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Posts from the ‘Beginnings’ Category

Jan 13

Winding Path to Bloom

“For what it’s worth, it’s never too late to be whoever you want to be. I hope you live a life you’re proud of, and if you find you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start over.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald

“The secret of change is to focus not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” — Socrates

We put a lot of weight on January.
Extremes, overdoing, marathon at sprint pace, shortcut seeking.
High expectations, low resilience.
If it was easy, it would be done already.
And it wouldn’t mean much either.
Do not fall into “quitter’s day/week/month” mindset.
There would be no flowers if the seed gave up after a few weeks.
No spring without the grounding of winter.
No harvest without planting.
Keep going.
Never too late.
Daily work, long-game, meaningful change.
Start over, adjust, carry on.
The work and winding path of bloom.

“She was unstoppable, not because she did not have failures and doubts, but because she continued on despite them.” — Beau Taplin

Jan 7

Slow the Pace, Ascend

“Great things are done when men and mountains meet.”― William Blake

“I remembered that the real world was wide, and that a varied field of hopes and fears, of sensations and excitements, awaited those who had the courage to go forth into its expanse, to seek real knowledge of life amidst it’s perils.”― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

Fresh year
Blank canvas
Broad horizon
Take in the view
Set the course
Slow the pace
Do the work
Small steps not big leaps
It need not all be done in January
Slow the pace
Direct energy, attention, effort
Detours, delays, resistance, friction guaranteed
Muscle, strength building for the long game
Consistency, discipline, mindset
Adds up, sticks, delivers
Slow the pace
Principles, perspectives, approaches
Rather than schemes, shortcuts, bursts
Real, meaningful change
Into the beautiful expanse
Keep climbing, slow the pace, enjoy the view.

“We become what we behold.”― William Blake, Jerusalem

Jan 4

Limit of the Sky, Depth of the Sea

“We are not what we know but what we are willing to learn.” – Mary Catherine Bateson

“New beginnings are usually welcome. But being a beginner? Not so much. We want our circumstances to change, to start again, to be brand-new. But when they change, we often don’t give ourselves permission to be new within them. Instead, we want to rush ahead to mastery. We think we ought to know how to navigate the newness, especially if it’s something we wanted, something we prayed for, waited for, asked for, or planned.”― Emily P. Freeman, The Next Right Thing

Beginnings and being a beginner
To try new things
To turn, shift, wander
To be willing to learn and unlearn
If this is our one intention for this new year
What adventures may be right before us in ordinary days
Limit of the sky, depth of the sea.

“We either live with intention or exist by default.” – Kristin Armstrong

Jan 1

Art of Harvesting

“Perhaps the art of harvesting the secret riches of our lives is best achieved when we place profound trust in the act of beginning. Risk might be our greatest ally. To live a truly creative life, we always need to cast a critical look at where we presently are, attempting always to discern where we have become stagnant and where new beginning might be ripening. There can be no growth if we do not remain open and vulnerable to what is new and different. I have never seen anyone take a risk for growth that was not rewarded a thousand times over.” – John O’Donohue

FOR A NEW BEGINNING
by John O’Donohue

“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.”

First day
First month
New year
Day at a time
Commitments
Actions
Repetition
Starting
Falling
Progress
Lessons
Trying
Getting up again
Restarting
For things you want to change that have built over the years
Plant seeds, nurture, harvest
Time and timing
Set the pace, marathon not sprint
Do the work
Know your why
Give yourself the time, patience, kindness, consistency and grace
To become what is in your heart
Blank slate, start coloring outside the lines
Happy New Year!

Dec 31

4 Comments

Aspirations, Intentions, Actions

“An unintentional life accepts everything and does nothing. An intentional life embraces only the things that will add to the mission of significance.” – John C Maxwell

“We either live with intention or exist by default.” – Kristin Armstrong

New Year’s Eve resolutions
Shifting to aspirations, intentions, actions
To keep growing and deepening
To not know everything so I can keep learning and unlearning
To be generous and kind
To enter familiar rooms with fresh eyes
To ask more questions and listen
To quiet and seek discernment
To slow for reflection then dive in with resolve
To say no more making room for yes to the right things
To see and welcome joy and gratitude during challenges, roadblocks and detours
To pursue awe, wonder, delight, inquiry, discovery, connection
To deepen trust, faith, patience
To receive grace, light, love
And give it away with abandon
Aspirations to keep becoming and unfolding
Intentions to focus time and attention
Daily actions to move aspirations and intentions into motion
Direction, aim, fire
Repeat.

“Action expresses priorities.” – Mahatma Gandhi

Dec 28

Firing Up the Landscape

“Prayer is a small fire lit to keep cold hands warm. Prayer is a practice that flourishes both with faith and doubt. Prayer is asking, and prayer is sitting. Prayer is the breath. Prayer is not an answer, always, because not all questions can be answered.”― Pádraig Ó Tuama, Daily Prayer with the Corrymeela Community

Red Bird by Mary Oliver

“Red bird came all winter
Firing up the landscape
As nothing else could.
Of course I love the sparrows,
Those dun-colored darlings,
So hungry and so many.
I am a God-fearing feeder of birds,
I know he has many children,
Not all of them bold in spirit.
Still, for whatever reason-
Perhaps because the winter is so long
And the sky so black-blue,
Or perhaps because the heart narrows
As often as it opens-
I am grateful
That red bird comes all winter
Firing up the landscape
As nothing else can do.”

