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Nov 10

Give into Joy

“You can have the other words-chance, luck, coincidence, serendipity. I’ll take grace. I don’t know what it is exactly, but I’ll take it. ”― Mary Oliver

“If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happened better than all the riches or power in the world. It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is not made to be a crumb. (Don’t Hesitate)”― Mary Oliver, Swan: Poems and Prose Poems

Hope, joy, kindness, faith, generosity, empathy, laughter, grace, love.
May you be a prisoner of these.
Never to be released and set free.
Open to color, light, beauty.
Dazzled.
Unafraid.
Joy.
Much more than a crumb.
Plenty to go around.
Give in.

“Still, what I want in my life
is to be willing
to be dazzled—
to cast aside the weight of facts

and maybe even
to float a little
above this difficult world.”― Mary Oliver

Nov 9

Peace Practice

“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing
and rightdoing there is a field.
I’ll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass
the world is too full to talk about.”
― Rumi

“Let go once. And if it keeps coming up, let go again. Peace does not just happen, you have to practice it.” – Yung Pueblo

Commitment, repetition, action.
Daily walking it out.
Energy, pursuit, zeal.
Sticking with what matters.
Letting go of the unnecessary again and again.
Open to newness, possibility, change.
Making space and room for ease, flow, restoration.
In the practice, the commitment, the action lies the fruit.
May you find and be found by peace, light and joy today.
And pass it on to others too.

“Peace begins with a smile..”― Mother Teresa

Nov 8

Rooted in Possibility

“Nothing is worth more than this day.”― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“We must always change, renew, rejuvenate ourselves; otherwise, we harden.”― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

New day, fresh canvas.
Fertile soil to plant, nurture, prepare for bud and bloom.
In all seasons, even winter.
Rest, formation, emergence.
Pursuit of lofty goals of joy, delight, amazement daily.
Remain in the present, in this day fully.
Putting energy, effort, and attention on what is now, in your realm of control.
Perspective, attitude, response.
Soften, fluid, open.
Root in possibility, bloom in color.

“The highest goal that man can achieve is amazement.”― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Theory of Colours

Nov 7

Row Your Boat

“Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart.
…live in the question.”― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

“We must row in whatever boat we find ourselves in.”― Christie Watson, Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away

Less angst, paralysis and analysis about the boat you are in.
Or comparing to other boats.
More rowing.
In action rather than inaction.
Listening, faith, movement.
The path unfolds in the traveling, the daily rowing.
Unknowing, unlearning to see what lies beneath the surface.
Emergence at the right time, slower than our demands.
Ready and steady.
Answers and more questions leading to more clarity, discernment.
Live in, with and through the questions.
Row the boat. Your boat.

“We make our way through Everything like thread passing through fabric, giving shape to images that we ourselves do not know.”― Rainer Maria Rilke

Nov 6

Seekers of Sweetness

“Man’s main task is to give birth to himself. ”― Erich Fromm

“My work is loving the world.
Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird — equal seekers of sweetness. Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.
Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.
Are my boots old? Is my coat torn? Am I no longer young and still not half-perfect? Let me keep my mind on what matters, which is my work,
which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished.
The phoebe, the delphinium.
The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture. Which is mostly rejoicing, since all ingredients are here,
which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart and these body-clothes, a mouth with which to give shouts of joy to the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,
telling them all, over and over, how it is that we live forever.” – Mary Oliver

To give birth again and again.
Daily. In moments. Amidst ordinary.
Unfolding slowly.
Unfurling intently.
Color, texture, flavor, vibrancy.
Life all around to love.
All the ingredients for a delicious day.
May you be struck by awe, rapt by delight, held in grace.
Do your work, love the world, as it is right now.
Shouts of joy.

“Tell me, at what velocity does joy travel?”― Clint Smith

Nov 5

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Full Tilt

“Take every minute, one at a time. Don’t be fooled by a perfect sea at any given moment. Accept and rise to whatever circumstance presents itself. Be in it full tilt, your best self. Summon your courage, your true grit. When the body fades, don’t let negative edges of despair creep in. Allowing flecks of negativity leads to a Pandora’s box syndrome. You can’t stop the doubts once you consent to let them seep into your tired, weakened brain. You must set your will. Set it now. Let nothing penetrate or cripple it.”― Diana Nyad, Find a Way

I’ve been waiting for the new movie Nyad to come out on Netflix.
Watched it last night with friends.
Outstanding, inspirational and ass-kicking.
In 2013, I remember the television coverage of Diana Nyad coming up on shore after five attempts to swim Cuba to Florida.
Exhausted beyond measure, stumbling on shore, pausing to say three things:

“Never, ever give up. You’re never too old to chase your dreams. It looks like a solitary sport, but really a team effort.”― Diana Nyad

Four failures, victory on the fifth.

“I failed and faltered many times, but I can look back without regret because I was never burdened with the paralysis of fear and inaction.”― Diana Nyad

And she did it at 64 years old! – 110 miles. 53 hours. The first person to do this without the use of a shark cage for protection.

