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Posts from the ‘Change’ Category

May 19

Poets of Possibilities

“We are, always, poets, exploring possibilities of meaning in a world which is also all the time exploring possibilities.”― Margaret J. Wheatley, A Simpler Way

“Life offers us this great gift of self-organization, how we can be held in the basin of shared meaning and, within that, exercise individual freedom. It is such a shame to waste it on fear and doubt. Or to seek to contain and control it.”― Margaret J. Wheatley, Who Do We Choose to Be?

Perspective
Possibilities
Breadth
Nuance
Expanse
Meaning
Response
Exploration
Invitation
Entering
Opening
Take the long cut
The path to growth, bloom, transformation.

“In this way, dissipative structures demonstrate that disorder can be a source of new order, and that growth appears from disequilibrium, not balance.”― Margaret J. Wheatley, Leadership and the New Science

May 11

Make Waves, a Drop at a Time

“do good, bestow kindness, strive for beauty, seek and find the river that leads to life everlasting, and draw from the fountain that never runs dry.”― Allen Levi, Theo of Golden

“I did not save the world today,
Or change the course of history,
I walked the small and quiet way,
The life that God has given me. I woke up with the morning sun,
I sat awhile to think and pray,
I did my work till the day was done,
But I did not save the world today. I tried to live with gratitude,
To do the good that I could do,
To love the people close to me,
My neighbors and my family,
To share the kindness I’ve been shown,
To trust the Love that is my home,
To celebrate the tiny part I play,
But I did not save the world today. I hear the politicians speak,
Such big ideas and lofty claims,
My life, to theirs, seems small and weak,
But in God’s big hand we weigh the same. The saints and poets seem to know,
The law behind the ocean tide,
The world gets changed and moved along,
By little gestures multiplied. So I try to live with gratitude,
To do the good that I can do,
To love the people close to me,
My neighbors and my family,
To share the kindness I’ve been shown,
To trust the Love that is my home,
To celebrate the tiny part I play,
But I did not save the world today.”
― Allen Levi, The Last Sweet Mile

Small acts
Seeds planting
Drops to rolling waves
Smile, laughter, delight
Joy out loud
Encouragement, noticing, interest
Slowing to witness, partake, participate
Ordinary days rich with color, nuance, light
In small deliberate acts, love multiples, compounds
Changing the world
Kindness, generosity, enthusiasm
Love well, cast light.

“the best portion of a good person’s life is ‘the little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and love.”― Allen Levi, Theo of Golden

Nov 17

New Day, Small Shifts

“Hoping to live days of greater happiness, I forget that days of less happiness are passing by.”― Elizabeth Bishop

“Who would you be if nobody told you who you were?” – Wayne Dyer

Comparison and counting
Speed and production
Someday when
I “should” do this or that
What will they think?
Own your life, one day at a time
Small shifts
Direct your time, attention, awareness, energy
Do something different
Get out of your own way
Inquiry and reflection
Awe and wonder
Kindness and love
Gratitude and forgiveness
Laughter and fun
Let go to take hold of joy, contentment, delight
New day, fresh air, deep breath.

“Should is an asshole.”― Jennifer Pastiloff, On Being Human

Nov 5

Roadblocks or Openings

“The art of being wise is knowing what to overlook.”― William James

“Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do.”― Steve Jobs

What not to do
Making space
For clarity, discernment, meaning
What to carry
What to put down
What not to pick up
Open to being changed
Rather than waiting for circumstances or others to change
Holding things lightly
Grace and gratitude
Ease, joy, delight
Choose your perspective, choose your state of being
Daily work.

“People don’t resist change. They resist being changed.”― Peter Senge

Oct 31

Fluidity and Flow

“We have so little faith in the ebb and flow of life, of love, of relationships. We leap at the flow of the tide and resist in terror its ebb. We are afraid it will never return. We insist on permanency, on duration, on continuity; when the only continuity possible, in life as in love, is in growth, in fluidity – in freedom”― Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Gift from the Sea

“The physical reinvention of the world is endless, relentless, fascinating, exhaustive; nothing that seems solid is. If you could stand at just a little distance in time, how fluid and shape-shifting physical reality would be, everything hurrying into some other form, even concrete, even stone.”― Mark Doty

The world opens or closes to the aperture of your heart.
Soften, let light in.
Receptivity and allowing.
Water through, around and over rocks.
Weaving, wandering, with ease.
Mystery, unknowing, curiosity.
Paths to discovery, wonder, transformation.
Ebb and flow.
Reinvention and regeneration.
Fluidity and flow.