On the way but not arrived
Space between ending and beginning
Hallway between rooms
In this quiet space between the end of the year and the beginning of the new
Holiday hurrying to winter slowing
Reflect and frame
Slow and discard
Plan and allow
Gratitude and grace
Color brighter on the backdrop of the season
Red birds pause
Firing up the landscape
Look around.

“The only place to begin is where I am, and whether by desire or disaster, I am here. My being here is not dependent on my recognition of the fact. I am here anyway. But it might help if I could learn to look around.”― Pádraig Ó Tuama, In the Shelter: Finding a Home in the World

Dec 7

North Side of a Mountain

“You see, you are not so soft after all; you are rock and wave and the peeling barks of trees, you are ladybirds and the smell of a garden after the rain. When you put your best foot forward, you are taking the north side of a mountain with you.”― Ella Frances Sanders, Eating the Sun: Small Musings on a Vast Universe

“For what it’s worth… it’s never too late, or in my case too early, to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit. Start whenever you want. You can change or stay the same. There are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you’ve never felt before. I hope you meet people who have a different point of view. I hope you live a life you’re proud of, and if you’re not, I hope you have the courage to start over again.”― F. Scott Fitzgerald

May you root and rise in possibilities
Step by step
Day by day
Always unfolding and unfurling
Climbing and loving
Never done.

“There is only one question; how to love this world.”― Mary Oliver, Devotions: A Read with Jenna Pick: The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver

Sep 24

1 Comment

Always a New Beginning, Always

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.”― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

“And what, exactly, is that metaphorical thorn for you?”
“It’s madness
to hate all roses
because you got scratched with one thorn,
to give up all dreams
because one of them didn’t come true,
to give up all attempts
because one of them failed.
It’s folly to condemn all your friends
because one has betrayed you,
to no longer believe in love
just because someone was unfaithful
or didn’t love you back,
to throw away all your chances to be happy
because something went wrong.
There will always be another opportunity,
another friend,
another love,
a new strength.
For every end,
there is always a new beginning
And now here is my secret,
a very simple secret:
It is only with the heart
that one can see rightly;
what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

A warm fall has triggered the lilacs to bloom again.
Spring in Fall, Fall in Spring
Seasons woven together.
Beauty and fragrance.
Hope and joy.
Rooted within.
These are what last.
New beginnings.
Growth.
Ever becoming and unfolding, not done or over.
Never, ever, ever, ever, give up on second, third, fourth bloom.
Born again and again.
Time and timing.
The course of a lifetime.

“All grown-ups were once children… but only few of them remember it.”― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

Aug 27

Unfamiliar Gladness

“This is the power of art: The power to transcend our own self-interest, our solipsistic zoom-lens on life, and relate to the world and each other with more integrity, more curiosity, more wholeheartedness.”― Maria Popova

“At watershed moments of upheaval and transformation, we anticipate with terror the absence of the familiar parts of life and of ourselves that are being washed away by the current of change. But we fail to envision the unfamiliar gladness and gratifications the new tide would bring, the unfathomed presences, for our imaginations are bounded by our experience. The unknown awakens in us a reptilian dread that plays out with the same ferocity on scales personal, societal, and civilizational, whether triggered by a new life-chapter or a new political regime or a new world order.”― Maria Popova, Figuring

New tides to dive into
Fresh territory to explore
Paths off trail to cut
Fresh blooms to burst
Curiosity and discovery
Releasing the old to make space for the unfamiliar
Allowing wonder, awe and beauty to transform
May gladness and gratifications expand your view and deepen your trust in the journey.

“We spend our lives trying to discern where we end and the rest of the world begins. We snatch our freeze-frame of life from the simultaneity of existence holding on to the illusions of permanence, congruence, and linearity; of static selves and lives that unfold in sensical narratives. All the while, we mistake chance for choice, our labels and models of things for the things themselves, our records for history. History is not what happened, but what survives the shipwrecks of judgment and chance.”― Maria Popova, Figuring

Aug 24

Blushed with Beginning

“A life of ease is a difficult pursuit.” – William Cowper

“This is the time to be slow,
Lie low to the wall
Until the bitter weather passes.

Try, as best you can, not to let
The wire brush of doubt
Scrape from your heart
All sense of yourself
And your hesitant light.

If you remain generous,
Time will come good;
And you will find your feet
Again on fresh pastures of promise,
Where the air will be kind
And blushed with beginning.”
― John O’Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

Good soil.
Scatter seeds.
Till.
Nurture.
Wait.
Lie low to be slow.
Tilling the soil too much does not allow the seeds to take root.
Let them be.
Time and timing.
Beginnings, middles, ends.
The blush of fresh beginnings just beneath the surface.
Rooting to bloom.

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