Amazing feat and wonderful reminder to keep going, do the work over and over, and not give up or be deterred by failures along the way. True grit, focus and toughness.

“Whatever your Other Shore is, whatever you must do, whatever inspires you, you will find a way to get there.”― Diana Nyad

So here’s to the “other shores” in life and to the resilience, commitment and hard work to keep pushing to get to the other side imperfectly, with failures, detours, delays and always getting up one more time than we fall.

Keep dreaming and pursuing. Never too old.

Nov 4

The Numinous

“Great is the man who has not lost his childlike heart.”― Mencius

“In fact I think I prefer a strange tangle of both, an idea with porous boundaries that keeps me guessing. We are not offered any definite conclusions, only the continuing quest. Certainties harden us, and eventually we come to defend them as if the world can’t contain a multiplicity of views. We are better off staying soft. It gives us room to grow and absorb, to make space for all the other glorious notions that will keep coming at us across a lifetime.”― Katherine May, Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age

Comma,
Period.
Pause…
Still point
Deliberate
Rapt
Attention
Of our own conjuring
Wander here often.
Weave awe into each day.

“I think I’m beginning to understand that the quest is the point. Our sense of enchantment is not triggered only by grand things; the sublime is note hiding in distant landscapes. The awe-inspiring, the numinous, is all around us, all the time. It is transformed by our deliberate attention. It becomes valuable when we value it. It becomes meaningful when we invest in meaning. The magic is of our own conjuring. ”― Katherine May, Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age

Nov 3

At the Same Time and More

“I don’t want to sit like a brooding hen on the nest of my past achievements. I want to keep on going deep into the uncertain act of making, to see the unknown world stretch out before me and to devote myself to exploring it.”― Katherine May, Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age

“Goodbyes are only for those who love with their eyes. Because for those who love with heart and soul there is no such thing as separation.”― Rumi

We can hold grief and gratitude at the same time.
Not one or the other but both and more. And more.
There’s always more right in front of us.
Give yourself permission to experience and move through both and all.
Rough and smooth patches. Usually a mix.
With hope, faith, devotion and more hope.
Changing, evolving with time, space and distance.
Joy, hope, resilience, grace, laughter, peace.
Doing their work in us and through us.
We have the capacity and calling to love deeper and louder.
Find contentment wherever you are.
There are no rules or 10 easy steps.
Not alone, keep walking this sacred ground.
Rooted in the present, moving forward a step at a time.

“I have woven a parachute out of everything broken.”― William Stafford

Nov 2

The Work of Balance

“One thing I’ve learned in the woods is that there is no such thing as random. Everything is steeped in meaning, colored by relationships, one thing with another.”― Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass

“Paying attention is a form of reciprocity with the living world, receiving the gifts with open eyes and open heart.”― Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass

May you seek and find peace today.
Giving and receiving.
Found in the details.
Fueled by attention.
Single-tasking.
In the pause, the comma.
Listen deeper.
Look longer.
Open eyes, open heart.
Rhythm of breath.
Beauty abound and overflowing.
The work of balance.
Gift of gratitude.

“Balance is not a passive resting place—it takes work, balancing the giving and the taking, the raking out and the putting in.”― Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass

Nov 1

Boundless Gift for Renewal

“World, world, forgive our ignorance and our foolish fears. Absolve us of our anger and our error. In your boundless gift for renewal, disregard our undeserving. For no reason but the hope that one day we will know the beauty of unloved things, accept our unuttered thanks.” – Margaret Renkl, The Comfort of Crows

“Enchantment is small wonder magnified through meaning, fascination caught in the web of fable and memory. It relies on small doses of awe, almost homeopathic: those quiet traces of fascination that are found only when we look for them. It is the sense that we are joined together in one continuous thread of existence with the elements constituting this earth, and that there is a potency trapped in this interconnection, a tingle on the border of our perception.”― Katherine May, Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age

Nature, flowers, dogs, children, music, art, prose.
Wellsprings that pull us from malaise and mechanics of daily duties into enchantment and wonder.
Don’t buy what the world is selling.
Be that crazy optimist, filled with hope, enthusiastic with anticipation, open to enchantment and awe.
Small doses everywhere,
Boundless gifts of renewal.
Seek. Keep seeking.

“But seeking is a kind of work. I don’t mean heading off on wild road trips just to see the stars that are shining above your own roof. I mean committing to a lifetime of engagement: to noticing the world around you, to actively looking for small distillations of beauty, to making time to contemplate and reflect. To learning the names of the plants and places that surround you, or training your mind in the rich pathways of the metaphorical. To finding a way to express your interconnectedness with the rest of humanity. To putting your feet on the ground, every now and then, and feeling the tingle of life that the earth offers in return. It’s all there, waiting for our attention. Take off your shoes, because you are always on holy ground.”― Katherine May, Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age

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