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Posts from the ‘Blessing’ Category

Apr 22

Thick with Beauty, Possibility

“Earth is so thick with divine possibility that it is a wonder we can walk anywhere without cracking our shins on altars.”― Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith

“Lost as we feel, there is no better
Compass than compassion.
We find ourselves not by being
The most seen, but the most seeing.”
― Amanda Gorman, Call Us What We Carry

It’s right there
Front and center
At our feet
Holding our hand
In teaspoons and buckets
Slivers and slices
Glances and stares
Woven in and through each ordinary day
Beauty, grace, joy
Not the way we expect
Or command, demand
If we put down our rules, ways, shoulds and whens
Release our tight grip, open hands
The view widens, presence deepens
Colors are brighter
Hues and nuance sharpen
Steps are lighter, skip and hop
Reverence and awe
It’s right there
Thick with divine possibility, indeed.

“Human beings are works in progress that mistakenly think they are finished.” – Daniel Gilbert

Feb 26

Stop. Look Up.

“There is another alphabet, whispering from every leaf, singing from every river, shimmering from every sky.”― Dejan Stojanovic

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

Signs, signals, wonders
All around
Awaiting our arrival, attention, tending
Whisper, invitation, welcoming
On this very ground, sky at your feet
To see the same in a different way
Pull over, stop, look up
Brilliant blue sky, big world, beauty abound
In the middle of the noise, chaos, distractions
Abundance in the noticing, awe, reverence
Fresh eyes, curious heart, open arms.

“There is one spectacle grander than the sea, that is the sky; there is one spectacle grander than the sky, that is the interior of the soul.”― Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

Dec 12

Wide, Wide Awake

“How, then, to find the courage to speak with such authenticity, with words muscular enough to ring the doorbell of the listener’s mind, admitting the rigor and the glory of the holy through the open door of the down-to-earth, the commonplace, the very ordinary.”― Luci Shaw, An Incremental Life: Poems

“Blessed are we when we yearn, yearn for connection and love and touch. Blessed are we when we hunger for the beauty of life itself and the people to fill it. Blessed are we when we are unable to say I’m letting it go because we feel like we will be washed away into an ocean of nothingness. Teach us to hold on to the truths that enliven our spirits and fill our souls and loosen our grip on the painful untruths like that we are alone or unlovable or that desire itself is the enemy. Teach us to hunger for what is good and be filled. There will be no easy addition or subtraction, we will lose and we will gain and almost none of it will make much sense at the time. And it forces our hands open in the ebb and flow of wins and losses, comings and goings we will look for divine love in the mystery of it all. The stubbornness of flowers that still smile at us, at the grocery store and the need for endless small reminders that the pain of it all, the comedy of it all, keeps us wide, wide awake.” – Kate Bowler

In the hurry and hustle
Rush and self-imposed demands
May beauty interrupt you
Stop you in your tracks
Blue skies
Flowers smiling
Sunlight on snow
Listening and connection
Treasure woven in everyday life
Noticed in stillness, inquiry
Deep breath
Ebb and flow
Senses atune
Wide, wide awake
Blessed are we in the mix and muddle of it all.

“The people you meet in your life, you meet them for a specific purpose: To help them and to be helped by them. So, try to spot the treasure in your everyday life, because one day you may realize you had the treasure and you lost it.”― Maria Karvouni

Oct 23

Beauty Ever Blooming

“Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.” – Confucius

“I bless the night that nourished my heart
To set the ghosts of longing free
Into the flow and figure of dream
That went to harvest from the dark
Bread for the hunger no one sees.

All that is eternal in me
Welcomes the wonder of this day,
The field of brightness it creates
Offering time for each thing
To arise and illuminate.

I place on the altar of dawn:
The quiet loyalty of breath,
The tent of thought where I shelter,
Waves of desire I am shore to
And all beauty drawn to the eye.

May my mind come alive today
To the invisible geography
That invites me to new frontiers,
To break the dead shell of yesterdays,
To risk being disturbed and changed.

May I have the courage today
To live the life that I would love,
To postpone my dream no longer
But do at last what I came here for
And waste my heart on fear no more”
–  John O’Donohue

To find good in this day
To let good find you
Invitation
Conversation
Communion
See beauty, witness and partake
Let it soak in
To be made new
By wonder, awe, delight.

“The good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction not a destination.”― Carl R. Rogers

Oct 12

Rhythm, Light, Grace

“You can have the other words-chance, luck, coincidence, serendipity. I’ll take grace. I don’t know what it is exactly, but I’ll take it. ”― Mary Oliver

“If you allow yourself to be the person that you are, then everything will come into rhythm.
If you live the life you love, you will receive shelter and blessings.
Sometimes the great famine of blessing in and around us derives from the fact that we are not living the life we love, rather we are living the life that is expected of us.
We have fallen out of rhythm with the secret signature and light of our own nature.”
– John O’Donohue, Anam Cara

May you hear your own voice
Allow others too
Conversation, exchange, dance
Inquiry, quieting, listening
Allowing, inviting, welcoming
To not know everything
Creating space for unlearning, relearning, growth
Standing on this ground, blessed and blessing
Grace, light, homecoming.

