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Posts from the ‘Change’ Category

Sep 6

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Luminous Heart

“The morning glories and the sunflowers turn naturally toward the light, but we have to be taught, it seems.”― Richard Rohr

“Aristotle was convinced that most people get most of their pleasure from learning things and wondering about and at the world.”― Edith Hall, Aristotle’s Way: How Ancient Wisdom Can Change Your Life

Heart then mind…
Open
Soft
Inviting
Allowing
Unguarded
Welcoming
Expanding
Tender
Let wonder, light, awe, color, grace, beauty in
Lead with the heart, transform the mind.

“Life is not a matter of creating a special name for ourselves, but of uncovering the name we have always had.”― Richard Rohr, Immortal Diamond: The Search for Our True Self

Jun 29

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Daily Bloom

“The greatest of all capabilities of a human being is to become born again.” ― J.R. Rim

“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” — Dan Millman, Way of the Peaceful Warrior

Doing the right things.
Not doing the rest.
The direction of energy.
The ease of flow.
Space to ponder, rest, have fun.
Putting down, to pick up what’s most important.
Our daily tasks to pay attention, delight, wonder.
To not get tangled up in minutia.
Get in the game.
Participate, try new things, enjoy the journey.
Born again with each new day.
Bloom daily.

“Stop being afraid of what could go wrong, and start being excited about what could go right.” — Tony Robbins

May 15

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Skyward

“Trees are poems that the earth writes upon the sky.”― Khalil Gibran, Sand and Foam

“This is what it means to be human, to feel the pain, the grief, the stress, the risk, the fear, the heartbreak. So you, beautiful creature, you here is your permission slip to feel it all, to feel the joy and delight and excitement and the sorrow and fear and despair. All the yellows and pinks and violets and grays, because you are the whole damn sky.” – Kate Bowler

Yes, no, maybe, none of the above and everything in between.
Life is not multiple choice with one answer.
Certainty rare.
As Anne Lamott says “expectations are resentments waiting to happen.”
So when expectations are not met, the road you are on is not one of your choice, allow it all but leave the resentment behind. It’s a heavy expanding bag.
Keep trying, moving, allowing, inviting, seeing all of the colors and blooms amidst some weeds and potholes.
In hope, anticipation, joy and awe, see the whole damn sky.

“If you have no intention of loving or being loved, the whole journey is pointless.”― Kate DiCamillo

Apr 21

Be Unreasonable

“Everything in the universe has a rhythm, everything dances. ”― Maya Angelou

“Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. Unreasonable people attempt to adapt the world to themselves. All progress, therefore, depends on unreasonable people.”— George Bernard Shaw

When you fall down, get up;
When others disappoint, offer grace;
When you have a hard day, keep going;
When others show what’s wrong, find what’s right;
May you see good in yourself, amplify;
May you see good in your neighbor, connect;
May you see good in the world, participate;
Optimism, action, love, generosity, joy, resilience, forgiveness, laughter, kindness, beauty, faith, imperfection, action, effort, compassion, hope, grit;
These transform self, others and the world.
Go change the world, one small thought, word, act at a time.

“What will matter is the good we did, not the good we expected others to do.”― Elizabeth Lesser, Broken Open: How Difficult Times Can Help Us Grow

Apr 8

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Fresh Courage

“When there is nothing left to lose, we find the true self—the self that is whole, the self that is enough, the self that no longer looks to others for definition, or completion, or anything but companionship on the journey.”― Elizabeth Lesser, Broken Open: How Difficult Times Can Help Us Grow

“Adversity is a natural part of being human. It is the height of arrogance to prescribe a moral code or health regime or spiritual practice as an amulet to keep things from falling apart. Things do fall apart. It is in their nature to do so. When we try to protect ourselves from the inevitability of change, we are not listening to the soul. We are listening to our fear of life and death, our lack of faith, our smaller ego’s will to prevail. To listen to your soul is to stop fighting with life–to stop fighting when things fall apart; when they don’t go our away, when we get sick, when we are betrayed or mistreated or misunderstood. To listen to the soul is to slow down, to feel deeply, to see ourselves clearly, to surrender to discomfort and uncertainty and to wait.”― Elizabeth Lesser

In the twists and turns.
On the roads not chosen.
Unexpected yet here.
In smooth sailing.
Alignment, ease, going great.
In all of the in between of the ebbs and flows of life.
May you know you are so much more than your circumstances, trials, challenges.
Patience. Companionship. Love.
New day.
Look in, out, up.
Fresh courage.

