Skip to content

Posts from the ‘Awe’ Category

May 19

To the Earth’s Intelligence

“Right in the difficult we must have our joys, our happiness, our dreams: there against the depth of this background, they stand out, there for the first time we see how beautiful they are.”― Rainer Maria Rilke

“If we surrendered
to earth’s intelligence
we could rise up rooted, like trees.

Instead we entangle ourselves
in knots of our own making
and struggle, lonely and confused.

So like children, we begin again…

to fall,
patiently to trust our heaviness.
Even a bird has to do that
before he can fly.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God

To begin.
Again and again.
Unfolding. Unwinding. Becoming.
Threads weaving together to the fabric of life.
Rooted like trees.
Depths of water.
New day.
Sunrise.
Invitation to beauty.
Enter awe.
Bask in wonder.

“No experience has been too unimportant, and the smallest event unfolds like a fate, and fate itself is like a wonderful, wide fabric in which every thread is guided by an infinitely tender hand and laid alongside another thread and is held and supported by a hundred others”― Rainer Maria Rilke

May 11

Real Devotion

“Real devotion is an unbroken receptivity to the truth. Real devotion is rooted in an awed and reverent gratitude, but one that is lucid, grounded, and intelligent.”― Sogyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying

“The beauty and mystery of this world only emerges through affection, attention, interest and compassion . . . open your eyes wide and actually see this world by attending to its colors, details and irony.”― Orhan Pamuk, My Name Is Red

Tend to this day alone.
Engage, enter, attend fully.
Dimension. Color. Beauty.
Devotion rooted in awe and reverence.
The sacred and holy of the ground that is now.
Pause. Look. Pay attention.

“The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it.”― Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life

May 6

Billowing Clouds

“Like billowing clouds,
Like the incessant gurgle of the brook,
The longing of the spirit can never be stilled.”
― Hildegard von Bingen

“I am the fiery life of the essence of God; I am the flame above the beauty in the fields; I shine in the waters; I burn in the sun, the moon, and the stars. And with the airy wind, I quicken all things vitally by an unseen, all-sustaining life.”― Hildegard of Bingen

In quiet and slowing, enter the pause.
Gazing longer.
Witnessing and observing.
Longing of the spirit.
Music of heaven.
All-sustaining life.
In all things.
May you feel the weight, gravity and lightness of it all.
If only but for a few minutes today.
Everchanging and made new, again and again.

“There is the music of Heaven in all things.”― Hildegard of Bingen

Apr 27

Trance

“From wonder into wonder existence opens.” – Lao Tzu

“One clear moment, one of trance
One missed step, one perfect dance
One missed shot, one and only chance
Life is all…but one fleeting glance.”
― Sanober Khan

Caught in lists, checkboxes, to-dos
Busy, jamming and stuffing time
Multitasking, commitments, obligations
Break the pattern, the habit
Skimming the surface
The trance of transaction
Wake up and see beauty, delight
Present in the present
Awaiting your gaze
Your attention
Awe and wonder
Auto pilot off, snooze alarm too
Arise oh sleeper
Live awake.

“Wisdom begins in wonder.” – Socrates

Apr 11

Go Big

“Only the hand that erases can write the true thing.”― Meister Eckhart

“Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet
confinement of your aloneness
to learn anything or anyone
that does not bring you alive is too small for you.”
― David Whyte, The House of Belonging

May you imagine the flower bursting from the bulb breaking soft ground in spring.
Praise 70-degree days at least as much as lament about winter.
See the beauty in the world, held in hope and light.
Brilliant colors exploding.
Holding on to what matters.
Releasing the rest.
Open arms to pick up what’s next.
Unfolding one step at a time.
Come alive, reborn again and again.
Erase, edit, fresh canvas, clean slate.
Write your own story.
Life is big, don’t stop at small.
Awe awaits your arrival.