“Sometimes I need
only to stand
wherever I am
to be blessed.”
― Mary Oliver, Evidence: Poems

Jul 8

Color Outside the Lines

“You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestation of your own blessings.” – Elizabeth Gilbert

“Happiness is not how many things you do, but how well you do them. More is not better. Happiness is not experiencing something else; it’s continually experiencing what you already have in new and different ways.”― Brianna Wiest, 101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think

Joy, peace, laughter, delight.
In same and new.
Awake to blessings hidden.
Color outside the lines.

“You have to know when to prod and when to be quiet, when to let things take their course.”― Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees

Jun 13

Waiting in Anticipation

“Happiness is not how many things you do, but how well you do them. More is not better. Happiness is not experiencing something else; it’s continually experiencing what you already have in new and different ways.”― Brianna Wiest, 101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think

Same in new and different ways.
Attention honed.
Awake, receptive.
Open the gifts of this day.

“The sea does not reward those who are too anxious, too greedy, or too impatient. To dig for treasures shows not only impatience and greed, but lack of faith. Patience, patience, patience, is what the sea teaches. Patience and faith. One should lie empty, open, choiceless as a beach—waiting for a gift from the sea.”― Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Gift from the Sea

Mar 17

Rainbows and Light to You Today

“May God give you, for every storm, a rainbow, for every tear, a smile, for every care, a promise and a blessing in each trial. For every problem life sends, a faithful friend to share, for every sign a sweet song, and an answer for each prayer.”- Irish Blessing

“So I am first of all a simple country person, a refugee, and unlearned. I do not know how to provide for the future. But this I know for certain, that before I was brought low, I was like a stone lying deep in the mud. Then he who is powerful came and in his mercy pulled me out, and lifted me up and placed me on the very top of the wall. That is why I must shout aloud in return to the Lord for such great good deeds of his, here and now and forever, which the human mind cannot measure.” – Saint Patrick

Rainbows, sunshine, joy
May you allow them in
To lighten the load
To delight and renew
To ground and strengthen
To meet life with vigor, resolve and love
Happy Saint Patrick’s Day

“I arise today through God’s strength to pilot me;
God’s might to uphold me,
God’s wisdom to guide me,
God’s ear to hear me,
God’s word to speak for me,
God’s hand to guard me,
God’s way to lie before me,
God’s shield to protect me afar and anear, alone or in a multitude.”
― Saint Patrick

Mar 16

Invisible Cloak

“Spirituality is about what we do about the fire inside of us, about how we channel our eros.”― Ronald Rolheiser, The Holy Longing

BEANNACHT – Beautifully read by John O’Donohue, one of my favorite poets

“On the day when
The weight deadens
On your shoulders
And you stumble,
May the clay dance
To balance you.
And when your eyes
Freeze behind
The gray window
And the ghost of loss
Gets into you,
May a flock of colors, Indigo, red, green
And azure blue,
Come to awaken in you
A meadow of delight.
When the canvas frays
In the curragh of thought
And a stain of ocean
Blackens beneath you,
May there come across the waters
A path of yellow moonlight
To bring you safely home.
May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
May the clarity of light be yours,
May the fluency of the ocean be yours,
May the protection of the ancestors be yours.
And so may a slow
Wind work these words
Of love around you,
An invisible cloak
To mind your life.” – John O’Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us

Peace
Be Still
Nourishment, clarity, fluency, protection
An invisible, profound, grounding, freeing, all encompassing, overwhelming place and space
At your feet
A blessing, cup overflowing, love, awe, contentment, ease
Right where you are
Within you awaiting your arrival
Peace
Be Still
Welcome home.

“But within ourselves we can experience a real difference between restlessness and solitude. What is that difference? It is the difference between living in freedom rather than compulsion; restfulness rather than restlessness; patience rather than impatience; inwardness rather than frenzied outwardness; altruism rather than greediness; authentic friendship rather than possessive clinging; and empathy rather than apathy.”― Ronald Rolheiser, The Restless Heart

May 2

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May in May

“The present is the closest that you will ever get to the future.”― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

MAY by Donna Ashworth

“May your days be filled with laughter.
May your chores complete themselves.
May your mind have time to wander.
To a sandy beach of shells.

May your morning stretch be graceful.
May your lunch be full of taste.
May your inspiration find you.
May no moment go to waste.

May your lonely days be lacking.
May your friendships linger strong.
May your thoughts be full of wonder.
May your worries all be gone.

May your money flow like water.
May your problems float away.
May your needs be met and more so.
May you wake to sunny days.

May you find the strength inside you.
May you learn to look within.
May you see yourself more kindly.
May that journey now begin.”

May you be open to invite the mays, the blessings, the gifts of May.
The month where spring takes center stage and bursts with color, vibrancy, life.
An cue, prompt, call to participate, partake, begin anew.
The threshold to summer ease.
May spring spring in you.
Reawaken, rebirth, transformation.
May you allow in amidst the dailyness of tasks, imperfection, challenges, grief, gratitude.
All held in love, kindness and grace.

“Perhaps some detours aren’t detours at all. Perhaps they are actually the path.”― Katherine Wolf, Hope Heals: A True Story of Overwhelming Loss and an Overcoming Love

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