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Posts from the ‘Beauty’ Category

Jan 24

A Slice of Blue and Sliver of Sun

“At sunrise, the blue sky paints herself with gold colors and joyfully dances to the music of a morning breeze.”― Debasish Mridha

“It is written on the arched sky; it looks out from every star. It is the poetry of Nature; it is that which uplifts the spirit within us.” – John Ruskin

The sun has been in short supply as of late, on a cloud streak.
When it made a guest appearance yesterday morning for a few hours, I captured it as a reminder.
Remembering the slices of blue and the slivers of sun that will soon return in abundance.
Absence sharpens the senses.
Gratitude for them multiples in the meantime.
Clouds and winter have their own lessons in courses we don’t sign up for.
Transcending our reluctance, clarity with time.
All of them work together weaving a life.
Remain present in today, whether clouds, blue and sun.
Slices, slivers, crevices, corners.
Treasure to be found.
Beauty, truth teller.

“Complete people gaze into the blue sky above, plunge into the center of the earth below, and run freely in the eight directions without even a change of mood.”― Liezi, The Book of Master Lie

Jan 16

Essential Life

“Sometimes I arrive just when God’s ready to have somone click the shutter.”― Ansel Adams

“The whole world is, to me, very much “alive” – all the little growing things, even the rocks. I can’t look at a swell bit of grass and earth, for instance, without feeling the essential life – the things going on – within them. The same goes for a mountain, or a bit of the ocean, or a magnificent piece of old wood.”― Ansel Adams

Blue skies draw my eyes up
Purple arrow above the sun, go higher
Crunching snow anchor my feet
Trees stand in praise
Crisp air clear my lungs
Embrace of the sun
Clarity
Beauty
Very much alive

May your senses be sharpened
Heart be softened
Time be slowed
The road be winding with a gorgeous view
In communion with the world
Companionship with other
Clicking the shutter often today
Plenty to capture each day.

“Life is your art. An open, aware heart is your camera. A oneness with your world is your film. Your bright eyes and easy smile is your museum.”― Ansel Adams

Jan 4

Soft Stillness

“Be still. Stillness reveals the secrets of eternity”― Lao Tzu

“Oh, how swiftly the glory of the world passes away!” – Thomas a Kempis

Beauty woven into every season, each day.
A stillness that calls to awaken, to soften.
Sit here and take it in.
Observe, wait, reverence in the glory.
Calm, quiet, answers, and even more questions.

“You are not too old
and it is not too late
to dive into your increasing depths
where life calmly gives out
its own secret.”― Rilke

Dec 22

Everywhere and Nowhere

“Nature is an infinite sphere whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere.”― Blaise Pascal

“Whenever I see grace, I’m moved.”― Bono

Grace and light
Peace and joy
Wander and wonder
Movement and stillness
Awe and laughter
Waiting and watching
Hoping and continuing

May you hold the finite and infinite
The temporal and celestial
The contradictions and accord
The knowing and unknowing
The learning and unlearning
The twists and turns

Returning again and again to love
Everywhere and nowhere
In the “ands” and “yeses”
And everything in between.

“Love knows no limit to its endurance, no end to its trust, no fading of its hope; it can outlast anything. Love still stands when all else has fallen.”― Blaise Pascal

Dec 14

Where the Magic Is

“The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.”― W.B. Yeats

“This was a reminder that there is a divine order, a divine flow to our lives. We don’t need to have all the answers. But our job is to keep on dreaming and trusting enough to put one foot in front of the other. To keep moving forward. To keep pushing beyond whatever feels confining. To keep searching for where the magic is. To continue expanding, staying open to being stretched. And allowing room to be completely awed by how much better it gets along the way.”― Elaine Welteroth, More Than Enough: Claiming Space for Who You Are

May I be at ease in unknowing, so I keep inquiring
Followed by listening
May I be open to thoughts other than my own
Followed by learning
May my words be filtered with kindness
Followed by generosity
May I be a dreamer, a searcher
Followed by the swirl of magic
May I be pulled into the divine flow of beauty and light
Followed by love
A deep current of awe, a wellspring
Stretched into a spaciousness and expanse
Dancing with the divine
Singing a new song
Never ever ever shrink

“when the world tells you to shrink, expand.”― Elaine Welteroth, More Than Enough: Claiming Space for Who You Are

Dec 13

Fullest Bloom


“Love is an action, never simply a feeling.”― bell hooks

“Our humanity comes to its fullest bloom in giving. We become beautiful people when we give whatever we can give: a smile, a handshake, a kiss, an embrace, a word of love, a present, a part of our life…all of our life.” – Henri J.M. Nouwen, Life of the Beloved

Open door.
Welcome mat.
Give. Act. Love.
Fullest bloom.

Dec 3

Attention to Awe

“Absolutely unmixed attention is prayer.”― Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace

“Everything beautiful has a mark of eternity.”― Simone Weil, Lectures on Philosophy

Beyond a mere passing glance, a blur
Pause, sit, watch
Pay attention, rapt attention
Linger
If but only for a minute or two to get caught by beauty
Held hostage by awe and wonder
A mark of eternity
Spark to flame.

“Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.”― Simone Weil

Nov 28

The Quiet Center

“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

“We need a deep patience because we can’t see around corners. Because life is a perpetual storm, a turbulence of light and dark that coils around each quiet center that we call a soul. We need such patience, not just to endure the turbulence, but to stay close to our full humanity, in order to access the quiet center of our soul, which is where our lasting strength resides.” – Mark Nepo, Surviving Storms: Finding the Strength to Meet Adversity

Keep me on the forefront of wonder
The edge of delight
Riding a wave of joy
Defying gravity of cynicism, certainty and control
Diving into the unknown
Buoyed in the waiting
Awakened in the mystery
Ever-present in the beauty of this day
The quiet center.

“To wait and endure.” It is from the ground of such waiting that our faith in life deepens and widens.” – Mark Nepo, Surviving Storms: Finding the Strength to Meet Adversity

Nov 22

Confounded and Overwhelmed

“You don’t get to new places by following established tracks.”― Carlo Rovelli, Reality Is Not What It Seems: The Elusive Structure of the Universe and the Journey to Quantum Gravity

“Here, on the edge of what we know, in contact with the ocean of the unknown, shines the mystery and beauty of the world. And it’s breathtaking.”― Carlo Rovelli, Seven Brief Lessons on Physics

May you be confounded by beauty.
Overwhelmed with joy.
Planted on the soft earth.
Touching the clouds.
Gazing at the sun.
Cutting fresh tracks into becoming, unfolding and awe.
Spellbound in the unknown and mystery.
Do not skip to the end, nor take the shortcut.
Embrace the journey, detours, delays, getting lost, arriving, all of it while in it.
May you hold and be held by hope, peace, grace.

“We understand the world in its becoming, not in its being.”― Carlo Rovelli, L’ordine del tempo

Nov 20

A Broad Place

“Out of my distress I called on the Lord; the Lord answered me and set me in a broad place.” – Psalm 118

“As I have read the Gospels over the years, the belief has grown in me that Christ did not come to found an organized religion but came instead to found an unorganized one. He seems to have come to carry religion out of the temples into the fields and sheep pastures, onto the roadsides and the banks of the rivers, into the houses of sinners and publicans, into the town and the wilderness, toward the membership of all that is here.”― Wendell Berry, Jayber Crow

May we all have the capacity and desire to change and be changed.
Becoming new again and again.
To see the same from other sides, new angles.
To understand more than be understood.
To stand in the complexities, the yes and no, knowing and unknowing, belief and doubt, organized and unorganized, reason and wonder.
Allowing it all and opening up.
In broad places and thin spaces.

“Standing eye to eye with being as being, we realize that we are able to look at the world with two faculties—with reason and with wonder. Through the first we try to explain or to adapt the world to our concepts, through the second we seek to adapt our minds to the world.”— Mark Nepo, Surviving Storms: Finding the Strength to Meet Adversity

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