“It is best to live in a state of perplexity and fluidity, like water, than to live in a hardened and doctrinal state of believing one knows everything.”― Laurence Galian, The Sun at Midnight

Oct 5

To Stay Alive

“Like a flower, feel yourself rise above and begin to open.”― A.D. Posey

“Like a flower, feel yourself rise above and begin to open.”― A.D. Posey

“…You should stay alive
As often as possible and keep yourself open
to anything out of place and everything
with nowhere else to go, to carry what’s left
of your voice out and beyond, into, over,
and under, past, within, outside, between,
among, across, along, and up and around
and to be beside yourself when the spirit moves you…”
― David Wagoner, After the Point of No Return

Widen your view
Crack the window
Open the door
Cross the threshold
Big, beautiful world
Open for business
Of awe, wonder, delight
Stay alive
Curiosity, Inquiry, Discovery

“The world is always open,
Waiting to be discovered.”
― Dejan Stojanovic

Apr 8

Strength Lined with Tenderness

“The caged bird sings with a fearful trill, of things unknown, but longed for still, and his tune is heard on the distant hill, for the caged bird sings of freedom.”― Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

“And on the subject of burning books: I want to congratulate librarians, not famous for their physical strength or their powerful political connections or their great wealth, who, all over this country, have staunchly resisted anti-democratic bullies who have tried to remove certain books from their shelves, and have refused to reveal to thought police the names of persons who have checked out those titles.

So the America I loved still exists, if not in the White House or the Supreme Court or the Senate or the House of Representatives or the media. The America I love still exists at the front desks of our public libraries.”― Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without a Country

Light in the dark.
Resilience for the long cut.
Anchored in hope.
Good trouble.
Strength lined with tenderness.
As Maya Angelou said, “When you know better, you do better.”
May that come soon.
In the meantime, kindness, connection, joy, laughter, beauty, spring.
Love, the journey and the destination.
Cast light in your corner of the world today.

“The quality of strength lined with tenderness is an unbeatable combination, as are intelligence and necessity when unblunted by formal education. ”― Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Jan 21

Seeds of Transformation

“Things which do not grow and change are dead things.”― Louise Erdrich

“That’s what it takes to get what you want. Not big scary leaps once a year. It takes small, but irritating moves every single day.”― Mel Robbins, Stop Saying You’re Fine: Discover a More Powerful You

Big ideas at the beginning of January.
Big leap, new year, fresh start.
Falling to the wayside.
Waning, fading, dissipating.
Snap out of it.
Eyes on the road of this day.
Reboot, restart, it’s a long game.
Change, growth, transformation.
Recipe of daily actions, repetition, discipline, trying, resilience.
January wasn’t meant to carry it all.
Small acts, shifts, commitment with slip ups along the way.
Know your why.
Do the daily work.
Make mistakes.
Keep going.
And put joy, awe, wonder, connection, delight, laughter, play on your list too.
Thrive.

“Inspiration and information without personal application will never amount to transformation.”― Lysa TerKeurst, Uninvited

Oct 17

Ballast

“The only way to make sense of change is to plunge in and join the dance.” – Alan Watts

“As human beings, not only do we seek resolution, but we also feel that we deserve resolution. However, not only do we not deserve resolution, we suffer from resolution. We don’t deserve resolution; we deserve something better than that. We deserve our birthright, which is the middle way, an open state of mind that can relax with paradox and ambiguity.”― Pema Chödrön

To plunge in.
To join the current.
To dive into the waves.
To be open and curious.
To join the dance.
Calm, steady, awake.
Contentment within.
The very place it resides.
Grace, peace, delight too.

“You can never make a ship go steady by propping it outside; you know there must be ballast within the ship to make it go steady. So there is nothing outside us that can keep our hearts in a steady, constant way, but grace within the soul.― Jeremiah Burroughs

Sep 18

Enlarged Horizon

“A dream is the bearer of a new possibility, the enlarged horizon, the great hope.” – Howard Thurman

“The great power of separating the watching mind from the thinking mind is that the watching mind is innately loving. Some call this part of the psyche the ‘compassionate witness.’ Sharing our difficult feelings with a compassionate witness is the crucial step that heals the infinite small wounds inflicted upon the soul by everyday life.” – Martha Beck

Stillness
Pause
Curiosity
Inquiry
Listening
Watching
Immersion
Slowing
Compassion
Awe
Wonder
Gratitude
Kindness
Love
Daily
Joy seeking, light bearing, seed planting, hope harvesting, fear rejecting, naïve optimist
Enlarged beautiful horizon
Let light in, cast light out

“A river cuts through a rock, not because of its power but because of its persistence.” – Jim Watkins

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