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Posts from the ‘Autumn’ Category

Nov 2

Seek Out Light

“Our age needs to rediscover the fruitfulness of silence in order to overcome the dissipation of sounds, images, and chatter that too often prevent the voice of God from being heard.”― Fr. Boniface Hicks

“WELCOME NOVEMBER…
There is something about November that says ‘keep going’.
We are not quite through the year, yet the finish-line looms.
We are plunged into darkness by Mother Nature.
We are faced with the ‘season of joy’, and yet many of us wonder where we will find it.
And I think November is a great time to take a little peek behind you, and see just how much you’ve done. To take stock of your achievements, your endurance, your survival.
To rest, reinforce, before the festivities envelope us all.
Before beautiful new beginnings.
And most importantly, November is a time to seek out light.
As the natural order darkens, we must find it ourselves.
We must do whatever we can to brighten our day, our home, the world.
Seek out light wherever you can my friends, and pay no heed to those who condemn your sparkle.
You are much-needed.
Keep showing up, in that special way only you can do.
And show up for yourself too (which can sometimes mean not showing up at all).
This year has been hard.
Again.
But beautiful.
Again.
As is the way of life.
As is the way of life.” – Donna Ashworth

Gaining an hour of sleep.
Losing an hour of light.
Fall at its golden hour.
The cusp of wintering.
Each season bears its own gifts.
Take solace in restoration, in slowing.
Restored by reflection and pause.
In the darkening.
Seek out light.
In all seasons, found within.

“We have seasons when we flourish and seasons when the leaves fall from us, revealing our bare bones. Given time, they grow again.”― Katherine May, Wintering

Oct 30

Fall into Wonder

“If you seek flaws,
you’ll find flaws,
if you seek beauty,
you’ll find that too”― Donna Ashworth, I Wish I Knew: Poems to Soothe Your Soul & Strengthen Your Spirit

“waste time wisely, my friend. Time spent in rest, joy, company and kindness is never wasted. As for everything else, just do it. You won’t regret the things you tried and failed at. But you will regret a life spent waiting. Those who wait, wait. You have a life to live.”― Donna Ashworth, I Wish I Knew: Poems to Soothe Your Soul & Strengthen Your Spirit

Be the rebel.
Stray off course.
Look up.
Put down.
Seek beauty.
Found right in front of you.
Wander and wonder.
Balm of awe.
Be more than do.
Slow and savor.
Scatter seeds of kindness.
Beams of light.
Radical love.
Daily intention, practice, action.
Fall into wonder.

“I don’t want to get to the end of my life and look back and realize that the best thing about me was I was organized.”― Shauna Niequist, Present Over Perfect: Leaving Behind Frantic for a Simpler, More Soulful Way of Living

Oct 21

Divine Imagination

“Nature is the direct expression of the divine imagination.” – John O’Donohue

“A morning when you become a pure vessel For what wants to ascend from silence,” – John O’Donohue

At least two questions, daily.
In the morning, what will I see today anew?
In the evening, what did I really see this day?
In the middle, open arms, heart, mind.
The power of questions rather than old answers.
The divine imagination at work.

“Many of us have made our world so familiar that we do not see it anymore. An interesting question to ask yourself at night is, What did I really see this day?” – John O’Donohue

Oct 2

Poetry of Presence

“Go, sit upon the lofty hill, And turn your eyes around, Where waving woods and waters wild Do hymn an autumn sound. The summer sun is faint on them— The summer flowers depart— Sit still— as all transformed to stone, Except your musing heart.” – Elizabeth Barrett Browning

“come back
believer in shade
believer in silence and elegance
believer in ferns
believer in patience
believer in the rain”― W.S. Merwin

One foot in summer.
One foot in fall.
Thresholds and transitions.
The middle place.
Where we reside often.
See the beauty in this place.
Joy in this moment.
Fresh canvas today.
What will you see for the first time.
Poetry of presence.

“Poetry is a way of looking at the world for the first time.”― W.S. Merwin

Oct 28

Second Spring

“A cold wind was blowing from the north, and it made the trees rustle like living things.”
― George R.R. Martin

“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.”― Albert Camus

Soak in the colors of fall in bloom.
Bright display to permeate memory.
Planting seeds within.
Winter rest soon.
Preparing for spring to come yet again with a new palette of colors.

“Poetry is a means of seeing invisible things and saying unspeakable things about them.”― Howard Nemerov

Oct 22

Autumn Gifts

“Autumn came, with wind and gold.”― Henry David Thoreau, Walden: Life in the Woods

“Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.” – George Eliot

Fall waterfall of color ablaze.
Blooming late.
Lingering longer.
Soak in the color and hues.
Be made new.

“When Autumn’s shadows idly muse
And tinge the trees with many hues
Amidst whose scenes I feign to dwell
And sing of what I love so well”
― John Clare, The Shepherd’s Calendar

Oct 10

Autumn Blaze

“October, baptize me with leaves! Swaddle me in corduroy and nurse me with split pea soup. October, tuck tiny candy bars in my pockets and carve my smile into a thousand pumpkins. O autumn! O teakettle! O grace!”― Rainbow Rowell , Attachments

October by Robert Frost

“O hushed October morning mild,
Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;
Tomorrow’s wind, if it be wild,
Should waste them all.
The crows above the forest call;
Tomorrow they may form and go.
O hushed October morning mild,
Begin the hours of this day slow.
Make the day seem to us less brief.
Hearts not averse to being beguiled,
Beguile us in the way you know.
Release one leaf at break of day;
At noon release another leaf;
One from our trees, one far away.
Retard the sun with gentle mist;
Enchant the land with amethyst.
Slow, slow!
For the grapes’ sake, if they were all,
Whose leaves already are burnt with frost,
Whose clustered fruit must else be lost—
For the grapes’ sake along the wall.”

October, the heart of autumn.
Deep rich colors ablaze.
Hearty foliage.
Soon to shed.
Bloom in reverse.
Harvest from seeds planted in spring.
Loved through the summer.
Do not wish to go back nor dread winter ahead.
Remain in this day, in this season.
Seek the beauty and purpose in each season.
Gather the harvest.
Steep in abundance.

Sep 18

Leaves in Bloom

“Mindfulness arises when you allow your attention to fall effortlessly on the breathing point like an autumn leaf falling on a lake of still water”― Amit Ray, Beautify your Breath – Beautify your Life

“Nature will bear the closest inspection. She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf, and take an insect view of its plain.” – Henry David Thoreau

Enter fall.
Let summer fade to memory.
Fresh eyes to see new colors burning brightly.
Fall is spring to leaves ablaze in their own bloom.
Each season, each change, each transition.
Filled with waiting, anticipation and transformation.
Starting again and again.
Never in the same place.
Unfolding into fullness.

“In every change, in every falling leaf there is some pain, some beauty. And that’s the way new leaves grow.”― Amit Ray

Sep 11

Last for Now

“The present moment is the only time over which we have dominion.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

“The answer must be, I think, that beauty and grace are performed whether or not we will or sense them. The least we can do is try to be there.”― Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

The water is colder within a week.
Leaves are starting to change.
Chrysalis time.
Cool mornings. Warm days with an edge. Cool evenings.
Last swim for the girls.
Topping off a summer filled with swims, play, delight.
Last for now.
Fresh delight to partake in.
Seasons meld from one to the next.
Returning again and again.
Same and different.
We change from one season to the next.
Sometimes we choose, sometimes we are forced.
Growth and transformation if we allow and receive.
Remain in the present season, knowing the next will surely come.
In due time without fail.
Last for now, making way for next and new.

“One of the more delicate gifts of soul that can come from the chrysalis is a refined attunement to the here-and-now. We learn how to be genuinely present to life.”— Sue Monk Kidd, When the Heart Waits: Spiritual Direction for Life’s Sacred Questions

Aug 28

In and Through Us

“The power of finding beauty in the humblest things makes home happy and life lovely.”
― Louisa May Alcott

“The sun shines not on us but in us. The rivers flow not past, but through us. Thrilling, tingling, vibrating every fiber and cell of the substance of our bodies, making them glide and sing. The trees wave and the flowers bloom in our bodies as well as our souls, and every bird song, wind song, and tremendous storm song of the rocks in the heart of the mountains is our song, our very own, and sings our love.”― John Muir

A new week.
The last week of August.
Summer’s dance with fall.
Seasons. Transitions. Harvest.
Start. Middle. Finish.
Repeat. Grow. Change.
Enter the rhythm and flow.
Become apart of it rather than lamenting or fighting it.
The gift of joy given freely in beauty, seasons, celebration of ordinary days.

“Joy is not produced because others praise you. Joy emanates unbidden and unforced. Joy comes as a gift when you least expect it. At those fleeting moments you know why you were put here and what truth you serve. You may not feel giddy at those moments, you may not hear the orchestra’s delirious swell or see flashes of crimson and gold, but you will feel a satisfaction, a silence, a peace—a hush. Those moments are the blessings and the signs of a beautiful life.”― David Brooks, The Road to Character

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