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Posts from the ‘Change’ Category

Aug 19

Not Done Yet

“To have courage for whatever comes in life – everything lies in that.” – Saint Teresa of Avila

When others say it’s over and you still have more to do, to give
You are not done yet
When you begin to doubt yourself and think it may be true
You are not done yet
When you are bypassed, discarded, dismissed
You are not done yet
When the call gets softer and the noise gets louder
You are not done yet
When you are too old, too young, too this, too that
You are not done yet
Keep believing and doing the work to become who you were created to be
You are not done yet
Run your race, cross the finish line
You are not done yet

“Be who you were created to be, and you will set the world on fire.”― St. Catherine of Siena

Jul 17

Unlearning and Reorder

“Thought can organize the world so well that you are no longer able to see it.”― Anthony de Mello, One Minute Wisdom

“As one man said, “I got a pretty good education. It took me years to get over it.” That’s what spirituality is all about, you know: unlearning. Unlearning all the rubbish they taught you.”― Anthony de Mello, Awareness: The Perils and Opportunities of Reality

Unknowing, unlearning, unraveling.
Detachment, observation, understanding.
Sensing, wonder, curiosity.
Willingness to change and be changed.
Deeper, lingering, transformation.
Order, disorder, reorder.
May you travel well into new territory, unfamiliar land, unfolding mystery.
With patience, grace and love.

“We see people and things not as they are, but as we are.”― Anthony de Mello, Awareness: The Perils and Opportunities of Reality

Jul 5

1 Comment

Choose, Respond, Change

“My coming to faith did not start with a leap but rather a series of staggers from what seemed like one safe place to another. Like lily pads, round and green, these places summoned and then held me up while I grew. Each prepared me for the next leaf on which I would land, and in this way I moved across the swamp of doubt and fear.” – Anne Lamott

“Every human has four endowments – self-awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom… The power to choose, to respond, to change.” – Stephen Covey

Power to choose your thoughts.
Respond rather than react.
Inviting and allowing change, growth, expansion.
Unfolding, uncovering, revealing what is beneath and in reach.
Never done.
The adventure continues.
Enjoy the scenery on the journey.
Carry a light load.
Bloom.

“It is our birthright to uncover the soul—to remove the layers of fear or shame or apathy or cynicism that conceal it.”― Elizabeth Lesser, Broken Open: How Difficult Times Can Help Us Grow

Jun 27

1 Comment

From the Dirt

“It is when we notice the dirt that God is most present in us; it is the very sign of His presence.” – C.S. Lewis

“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

Keep planting, tilling, tending.
Bloom comes in its own time.
Rising from the dirt.
Allow, invite, observe.
Wait.
Heavy sigh, the waiting.
And it is in the waiting, transformation from seed to bloom is doing its work.
Pause the pursuit and be found.
Listen, watch, all senses in play.
Slow down, quiet, peel the layers.
Your voice, whispering.

“Courage, dear heart.” – C.S. Lewis

Jun 22

1 Comment

Excavation

“The enlarging of the soul requires not only some remodeling, but some excavating.” – Neal A. Maxwell

“The struggle to excavate your true, authentic self from beneath the mountain of conditioning and ridiculous expectation is the epic struggle of your lifetime.”― Bryant McGill

We want to know where we are going before we start.
Balking, hesitating, we remain in stasis.
Returning to the past, to certainty, to the comfort of familiarity.
If we choose to excavate, digging deeper, we find what needs to be discarded, put down and integrated to move on.
It’s the necessary work to destinations unknown, awaiting our arrival, to welcome us home to belonging and authentic self.
When we do the work of excavation and integration, we are on the journey of transformation.
Slow harvesting.
Keep going.

“The light of our thought is always excavating our rich inheritance of darkness. The cradle of origin whose mysteries arise with the dawn, darkness is also the secret homeland where the slow harvestings of twilight return to become woven into the subtle eternity of memory. – John O’Donohue

Apr 2

In Between Time

“Light precedes every transition. Whether at the end of a tunnel, through a crack in the door or the flash of an idea, it is always there, heralding a new beginning.” – Theresa Tsalaky

A Blessing for the In-Between

“Blessed are we, somewhere unnameable, fully present to our reality. Tracking it, with all its subtle gradations and colors and contrasts, the sweetness and the struggle, the stuck and not-quite-fitting. Authentic to it, mapping the full strangeness of the new emergent landscape. Blessed are we, dear ones, not calling it too soon. Not settling for the neat and buttoned-up, the too-tied-up, the not-quite-true. Bless all of it, the way we might widen our gaze to encompass it and embrace it. And bless you, moving into the unknown, waiting, daring to hope.”— Good Enough: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection by Kate Bowler, Jessica Richie

Lent is in between time.
Two plus years of a pandemic is in between time.
I just quit a job I’ve had for 17 years and will be starting a new job on April 20 – in between again.
The threshold. One foot behind and one on the other side.