“Have patience with all things but first with yourself. Never confuse your mistakes with your value as a human being. You are perfectly valuable, creative, worthwhile person simply because you exist. And no amount of triumphs or tribulations can ever change that.”― Saint Frances de Sales

Apr 6

Blossoms Breaking Open

“How strange that the nature of life is change, yet the nature of human beings is to resist change. And how ironic that the difficult times we fear might ruin us are the very ones that can break us open and help us blossom into who we were meant to be.”― Elizabeth Lesser, Broken Open: How Difficult Times Can Help Us Grow

“May you listen to the voice within the beat even when you are tired. When you feel yourself breaking down, may you break open instead. May every experience in life be a door that opens your heart, expands your understanding, and leads you to freedom. If you are weary, may you be aroused by passion and purpose. If you are blameful and bitter, may you be sweetened by hope and humor. If you are frightened, may you be emboldened by a big consciousness far wiser than your fear. If you are lonely, may you find love, may you find friendship. If you are lost, may you understand that we are all lost, and still we are guided—by Strange Angels and Sleeping Giants, by our better and kinder natures, by the vibrant voice within the beat. May you follow that voice, for This is the way—the hero’s journey, the life worth living, the reason we are here.  ”― Elizabeth Lesser, Broken Open: How Difficult Times Can Help Us Grow

May you find peace, equanimity, joy in this day.
Welcome them home like an old friend.
Put down the unnecessary.
Mute the noise.
Opening to answers different than your own.
Paths off trail.
Possibilities unfolding.
Broaden and deepen.
Sweetened by hope and humor.
Guided and held.
In the present moment.

“Whatever is happening, whatever is changing, whatever is going or not going according to my plans—I release my hold on all of it. I leave behind who I think I am, who I want to be, what I want the world to be. I come home to the great peace of the present moment,”― Elizabeth Lesser, Broken Open: How Difficult Times Can Help Us Grow

Mar 5

Growing Wings

“Despite the strength of their wings most never leave the cages they’ve created.”― Jason Versey, A Walk with Prudence

“There are two prerequisites to growing wings: the first is to feel encircled and the second is to believe that you can break the circle.”― Fatima Mernissi

Sometimes the author.
Sometimes being written.
Sometimes blank page.
Paths and thresholds, not of our choosing.
And we stagnate or pass through, cross over.
Insist less on control and certainty.
More emphasis on attunement and embracing.
A sharpening and honing of senses.
To awaken to what already is present and possible.
Look closer.
You have wings.
Use them.
Take flight.
From whatever ground you stand on.

“Endings come and go, but closure is a luxury. It often takes time if we ever get it at all, and it rarely looks like what we think.” – Emily P. Freeman

Feb 19

Till the Soil

“Untilled ground, however rich, will bring forth thistles and thorns; so also the mind of man.”― St. Teresa of Avila

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”― Ralph Waldo Emerson

Opinions, assumptions, judgments, wounds, control, unforgiveness, the past, worry.
Heavy weights to carry.
Rich soil beneath our feet becomes concrete.
Stuck in old ways, patterns, people pleasing, approval seeking.
Put it down.
Again and again.
All that is not yours to carry.
Lighten the load.
Deep breath.
Be kind to yourself.
View broadens.
Soil tilled.
Blooms ready to break ground.
Color, freshness, beauty in changing self, not circumstances.
Open heart, light spirit.
Till the soil of your mind.
Watch what blooms.

“Courage is the power to let go of the familiar.” – Raymond Lindquist

Feb 7

Now-ness, Next-ness, New-ness

“Learn to trust what you cannot see far more than what you can see.”― Caroline Myss, Anatomy of the Spirit: The Seven Stages of Power and Healing

“It may be that when we no longer know what to do,
we have come to our real work
and when we no longer know which way to go,
we have begun our real journey.

The mind that is not baffled is not employed.
The impeded stream is the one that sings.”― Wendell Berry

In now, awareness, attention, gratitude.
Struggle, fumbles, trips, carrying on.
Ordinary days graffitied with joy, beauty and laughter.
In next, anticipation, hope, leaping.
Unknowing, mystery, uncertainty, moving forward.
Ordinary days transformed by transitions, thresholds, change.
In new, growth, bloom, resurrection.
Trusting detours, delays, getting lost are the path intended.
Ordinary days never really ordinary at all.
Nows, nexts, news weaving together into the tapestry of life.

“She kept swimming out into life because she hadn’t yet found a rock to stand on.”― Barbara Kingsolver, Animal Dreams

Jan 31

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Once Again

“One clear moment, one of trance
One missed step, one perfect dance
One missed shot, one and only chance
Life is all…but one fleeting glance.”
― Sanober Khan

“Once I spoke the language of the flowers,
Once I understood each word the caterpillar said,
Once I smiled in secret at the gossip of the starlings,
And shared a conversation with the housefly
in my bed.
Once I heard and answered all the questions
of the crickets,
And joined the crying of each falling dying
flake of snow,
Once I spoke the language of the flowers. . . .
How did it go?
How did it go?”
― Shel Silverstein, Where the Sidewalk Ends

Reaction to response.
Bland to flavor.
Blah to burst.
Flat to dimension.
Threads to pattern.
Note to song.
Words to poem.
Trance to transcendence.
Muted to color.
Bud to bloom.
Beneath the surface, the obvious, the same, a stirring, rising, newness awaits our noticing and partaking.
Return to delight, joy, exultation, imagination, awe, wonder.
Once again.

“Change is the end result of all true learning.”― Leo Buscaglia

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