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Posts from the ‘Belonging’ Category

Jan 9

Butterfly Effect, Flap

“It’s remarkable how the simplest of decisions can create a butterfly effect; how a seemingly inconsequential action can cause a tsunami.”― Greer Hendricks

“We live among ordinary people doing ordinary things in ordinary places. We are families and we are neighbors. We worship and we work. We laugh, and we cry. We hope, and we love. The stuff of life for everyone everywhere.

But it is also true that whether our vocations are as butchers, bakers, or candlestick makers or people drawn into the worlds of business or law, agriculture or education, architecture or construction, journalism or international development, healthcare or the arts, in our own different ways, we are responsible for love’s sake for the way the world is and ought to be.

We are called to be common grace for the common good.”—Stephen Garber, Visions of Vocation

Invitation
Hospitality
Welcoming
Kindness
Compassion
Empathy
Including
Belonging
Common grace, common good
Simple actions
Butterfly effect
Tsunami of love
Flap

“Seek to be an oasis of caring and concern as you live your life.”― Dalai Lama XIV, The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World

Jul 21

2 Comments

To Choose Well

“When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.” – John Muir

“To be alive in this beautiful, self-organizing universe—to participate in the dance of life with senses to perceive it, lungs that breathe it, organs that draw nourishment from it—is a wonder beyond words. Gratitude for the gift of life is the primary wellspring of all religions, the hallmark of the mystic, the source of all true art. Furthermore, it is a privilege to be alive in this time when we can choose to take part in the self-healing of our world.”—Joanna Rogers Macy

As in nature, may I see the commonality and connectedness in humanity.
To choose kindness rather than angst.
To choose whisper rather than shouting.
To choose generosity rather than guarding.
To choose hope rather than cynicism.
To choose including rather than excluding.
To choose love rather than fear.
To participate fully in the dance of life and invite others onto the floor to join in.

“Wear gratitude like a cloak, and it will feed every corner of your life.” – Rumi

Jun 22

3 Comments

Of Being

“Poetry’s work is the clarification and magnification of being.”― Jane Hirshfield

“There is a minute in the day, a minute for everyone, though most everyone is too distracted to notice its arrival. A minute of gifts coming from the world like birthday presents. A minute given to every day that seems to create a golden bubble available to everyone.”― Luis Alberto Urrea, The House of Broken Angels

A beautiful work in progress
Unfolding and unfurling
Without end
Always beginning somewhere new
Growing, often slowly, always surely
Certainly, on time, though rarely our clock
Let your beauty unfold and the world’s too
Most importantly, notice
Then celebrate
A beautiful work in progress
Carry on…

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

May 14

2 Comments

Light Calling

“The undoing is almost always more difficult than the doing.”― Kate DiCamillo, The Magician’s Elephant

“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.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke

Order. Disorder. Reorder.
Learn. Apply. Unlearn. Apply. Grow.
Doing. Undoing. Starting anew.
In stillness, depth, breadth, listen.
It’s not over.
The past is not the end, only to road to this day.
New paths to cut.
Life invites, calls, shouts.
You belong here.
Come out.
Light calling.

“The future enters into us, in order to transform itself in us, long before it happens.”― Rainer Maria Rilke

Apr 18

Belonging and Beloved

“Because true belonging only happens when we present our authentic, imperfect selves to the world, our sense of belonging can never be greater than our level of self-acceptance.”
― Brené Brown, Daring Greatly

“Owning our story can be hard but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it. Embracing our vulnerabilities is risky but not nearly as dangerous as giving up on love and belonging and joy—the experiences that make us the most vulnerable. Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light.”― Brene Brown

You belong.
That doesn’t require fitting in everywhere and with everyone.
Nor perfection or completeness.
Being you is the only requirement.
Wherever you are at on whatever path behind or ahead, you are loved.
Keep blooming into the flower that you are becoming each day.
Rooting deep in your own uniqueness, hue, nuance and color.
Be kind, love and find joy right where you are planted.
Infinite light.
You are loved.
You belong.

“Stop walking through the world looking for confirmation that you don’t belong. You will always find it because you’ve made that your mission. Stop scouring people’s faces for evidence that you’re not enough. You will always find it because you’ve made that your goal. True belonging and self-worth are not goods; we don’t negotiate their value with the world. The truth about who we are lives in our hearts. Our call to courage is to protect our wild heart against constant evaluation, especially our own. No one belongs here more than you.”― Brené Brown, Braving the Wilderness

Mar 11

Be Like…You

“Be melting snow.
Wash yourself of yourself.”
― Rumi, The Essential Rumi

“Be like the sun for grace and mercy. Be like the night to cover others’ faults. Be like running water for generosity. Be like death for rage and anger. Be like the Earth for modesty. Appear as you are. Be as you appear.”― Rumi

Unfolding.
Unfurling.
Growing.
Savoring.
Belonging.
Delighting.
Joying.
Slowly, then suddenly.
Melting, softening to water, flowing.
Daily becoming you.