“Holding on is believing that there’s only a past; letting go is knowing that there’s a future.” – Daphne Rose Kingma

Mar 25

Cathedrals and Altars

“When once your foot enters the church, be bare.
God is more there, than thou: for thou art there
Only by his permission. Then beware,
And make thyself all reverence and fear.
Kneeling ne’er spoil’d silk stocking: quit thy state
All equal are within the church’s gate.”
― George Herbert, From the Temple

“A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery

The world is filled with cathedrals and altars.
Nature, heart, space and place, in others, in an embrace.
We need merely take notice, enter, drop to our knees.
May you see all of the places to run, to remain, to kneel today.
And do so.
Reverence. Awe. Wonder.

“People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.”― Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

Mar 20

Invoke Joy

“The practice of paying attention really does take time. Most of us move so quickly that our surroundings become no more than the blurred scenery we fly past on our way to somewhere else.” – Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith

“Reverence requires a certain pace. It requires a willingness to take detours, even side trips, which are not part of the original plan.” – Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith

Put the weight down.
No need to carry it every minute.
Remember laughter, laugh.
Remember fun, play.
Remember delight, enter.
Remember spring, bloom.
Remember hope, let it carry you.
Remember gratitude, the full view.
Remember joy, invoke it.
Cross thresholds, aware of footholds, break loose.
Pause here a bit, life will surely pull you back in.
Remain longer, lighter, changed, transformed.
Reverence, attention, wisdom.

“Wisdom atrophies if it is not walked on a regular basis.” – Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith

Mar 19

1 Comment

Wait a Minute

“According to the Talmud, every blade of grass has its own angel bending over it, whispering, “Grow, grow.”” – Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith

“Moses could have decided that he would come back tomorrow to see if the bush was still burning, when he had a little more time, only then he would not have been Moses. He would just have been a guy who got away with murder, without ever discovering what else his life might have been about. What made him Moses was his willingness to turn aside. Wherever else he was supposed to be going and whatever else he was supposed to be doing, he decided it could wait a minute. He parked the sheep and left the narrow path in order to take a closer look at a marvelous sight.” – Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith

Paying attention.
No rushing or hurrying.
Remaining and residing.
Not moving on or going back.
Staying in the present moment.
Paying attention.
Not distracted, delayed or racing to the next thing.
Paying attention.
In reverence, in awe, in struggle, in ease, in wonder.
Song of a bird.
Burning bush.
Blade of grass.
Waiting and wandering.
Paying attention.
Tuning out the noise to hear the whisper.
Grow. Grow. Grow.
In due time, not our time.
In due time.
Paying attention.

“The practice of paying attention is as simple as looking twice at people and things you might just as easily ignore. To see takes time, like having a friend takes time. It is as simple as turning off the television to learn the song of a single bird. Why should anyone do such things? I cannot imagine—unless one is weary of crossing days off the calendar with no sense of what makes the last day different from the next. Unless one is weary of acting in what feels more like a television commercial than a life.” – Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith

Mar 2

Exquisite Attention

“You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.” – Mark Twain

“No one longs for what he or she already has, and yet the accumulated insight of those wise about the spiritual life suggests that the reason so many of us cannot see the red X that marks the spot is because we are standing on it. 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.” – Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith

An adjustment.
A slight shift.
A new angle.
To get your imagination out of atrophy, revived and pumping.
To see the same in a different way.
Merging of the sacred and secular.
Finding the red X beneath our feet.
Standing in awe, wonder and gratitude.
May you experience even an ounce of this today.
And be changed.

“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

Feb 23

Break Out

“And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul.”― John Muir

“Humor can get in under the door while seriousness is still fumbling at the handle.”― G.K. Chesterton

Under the door.
Through the cracks and crevices.
Out through the slit window.
When the doors are locked.
When staring at the same walls.
When stuck in sameness and habitual reaction.
May I stop fumbling at the handle.
Pause to see the same for the first time, anew.
Breaking out into expanse, joy, laughter, beauty, abundance in all seasons, each day.
A playground, the forest, a maze, a wide open field of grace and wonder.
Losing mind, finding soul.
I’ll meet you there.

“The things we see every day are the things we never see at all.”― G.K. Chesterton

« Older Entries
%d bloggers like this: