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Posts from the ‘Beginnings’ Category

Path of Plenitude

“I will be the gladdest thing under the sun! I will touch a hundred flowers and not pick one.”― Edna St. Vincent Millay

“For a New Beginning
In out-of-the-way places of the heart,
Where your thoughts never think to wander,
This beginning has been quietly forming,
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.
For a long time it has watched your desire,
Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,
Noticing how you willed yourself on,
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.
It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the gray promises that sameness whispered,
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,
Wondered would you always live like this.
Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream,
A path of plenitude opening before you.
Though your destination is not yet clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is at one with your life’s desire.
Awaken your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.”
― John O Donohue

Into the grace of beginning
Crossing the threshold
Of new things blooming, unfolding
Seen with awakened senses
Light spirit
Hope-filled heart
Trusting the journey
Gratitude, praise, awe
And for the choice to live there each day, with delight.

“Fullness of joy is discovered only in the emptying of will.”― Ann Voskamp

Class in Session

“I’M TALKING TO THAT PART OF YOU Today, I’m talking to that part of you who yearns for more. The part of you who knows exactly what you want beyond all else. To that part of you who effortlessly believes that anything is possible, and that it’s possible in an instant. I’m talking to that part of you who longs to break right on through that self-imposed ceiling your mind has created out of fear, lack, should, and could. To smash and shatter it into a billion little pieces. I’m talking to that part of you who longs, who dreams, who dances, who wishes. To the part of you that cheers, that laughs, that leaps, that bounds. To that part of you who truly wants the best for others because it deeply knows that there is more than enough to go round. I’m talking to that part of you who knows what you want and the exact next step to take to get it. To that part of you who knows you’re not broken and isn’t the slightest bit interested in perpetuating the story that says it’s so. To that part of you who knows the way and longs to guide the rest of you back home. Today, that’s the part of you I’m talking to. And I’m asking it to step forward and lead the way.”― Rebecca Campbell, Light is the New Black

Back to school.
Not just for kids.
Keep learning, growing, expanding.
Unlearning and exploring.
Be curious.
Inquiry and enthusiasm.
Reflection and wisdom.
Class is in session.
Course of a lifetime.

“Start before you feel ready. You don’t need to know where it’s all going. You’ll work it out along the way.”― Rebecca Campbell, Light is the New Black

Cusping

“Be where you are; otherwise you will miss your life.” – Buddha

You do not always have to be producing, creating, harvesting. Learn to be idle. Learn to rest.”― Joyce Rupp, The Circle Of Life: The Heart’s Journey Through The Seasons

Making space, creating margins
Ordinary days, simple joys, laughter, color, hue
Flow and ease of being present, on the ground of this day
Cusping and leaping
Free falling
Trusting and seeking
Slow and deliberate
Idle and rest
Intention and direction
Honing and glistening
Choosing “and” rather than “or”
Present over perfect
Gratitude over comparison, calculation, counting
Essay rather than equation
All of these things and more
No “to do” lists or bucket list but one
To be fully alive both in reflection, projection and real time.

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”― Søren Kierkegaard

Eyes to Begin Anew, Again and Again

“Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty if only we have the eyes to see them.”― John Ruskin

“Suddenly, sun. Over my shoulder
in the middle of gray November
what I hoped to do comes back,
asking.

Across the street the fiery trees
hold onto their leaves,
red and gold in the final months
of this unfinished year,
they offer blazing riddles.

In the frozen fields of my life
there are no shortcuts to spring,
but stories of great birds in migration
carrying small ones on their backs,
predators flying next to warblers
they would, in a different season, eat.

Stunned by the astonishing mix in this uneasy world
that plunges in a single day from despair
to hope and back again, I commend my life
to Ruskin’s difficult duty of delight,
and to that most beautiful form of courage,
to be happy.” – Jeanne Lohmann

Seasons, circles, rhythms.
Ebb and flow of living present.
Awake and aware.
Unfolding and becoming.
Familiar yet not the same.
As Heraclitus’ said “no man ever steps in the same river twice”
Our daily work?
To be in this day alone and know that we have arrived.
In being not doing.
To the difficult duty of delight.
With courage to be happy now, not someday when.
Senses honed, fresh eyes to take in beauty, abase and abound.

“Let every dawn of morning be to you as the beginning of life, and every setting sun be to you as its close.”― John Ruskin, The Two Paths

Hardly Noticed Moments

“Out of the quiet emerges the sheer incarnational presence of the world, a presence that seems to demand a moving internal symmetry in the one breathing and listening equal to its own breathing, listening elemental powers.”― David Whyte, Consolations

“In that first hardly noticed moment in which you wake,
coming back to this life from the other
more secret, moveable and frighteningly honest world
where everything began,
there is a small opening into the new day
which closes the moment you begin your plans.” – David Whyte

Cracks
Small openings
Thin spaces
Harvest of presence
Rapt attention
Possibility, mystery, inquiry
Awe, wonder, delight
Taking shape, unfolding, emerging
In this new day
Stay out of the way
Linger here a bit longer
Let beauty in

“Beauty is the harvest of presence.”― David Whyte, Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning

Filled and Overflowing

“You may do this, I tell you, it is permitted. Begin again the story of your life.”― Jane Hirshfield, The Lives of the Heart

“Empty and filled,
like the curling half-light of morning,
in which everything is still possible and so why not.

Filled and empty,
like the curling half-light of evening,
in which everything now is finished and so why not.

Beloved, what can be, what was,
will be taken from us.
I have disappointed.
I am sorry. I knew no better.

