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Dec 21

Inflection Point

“I need rituals that encourage me to embrace what is repetitive, ancient, and quiet. But what I crave is novelty and stimulation.”― Tish Harrison Warren, Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life

“The winter solstice has always been special to me as a barren darkness that gives birth to a verdant future beyond imagination, a time of pain and withdrawal that produces something joyfully inconceivable, like a monarch butterfly masterfully extracting itself from the confines of its cocoon, bursting forth into unexpected glory.” – Gary Zukav

Longest day of darkness.
Tipping point.
The start of light returning slowly.
Wintering to prepare for spring.
Do not bypass, resist, reject the gift of winter.
To pause, to slow, to rest.
Depth of time.
Gravity of presence.
Seasons, cycles, circles.
Cocoon to butterfly.
Seed to bloom.
Sun rise, sun set.
Inflection point.
The word solstice comes from the Latin words sol (sun) and sistere (to stand still).
Stand still, new life unfolding.

“Both the Winter and the Summer Solstices are expressions of love. They show us the opposition of light and dark, expansion and contraction, that characterize our experiences in the Earth school so that we can recognize our options as we move through our lives.” – Gary Zukav

Dec 20

Solstice Eve

“I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief… For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.” – Wendell Berry

“We cannot stop the winter or the summer from coming. We cannot stop the spring or the fall or make them other than they are. They are gifts from the universe that we cannot refuse. But we can choose what we will contribute to life when each arrives.” – Gary Zukav

Winter solstice eve.
Hallway to the door of transition.
Dark to light.
Unfolding.
Slowly.
Softly.
Peace. Quiet. Light.

“The old and honorable idea of ‘vocation’ is simply that we each are called, by God, or by our gifts, or by our preference, to a kind of good work for which we are particularly fitted.” – Wendell Berry

Dec 19

Find and Become

“poetry is motion graceful
as a fawn
gentle as a teardrop
strong like the eye
finding peace in a crowded room”
― Nikki Giovanni

“By all means use sometimes to be alone.
Salute thyself: see what thy soul doth wear.
Dare to look in thy chest; for ’tis thine own:
And tumble up and down what thou find’st there.
Who cannot rest till he good fellows find,
He breaks up house, turns out of doors his mind.”
― George Herbert, The Temple: The Poetry of George Herbert

Hush over rush.
Pause over speed.
Quiet over noise.
Attention held.
Patterns weaving.
Connections creating.
From chaos to order and beauty.
Renewal and nourishment.
In reflection, gratitude.
In today, treasure.
To find, and become peace.

“In the creation story, God entered chaos and made order and beauty. In making my bed I reflected that creative act in the tiniest, most ordinary way. In my small chaos, I made small order.”― Tish Harrison Warren, Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life

Dec 18

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Delight in the Ordinary

“…small bits of our day are profoundly meaningful
because they are the site of our worship. The crucible of our formation is in the monotony of our daily routines.”― Tish Harrison Warren, Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life

“We are standing before the Grand Canyon or the Sistine Chapel and rolling our eyes.”― Tish Harrison Warren, Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life

Hum of the ordinary.
Invitation to play.
Nuance of color.
Current of rivers.
Flow of wind.
Dance of trees.
Rhythm of life.
Hidden in plain sight.
Asking our partaking, savoring, pausing.
Small moment, big life.

“The new life into which we are baptized is lived out in days, hours, and minutes. God is forming us into a new people. And the place of that formation is in the small moments of today.”― Tish Harrison Warren, Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life

Dec 17

Stay Alive, Very

“Silence is like white space in design, it surrounds what’s important!”― Kate Murphy, You’re Not Listening: What You’re Missing and Why It Matters

“Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, “Stay awhile.”
The light flows from their branches.

And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say,
“and you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine. – Mary Oliver

Keep caring, choose well.
Keep engaging, choose well.
Keep participating, choose well.
In choosing where we put our time, attention and love, we amplify, deepen and expand.
More on less, the important.
Nothing wasted.
Gratitude, grace, clarity.
Alive with joy, bright with hope, filled and overflowing with light.
Choose well.

“Whatever happens, stay alive. Don’t die before you’re dead. Don’t lose yourself, don’t lose hope, don’t lose direction.
Stay alive, with yourself, with every cell of your body, with every fiber of your skin.
Stay alive, learn, study, think, read, build, invent, create, speak, write, dream, design.
Stay alive, stay alive inside you, stay alive also outside, fill yourself with colors of the world, fill yourself with peace, fill yourself with hope.
Stay alive with joy.
There is only one thing you should not waste in life, and that’s life itself.” – Virginia Woolf

Dec 16

Bright, Bold, Wide Love

“We never grow closer to God when we just live life. It takes deliberate pursuit and attentiveness.”― Francis Chan, Crazy Love

A Blessing for Compassion for All by Kate Bowler

“Blessed are we, God’s beloved.
Whether we bask in happiness of a season of opportunities
or find ourselves bracing against a fresh storm of hard things.