“Let go of your mind and then be mindful. Close your ears and listen!” – Rumi

Jan 16

Keep Moving

“Stop calling your heart broken; your heart works just fine. If you are feeling–love, anger, gratitude, grief–it is because your heart is doing its work. Let it.”― Maggie Smith, Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity, and Change

“Commit yourself to the present. Loosen your grip on the life you had before—before a loss, an upheaval, a change that called everything into question—so that you can be here, where you’re needed, right now. KEEP MOVING. Do something today that will bring you joy even if you know you will not do it well.”― Maggie Smith, Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity, and Change

We don’t make our life out of perfect circumstances, conditions, relationships.
Stop waiting to move for the timing of “someday when.”
That place is fictional and delays us from doing the daily work, reflection and rest.
Start wherever you are today.
The uneven ground you stand on now.
Move out from there – consistency, stumble, practice, mistakes, repetition, breakthrough, growth, repeat. Better than the day before.
Don’t allow a bad moment or hour to take a foothold.
Footholds become strongholds.
Let it be and let it pass. Like a river flowing.
Few days are end-to-end harmonious.
A shift in perspective can increase the volume.
Gratitude, hope, optimism, enthusiasm are powerful daily practices not platitudes.
Tough, resilient, grit to keep moving imperfectly.
They pull us through everyday frustration, struggle, grief, difficult, loss, dry seasons.
Not to deny them but to acknowledge and not become them.
Our emotions are telling us something more than the obvious.
Anger is fear.
Grief is love.
Keep making your life each ordinary day, weaving joy into the mundane, laughter into the chaos, gratitude amidst loss and change.
Perpetual becoming, transformation is hard work.
Get to it.

“Don’t wait for your life to magically come together–it’s your work to do. Every day, every moment, you are making your life from scratch. Today, take one step, however small, toward creating a life you can be proud of.”― Maggie Smith, Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity, and Change

Sep 5

Soft and Gentle

“the voice of beauty speaks softly; it creeps only into the most fully awakened souls”― Nietzsche

“Тhe gentle overcomes the rigid.
The slow overcomes the fast.
The weak overcomes the strong.”
…
“Everyone knows that the yielding overcomes the stiff,
and the soft overcomes the hard.
Yet no one applies this knowledge.”― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

Like the petal of a flower.
The dance of a butterfly.
The hovering of a bee.
The gaze of a deer.
Soft and gentle.
Easy and slow.
Inquire, observe, wait for the answers to flow.
A river, always in motion beneath the surface.
Moving and swirling.
A current smoothing the rocks.
Awakening the soul.
Be soft, kind, gentle.
To self and others.
All just learning to fly.

“Be gentle,
Be compassionate,
Play nice,
Just remember that All
of us are learning how to fly.”― Charmaine J. Forde

Jul 18

The Path Together

“Don’t walk in front of me… I may not follow
Don’t walk behind me… I may not lead
Walk beside me… just be my friend”― Albert Camus

“Life is short and we have never too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who are travelling the dark journey with us. Oh be swift to love, make haste to be kind.” – Henri Frederic Amiel

Same journey.
Different places.
Ahead. Behind. In step.
Winding then straight.
Some on trail.
Some breaking trail.
Struggling or at ease, or both.
Sometimes lost.
Sometimes found.
In the mystery.
In the searching.
In the clarity.
In the unfolding of the path.
We do not go alone.
Walk the path with others today.
Check in. Be present. Listen.
Be a friend.

“We should be willing to act as a balm for all wounds.”― Etty Hillesum, An Interrupted Life: The Diaries

Jul 3

Wide Angle Lens Living

“The sky is everywhere, it begins at your feet.”― Jandy Nelson

“If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.”― Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

Different perspectives.
New angles.
Diversity of thought and view.
Threads of commonality to bind, to hold together.
Expanding rather than contracting.
The world is rich, overflowing and abundant with color, beauty, light.
Put your energy and effort there.
A worthy use of time.
Wide angle lens living.

“Life is about perspective and how you look at something… ultimately, you have to zoom out.” – Whitney Wolfe Herd

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