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Posts from the ‘Abundance’ Category

Opt In and Opt Out

“It’s not only moving that creates new starting points. Sometimes all it takes is a subtle shift in perspective, an opening of the mind, an intentional pause and reset, or a new route to start to see new options and new possibilities.” – Kristin Armstrong

“your grass is green enough.”― Donna Ashworth, I Wish I Knew: Poems to Soothe Your Soul & Strengthen Your Spirit

May I Opt In to:

Patience
Kindness
Empathy
Listening
Trust
Curiosity
Growth
Faith
Learning
Grace
Joy
Peace
Beauty
Equanimity
Generosity
Understanding
Delight
Laughter
Gratitude
Grit
Praise
Awe
Resilience
Optimism
Wonder
Love

In turn, to make room for all of these multipliers, creators and expanders, may I Opt Out of all that diminishes, distracts and substracts:

Judgment
Accusation
Cynicism
Unforgiveness
Resentment
Jealousy
Comparison
Greed
Counting
Assumption
Opinion
Gossip
Anger
Spite
Despair
Hate
Othering
Ego
Rightness
Arrogance
Self-centeredness
Apathy

What we opt in and opt out of is a daily decision. Choose carefully, with intent followed by action. Green the grass your standing on now by opting in and opting out to change your perspective. Choose well, cast light.

“An opinion should be the result of thought, not a substitute for it. – Jef Mallett

Instrument of Grace

“This is another day, O Lord…
If I am to stand up, help me to stand bravely.
If I am to sit still, help me to sit quietly.
If I am to lie low, help me to do it patiently.
And if I am to do nothing, let me do it gallantly.”
― Kathleen Norris

“Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature, is a help. Gardening is an instrument of grace.”― May Sarton

Fruits of labor.
Harvest of effort and time.
Pause and praise.
We move to quickly on to the next thing.
Bypassing the depth and bounty of an ordinary days.
Slow down, sit, remain still.
Observe, notice, savor.
Grateful for abundance present and overflowing.
Emphasis on what is already present than what is missing.
What is already in our pocket.

“Treasure what you find
already in your pocket, friend.”― Ted Kooser, Braided Creek

Imperfect Present

“Any patch of sunlight in a wood will show you something about the sun which you could never get from reading books on astronomy. These pure and spontaneous pleasures are ‘patches of Godlight’ in the woods of our experience.”― C.S. Lewis

“We spend most of our lives striving so hard
to earn our own permission to be at rest
where we are— when we could have done it all along.”― Ivan M. Granger

We keep hunting.
Fishing for one more thing.
For some fictional state called “when.”
“When” is now.
Not in the past or in some distant future.
It is right in the middle of the imperfect present.
In unexpected places.
In the midst of difficulties and frustrations.
Woven in moments through the day.
At rest where we are.
Overflowing in abundance.
We just need to put on new glasses.
Look closer.
Different expectations, different outcomes.
Not our definitions, rules or confinements.
Bigger, broader, deeper.
Ordinary days. Beauty abounds. Hidden right in front of you.

“What the heart recognizes
as liberation,
the ego sees
as theft.”― Ivan M. Granger

Dragonfly

“Magic is seeing wonder in nature’s every little thing, seeing how wonderful the fireflies are and how magical are the dragonflies.”― Ama H.Vanniarachchy

“Dragonflies hover on an abundance of air.”― Anthony T. Hincks

Dragonflies dancing.
Pausing to rest.
Summer sun and soft breeze.
A poem.
A song.
A declaration of light.
Abundance singing out loud in summer.
Reflect the light.
Bring the ease of summer wherever you pass through.
The dance of the dragonfly.
Magic and awe.
Good things.

“Dragonflies are reminders that we are light and we can reflect light in powerful ways if we choose to do so.”― Robyn Nola

Laden with Lilacs

“The lilac branches are bowed under the weight of the flowers: blooming is hard, and the most important thing is – to bloom.― Yevgeny Zamyatin, “A Story About The Most Important Thing”

“Spring as always was in full bloom, the breeze laden with lilac, the brush flanking the path rustling with life.”― Sarah J. Maas, A Court of Mist and Fury

What lilacs lack in length, they make up in fragrance, in presence.
Bursting for only a short time but worth it.
Depth rather than length.
Brevity, reminding us to appreciate what and who we have while we do.
People. Places. Seasons.
Awake. Blooming. Life.
Notice, hold, be held.
While in it.
Gratitude over griping.
Beauty overflowing.