Blessed are you who are sad and sore,
waiting for the next breath to come more easily.
You are here, and you are loved.

Blessed are you who carry your joy openly,
in the happiness of longings fulfilled.
You are here, and you are loved.

Welcome all, look around!
We might change places tomorrow,
but for now, we are all together
as those who are the beloved of God.

We have been looped together
into the wideness of God’s compassion,
into the kinship of the imperfect
who are perfectly loved.

Blessed are we, eyes wide open
to the fact that there’s nothing like it,
this love that generates love exponentially:
it doesn’t detract.
It only gives.

Here in Advent we see its coming
gentle as the dawn,
healing as sunlight.
Love that actively grows us into our truest selves.
People who can love
just like that.”

One week to Christmas.
The rush.
The jamming one more thing in.
The hurry and hustle.
Or not.
To choose differently rather than habitually.
To see and partake in the fullness of this day.
To dare to pause, gaze, kneel.
In wonder, awe, reverence.
If but for a moment or two.
Wide, deep, exponential love.
Receive and give.

“All worldly joys go less
To the one joy of doing kindnesses.”
― George Herbert, The Complete Poetry

Dec 15

Answer the Call

“What is pertinent is the calmness of beauty, its sense of restraint. It is as though the land knows of its own beauty, its own greatness, and feels no need to shout it.”― Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day

“A little too abstract, a little too wise,
It is time for us to kiss the earth again,
It is time to let the leaves rain from the skies,
Let the rich life run to the roots again.”
― Robinson Jeffers, The Selected Poetry

Root
Anchor
Ground
Fundamentals
Basics
Simplicity
Pay attention
Awake and in awe
The power of wonder
The resilience of hope
Beauty calls each day
Answer

“Hope,’ he said. ‘Damn thing never leaves you alone.”― Kazuo Ishiguro, Klara and the Sun

Dec 14

Repeated Refrains

“There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature – the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.”― Rachel Carson, The Sense of Wonder

“The way you look at things is not simply a private matter. Your outlook actually and concretely affects what goes on. When you give in to helplessness, you collude with despair and add to it. When you take back your power and choose to see the possibilities for healing and transformation, your creativity awakens and flows to become an active force of renewal and encouragement in the world. In this way, even in your own hidden life, you can become a powerful agent of transformation in a broken, darkened world. There is a huge force field that opens when intention focuses and directs itself toward transformation.” – John O’Donohue, Benedictus

Nothing before
Nothing after
Today alone
To be here
Fully
Awake and aware
Walking lightly and softly
Fresh eyes, open arms, beating heart
Into knowing and unknowing
Discovery and delight
To witness, participate, observe
Driver and passenger
Journey of the ordinary
Transformation in the making

“Whimsy doesn’t care if you are the driver or the passenger; all that matters is that you are on your way.”― Bob Goff, Love Does: Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World

Dec 13

Bright Hope

“Every day God invites us on the same kind of adventure. It’s not a trip where He sends us a rigid itinerary, He simply invites us. God asks what it is He’s made us to love, what it is that captures our attention, what feeds that deep indescribable need of our souls to experience the richness of the world He made. And then, leaning over us, He whispers, “Let’s go do that together.”― Bob Goff

“Being engaged is a way of doing life, a way of living and loving. It’s about going to extremes and expressing the bright hope that life offers us, a hope that makes us brave and expels darkness with light. That’s what I want my life to be all about – full of abandon, whimsy, and in love.”― Bob Goff, Love Does: Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World

A deeper listening
To hear the soft reply
In words and silence
Silence especially
So much to say, to reveal
Hardened dry topsoil tilled
Seeds planted
Nourished in fertile rich soil
Winter rest
Hibernation, rooting, germination
The nonwork work
Waiting, abiding, anticipation
Promise of spring
For new life to rise to the surface
Due time, not our time
Always on time
To bud
To unfold
To bloom
Full abandon, whimsy, love.
Bright, bursting hope.

“You don’t need a plan; you just need to be present.”― Bob Goff, Love Does: Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World

Dec 12

To Dash Against and For

“I will take the sun in my mouth
and leap into the ripe air
Alive
with closed eyes to dash against darkness”
― E.E. Cummings, Poems, 1923-1954

“listen: there’s a hell
of a good universe next door; let’s go”― E.E. Cummings

To see one thing new in an ordinary day
Maybe even two
Chest rising and falling
Crisp air in and out
Awe, wonder, delight
On the very ground you stand
In the sky above
Woven in a heart open wide
Not behind
Not ahead
At your feet
Steep in beauty, mystery, abundance
Of the present moment
Think again
Better yet, think less, love more.

“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

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