A root seeks water.
Tenderness only breaks open the earth.
This morning, out the window,
the deer stood like a blessing, then vanished.”― Jane Hirshfield

New beginnings
Fresh starts
Emptied to filled, overflowing
Hope, joy, delight
Color, fragrance, beauty
Borne of winter spilling fully into spring
Tenderness breaking open and through
New beginnings

“One breath taken completely; one poem, fully written, fully read – in such a moment, anything can happen.”― Jane Hirshfield, Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry

Sparkle and Bloom

“Man’s main task is to give birth to himself. ”― Erich Fromm

“You don’t need anyone else’s permission to be happy, to pursue your passions, express yourself more, or to live the life you’ve always dreamed of. The only permission you need is your own.”― Mel Robbins, The Let Them Theory

How far you’ve come, not how far to go
Where you are, not where you thought you would be
Roads taken, not taken, yet to take
Pause, reflection, anticipation, then motion
Unfolding, becoming, unfurling
Try new things
Wander off path
Plant seeds
Harvest beauty
Sparkle and bloom, right where you’re planted.

“You are your best thing.”― Toni Morrison, Beloved

Wildflower Spinning

“God is not a technician. God is an Artist. This is the God who made you. The same God who lives inside of you. He comes into us, then comes out of us, in a million little ways. That’s why there’s freedom, even in the blah. Hope, even in the dark. Love, even in the fear. Trust, even as we face our critics. And believe in the midst of all that? It feels like strength and depth and wildflower spinning; it feels risky and brave and underdog winning. It feels like redemption. It feels like art.”― Emily P. Freeman, A Million Little Ways: Uncover the Art You Were Made to Live

“As we stand at new beginnings and grieve those long goodbyes, teach us what it means to hold on to what we need for the journey and gently let the rest go. Father, you bring new mercies every morning and give us the grace to start over as many times as we might need. Keep pace with us as we learn to keep pace with you. Thank you for not rolling your eyes when we find ourselves here again. Give us the courage to pick what we like and the patience to see how it grows.”― Emily P. Freeman, The Next Right Thing: A Simple, Soulful Practice for Making Life Decisions

A year ago today, I “officially” started my business KP Connections LLC.
Name, legal structure, business model, plan and general direction.
The decision, tipping point, crossing the threshold.
Moving from the hallway between rooms to entering a new room.
Many steps before the decision to leap, one step to leap.
Many steps after and continue to be revealed to this day, tomorrow, the next day too.
It would be months before I announced in July and only a handful of people knew at this point.
Walking beside me through the examination, contemplation, exploration, shaping.
Deeply grateful for those companions, questioners, cheerleaders.
But we ultimately make decisions for our life alone.
Little and big.
Owning that gives us power and responsibility.
To stay, to go, to tolerate, to accept, to reject, to stagnate, to grow, to keep changing, to be changed in the process.
Not deciding is deciding.
We put too much weight on decisions, as if it’s the only step to be made.
Mistakes and missteps guaranteed.
Allowing the path to unfold in the walking out daily is the journey.
It’s the point.
We don’t need everything figured out to start, but we do need to start, taking a step at a time.
To aim, work, go in a direction, follow signs, discern signals, see patterns, pivot when necessary, stay the course, fall, rise, pause, rest, start again and keep moving.
Trusting the process, enjoying the journey.
Work to get to the thresholds before, faith to cross over, more work and trust to walk it out daily with curiosity, enthusiasm, joy.
What we make of it but more importantly what it is making of us.
Many lessons along the way.
What to not do again, what to focus on, what to explore, what to not do at all.
Imperfectly and wonderfully where I belong.
Grateful, awake, unfolding and unfurling.
Still learning, growing, connecting, collaborating, honing, crafting, diversifying, focusing, shaping, creating, making.
Wildflower spinning.

“And so the meaning of our lives is not dependent upon what we make of it but of what he is making of us.”― Emily P. Freeman, A Million Little Ways: Uncover the Art You Were Made to Live

Dayspring Eastering

“The world is charged with the grandeur of God.”― Gerard Manley Hopkins

“ELECTED Silence, sing to me
And beat upon my whorlèd ear,
Pipe me to pastures still and be
The music that I care to hear.”
― Gerard Manley Hopkins, Poems and Prose

Flowers amongst the weeds
Sun behind the clouds
Love beneath the fear
Forefront and backdrop
Choosing beauty to feed and sustain
Transforming ordinary into extraordinary
With a tilt of the head
Opening of the heart
Arms outstretched
Charged with grandeur
Elected silence
Dayspring eastering.

“Let Him easter in us, be a dayspring to the dimness of us, be a crimson-cresseted east.”― Gerard Manley Hopkins

Plentitude of Color

“Now shall I walk or shall I ride?
‘Ride,’ Pleasure said;
‘Walk,’ Joy replied.”
― W.H. Davies

“Within the grip of winter, it is almost impossible to imagine the spring.
The gray perished landscape is shorn of color.
Only bleakness meets the eye; everything seems severe and edged.
Winter is the oldest season; it has some quality of the absolute. Yet beneath the surface of winter, the miracle of spring is already in preparation; the cold is relenting; seeds are wakening up.
Colors are beginning to imagine how they will return.
Then, imperceptibly, somewhere one bud opens and the symphony of renewal is no longer reversible. From the black heart of winter a miraculous, breathing plenitude of color emerges.” – John O’Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us

Notes forming, taking shape to melody, spilling into symphony
Quiet to distant echoes of birds chorus
Bulbs shifting, preparing to bud
Chrysalis to butterfly
Beauty on every path
Walk softly, slowly with joyful intent
Colors asleep with imagination of brilliance to come
Winter well
Spring awaits our rested and renewed attention and awe
Symphony of renewal no longer reversible when seasons kiss.

“But what we call our despair is often only the painful eagerness of unfed hope.”― George Eliot, Middlemarch