“True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is sufficient, for he that is so wants nothing. The greatest blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach. A wise man is content with his lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what he has not.”― Seneca

Awash

“Let us dance in the sun, wearing wild flowers in our hair…”― susan polis schutz

“Abundance is not something we acquire. It is something we tune into.” – Wayne Dyer

Spring has taken up residence.
Color, bloom, fragrance awash.
We have arrived and are in the midst of fruition.
Bursting at the seams.
Dive in.
The beauty, fresh air, flowers blooming in abundance.
Stick the landing of daily presence and gratitude.
These are the days.
Full bloom.

“Whatever we are waiting for – peace of mind, contentment, grace, the inner awareness of simple abundance – it will surely come to us, but only when we are ready to receive it with an open and grateful heart.” – Sarah Ban Breathnach

Muchness and More than Enough-ness

“A baby is as pure as an angel and as fresh as a blooming flower.” – Debasish Mridha

“Don’t wait for things to be simpler, easier, or better. Life will always be complicated. Learn to be happy now. And know that no matter the time or day, it will always be now.” – Kobi Yamada, Finding Muchness

The joy of a child.
Wonder and awe.
Full-hearted.
Bright eyes.
Overflowing with abundance.
Hope. Joy. Imagination.
Enter this day with the wonder of a child.
The fullness of time.
The weight of this very moment.
Available now, no waiting in line.
Muchness and more than enough-ness indeed.

Muchness is full-hearted abundance of hope, joy, and imagination that each of us has when we come into this world. It is there for us to love, to dare, to dream, to create, and to live our best life.” – Kobi Yamada, Finding Muchness

Too Full to Put into Words

“May I create plain fields by collecting clouds and bedeck them with arching rainbows.”― Suman Pokhrel

“Patience is power.
Patience is not an absence of action;
rather it is “timing”
it waits on the right time to act,
for the right principles
and in the right way.”― Fulton J. Sheen

When I let go of their leashes, the girls running full speed into the open, unbound and free.
Not too far out, they stop, turning back to see where I am at.
Never out of sight but out of reach.
Waiting for me to catch up to join them in frolic and play, ball throwing, field pouncing.
Moving on ahead when I catch up, but not too far again.
Just enough and still close.
Wide open fields.
Big horizons.
Deep blue sky.
Waiting, wandering, joy-seeking and finding.
All available to us each day.
I’ll meet you in the field.
And wait.

“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

No Seed, No Bloom

“Many of the old understandings to which I had been addicted were stripped away, leaving a desertlike spaciousness where my customary props and securities no longer existed. Grace was able to flow into this emptiness, and something new was able to grow. Fresh understandings took root, and the insights that emerged were clearer, simpler, and more beautiful.”― Gerald G. May, Addiction and Grace: Love and Spirituality in the Healing of Addictions

“There is something in every one of you that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine in yourself. It is the only true guide you will ever have. And if you cannot hear it, you will all of your life spend your days on the ends of strings that somebody else pulls.”― Howard Thurman

Scatter seeds frivolously each day.
Seeking no reciprocation, no counting or comparing.
An outpouring, a river, a fountain.
Smiles, laughter, listening, observing, gazing, gratitude, generosity, kindness, joy, delight, more laughter, music, nature, compassion, concern, waiting, savoring, acceptance, belonging, welcoming, seeking, quiet, embracing, flowers ablaze with color, heart filled with love.
Some desert, some fertile soil, we know not which until the seeds land, take root.
So cast with abandon.
No bloom without seed.

“Return with flowers to all the stones that are thrown at you.
There will be a time when your enemies’ stones will run out,
and so they will only be able to throw at you
the same flowers they received from you.”― Augusto Branco

Margins

“Exuberance is beauty.” – William Blake

“The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.”― Michel de Montaigne,The Complete Essays

Allow margins on the page of your day.
White space to breath, be present, receive, allow, embrace.
Quiet for reflection, gratitude, anticipation, delight in belonging.
Pausing to take in beauty, abundance and light.

“Happiness is the harvest of a quiet eye.” – Austin O’Malley

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