ourselves closer to creating a community of kinship such that God might recognize it. Soon we imagine, with God, this circle of compassion. Then we imagine no one standing outside of that circle, moving ourselves closer to the margins so that the margins themselves will be erased. We stand there with those whose dignity has been denied. We locate ourselves with the poor and the powerless and the voiceless. At the edges, we join the easily despised and the readily left out. We stand with the demonized so that the demonizing will stop. We situate ourselves right next to the disposable so that the day will come when we stop throwing people away.”― Gregory Boyle, Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion

Kinship, kindness, compassion in abundance.
Margins erased, boundaries crossed, connections made.
The noise of othering, judgment, and opinion fade to reveal our shared humanity.
May love be our map and destination.
Oh, the places we could go.

“We exercise kindness in any moment when we recognize our shared humanity—with all the hopes, dreams, joys, disappointments, vulnerability, and suffering that implies.”― Sharon Salzberg, Real Love: The Art of Mindful Connection

Jan 17

All Things into Being

“We do not know we are full of paradise because we are so full of our own noise that we cannot hear God singing us and all things into being.”― Thomas Merton, A Book of Hours

“Thought can organize the world so well that you are no longer able to see it.”― Anthony de Mello, One Minute Wisdom

Settle thoughts
Wrangle them to the ground
No figuring or solving
Calculating or measuring
Predicting or estimating
Comparing or competing
Sideline ego and singularity
Noise to symphony of reverence and awe
Listen to the silence
Seek unknowing, beauty
Enter the mystery and music of being still, of being
See the world that is plopped right in front of you
Paradise of presence, yet still searching?

“There must be a time of day when the man who makes plans forgets his plans, and acts as if he had no plans at all.”― Thomas Merton, A Book of Hours

Jan 16

Essential Life

“Sometimes I arrive just when God’s ready to have somone click the shutter.”― Ansel Adams

“The whole world is, to me, very much “alive” – all the little growing things, even the rocks. I can’t look at a swell bit of grass and earth, for instance, without feeling the essential life – the things going on – within them. The same goes for a mountain, or a bit of the ocean, or a magnificent piece of old wood.”― Ansel Adams

Blue skies draw my eyes up
Purple arrow above the sun, go higher
Crunching snow anchor my feet
Trees stand in praise
Crisp air clear my lungs
Embrace of the sun
Clarity
Beauty
Very much alive

May your senses be sharpened
Heart be softened
Time be slowed
The road be winding with a gorgeous view
In communion with the world
Companionship with other
Clicking the shutter often today
Plenty to capture each day.

“Life is your art. An open, aware heart is your camera. A oneness with your world is your film. Your bright eyes and easy smile is your museum.”― Ansel Adams

Jan 15

lOOk and listen

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

“Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life.” – Marcus Aurelius

A painted rock on a snowbank on a morning walk
A prompt
A clue
A calling
To notice
To awaken
To observe
Listen
Look
Slow enough to see the detail in the moment
The gravity of now
Time held still to reveal and rejoice in what already is overflowing
Even God rested on Sunday
And it was and is good.

“By letting go it all gets done.”― Lao-Tzu

Jan 14

Resuscitate

“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

“Contemplation is waiting patiently for the gaps to be filled in, and it does not insist on quick closure or easy answers”— J. Patrick Boland and Richard Rohr, Every Thing Is Sacred: 40 Practices and Reflections on the Universal Christ

Open space to wander, explore, inquire.
A slowness to go beneath the surface, above the noise.
Allowing and inviting mystery and unknowing.
Taking a recess from to dos and mindless activities to fill time to feel the weight and gravity of now.
Beauty, light, color, hues, detail, shapes, texture, clearing the residue of busy into the richness of reflection and renewal.
To resuscitate delight, awe, wonder, joy, gratitude, abundance, awareness, equanimity, discovery, praise.
All senses firing to see what is hidden in plain sight.

“How much greater is the God we have than the one we think we have.”― Gregory Boyle, Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion

Jan 13

If You Knew All

“To understand is to forgive.”― Pascal

“Forgetfulness is a form of freedom.”― Kahlil Gibran

Release the old.
The conversations.
Had and the ones you wish you had.
The hurts.
Received and given.
The disappointments.
Received and given.
The harsh words.
Received and given.
The judgment, assumptions, opinions.
Received and given.
The resentments that linger, bind, blind.
Forgive. Forget. Move on transformed.
A gift to other, mostly self.
An act of love.

“Be assured that if you knew all, you would pardon all.” – Thomas a Kempis

Jan 12

The Math

“As human beings, we’re capable of greatness of spirit, an ability to go beyond the circumstances we find ourselves in, to experience a vast sense of connection to all of life.”― Sharon Salzberg, Real Love: The Art of Mindful Connection

“Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.”― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

Do the math.
The fundamentals
Addition
Subtraction
Division
Multiplication
What will you add?
What will you subtract?
What will you divide?
What will you multiply?
Addition and multiplication create more.
Division and subtraction reduce and bucket.
Good principles to apply to each day.
Adding more without taking away creates more distraction in an already loud and chaotic world.
Subtracting only creates a void which is good if the space opens us up to reflection and connection.
January resolutions are mostly about losing, cutting out rather than contentment and gratitude.
Do the math and also the art.
Both, not one or the other.
Beauty, nature, flowers, snow (yep), poetry, literature, music, fun, play, friendship, dogs (of course), frivolity, silliness, exploration, mystery, heart pumping activity, yoga, meditation, joy, awe.
A deepening, awakening and enriching.
The art and science of living well.

“Art is not escape, but a way of finding order in chaos, a way of confronting life.”― Robert Hayden

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »