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Posts from the ‘Awe’ Category

Dec 6

Sacred Echo

“I call them sacred echoes because I noticed that throughout my relationships, daily life, and study, the same scripturally sound idea or phrase or word will keep reappearing until I can no longer avoid its presence.” -The Sacred Echo”― Margaret Feinberg

“Create your own permission slip for joy. Write three words: Accept. Adapt. Depend. Carry this permission slip with you. Tell your friends you’re working on becoming more content, more joyful. Take a nap. Live with a messy house for a time. Order takeout. File an extension on your taxes. Stare out the window. Linger in the company of a friend. Breathe in the fullness of life. Use those words to fight back with joy.”― Margaret Feinberg, Fight Back With Joy: Celebrate More. Regret Less. Stare Down Your Greatest Fears.

Do not dismiss the power of joy, of awe, of wonder.
Found right in the middle of ordinary days.
Slow long enough to see and sit here awhile.
When “someday” becomes today, we awaken fully to the depth of now.
Pause. Listen. Look.
Then run swiftly into peace.
Permission slip granted.
No expiration date.

“Run into peace.”― Meister Eckhart

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 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 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 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

Oct 9

The Door is Open

“And you? When will you begin that long journey into yourself?”― Rumi

“The breezes at dawn have secrets to tell you
Don’t go back to sleep!
You must ask for what you really want.
Don’t go back to sleep!
People are going back and forth
across the doorsill where the two worlds touch,
The door is round and open
Don’t go back to sleep!”― Rumi

Off the grid.
Off the clock.
Off the schedule.
Just for a bit.
To wander.
To look deeply.
To explore, deepen and expand.
See the work and beauty of the weaving of life.
Witness and then back into participate again.
A pause to sit in awe and gratitude.
To recalibrate.
To awaken refreshed and renewed.
Don’t go back to sleep!

“Respond to every call
that excites your spirit.”― Rumi, The Essential Rumi

Oct 6

Anything but Amazement

“You live in the most sacred place
in the universe:
right here,
right now.”― Ivan M. Granger

“Seek those moments
when you gently come to a stop.
Stay there.”― Ivan M. Granger

Not someday when this happens.
When this person changes.
When this is started or finished.
When things are perfectly in place.
Right in the middle of ordinary days.
Front, center, in reach.
Beauty, sacredness, amazement awaits our realization, awe and embrace.
Right here. Right now.

“Each day, each moment
is a step into the unknown.
How can we feel anything
but amazement?”― Ivan M. Granger

Sep 24

Thick with Possibility

“Earth is so thick with divine possibility that it is a wonder we can walk anywhere without cracking our shins on altars.”― Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith

“The treasure we seek requires no lengthy expedition, no expensive equipment, no superior aptitude or special company. All we lack is the willingness to imagine that we already have everything we need. The only thing missing is our consent to be where we are. Whoever you are, you are human. Wherever you are, you live in the world, which is just waiting for you to notice the holiness in it.” – Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith

Amidst ordinary days, beauty and joy reside.
Detached from circumstances.
Separate from perfect conditions.
In storms and in calm.
Noticing, paying attention, pausing lead to this space and place.
A depth, peace and expanse available to all in abundance.
We are held and hemmed in divine possibility woven through each day.
Get out of your own way.
Open your eyes a anew.
Altars, sacred, holy ground beneath and before you.

“What is saving my life now is the conviction that there is no spiritual treasure to be found apart from the bodily experiences of human life on earth. My life depends on engaging the most ordinary physical activities with the most exquisite attention I can give them. My life depends on ignoring all touted distinctions between the secular and the sacred, the physical and the spiritual, the body and the soul. What is saving my life now is becoming more fully human, trusting that there is no way to God apart from real life in the real world.”― Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith

Sep 14

Top Heavy

“Cherish sunsets, wild creatures and wild places. Have a love affair with the wonder and beauty of the earth.” – Stewart Udall

“Tell me a story of deep delight.”― Robert Penn Warren

Allow joy and delight to lift you up.
Top heavy with ease.
Awed by beauty.
Present and open to possibilities.
In giving.
In receiving.
Some days glide.
Some days bumpy.
Each day, the only place to be.
In both being and doing, more being.
Fertile, sacred, holy ground of becoming.
In ordinary days.
The crucible of our formation, fruition, transformation.

“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

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