We spend a lot of our life in between, hurdling, crossing. Getting stuck in the past one day and stuck in the future in another. Usually missing this day. It’s beauty and blessings. What was or to come than what is.

Change is often thrust upon us, not of our choice or making. We react, resist, hold tight to what is to not make waves. Change beckons us to move out of our comfort, familiarity, certainty, even if false. When we get to choose change, when we dare to move into the unfamiliar, unstuck, new territory, we move into our power.

May you feel blessed in the in between times, the endings and new beginnings. Hopeful, steady and renewed in the dance of transition. Winter to spring back to winter and then finally spring. Move into the growth, the present, the possibilities.

“It is when we are in transition that we are most completely alive.” – William Bridges

Mar 31

Unrepeatable Miracle

“We have all the light we need, we just need to put it in practice.” – Albert Pike

“We move through the world with a kind of tunnel vision that prevents us from enjoying what is in front of us.” – Tara Brach, Radical Acceptance

May you see what’s right in front of you now, grateful.
Awake in the fullness of this moment, unbound.
Alert in the possibility found in fresh thinking, expansive.
Shaken from a trance of worry and doubt, worthy.
Choosing to change, unstoppable.
Stirred to move into newness, shining.
Joy, awe, ease to you as you broaden, deepen and unfold.

“The only way to live is to accept each minute as an unrepeatable miracle, which is exactly what it is: a miracle and unrepeatable.” – Storm Jameson

Nov 13

The Mountain Within

“Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit.” – e. e. cummings

“Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering.” – Saint Augustine

Weave new things into your daily flurry of autopilot “to do” lists, commitments and activities to expand, discover and deepen. Three of my favorite podcasts that I listen to in the car or on a run that stretch my mind, spark wonder and prompt reflection include:

Everything Happens by Kate Bowler
On Being by Krista Tippett
Poetry Unbound by Pádraig Ó Tuama

Explore, inquire, listen and transform. Fill your reservoir with music, art, poetry, reflection, rest, play. Infuse joy, laughter and fun too. Do not pass yourself at the altar of productivity, checklists and “someday when things are perfect thinking.” Your life is happening today. Pause, sit down and be still. You are pretty awesome, more than enough and worthy. Climb the mountain within.

“Neuroscience research shows that the only way we can change the way we feel is by becoming aware of our inner experience and learning to befriend what is going inside ourselves.”― Bessel A. van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mid, and Body in the Healing of Trauma

Oct 24

Reflection and Definition

“Change comes from reflection.” – Genesis P-Orridge

“How dull it is to have people defining you.” – Octavia E. Butler

After soaring over the lake welcoming the day, the eagle landed on a rock.
Gazing around at rest, he looks down at the water, frozen in rapt attention.
Seeing his reflection looking back, he stares.
In that moment of pause, he sees himself, defines himself.

Spend time daily apart from opinion, memory and imposed narratives that have defined you.
Suspend, open, look with new eyes.
Gaze at the reflection looking back at you.
See and take in your True Self, God’s definition not others or your own.
The self that is still unfolding and unfurling that needs no permission or approval.

If you are alive, you are still in the game, on the field, expected to participate, to contribute.

Search and find the divinity within and let it change you.
Transcending to see the beautiful, one-of-a-kind soul reflecting back at you.
Worthy. Unique. Here on and for a purpose.
Move into it with confidence and grace.

Soar.

“The True Self is not our creation, but God’s. It is the self we are in our depths. It is our capacity for divinity and transcendence.” – Sue Monk Kidd

Aug 19

Unfoldings

“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” – Elizabeth Appell

“Life is lived on levels and arrived at in stages.” –  Edwin Louis Cole

Bulb planted
Roots take hold
Breaks ground
One stem branches in all directions
A balancing
Reaching for the sky
All stages in play
From bud to bloom
Unfolding in stages
Patiently
On time, never late.

Life is found in the process, in the middle, woven tightly between beginnings and endings, unfolding in front of us.
Step back to see progress, growth, lessons, blessings.
Experience loss all the way through, it’s the cost of loving deeply, the full spectrum of living awake.
Experience joy all the way through, it’s the foundation that keeps you rooted when the winds blow strong and relentless.
Experience hope all the way through, it’s the embrace that holds and heals, transforms and transcends.
Do not dismiss ordinary days, the very place and space that holy and sacred reside.
God has placed beauty, wonder and awe hidden right in front of us, never missing a day.
In nature, in another passing soul, in our own soul.
The rhythm of breath, the warmth of light, the flow of time.
Invite it all in to capture your attention, to enter your awareness, to stop you in your tracks.
Forego busy and efficiency, the pursuit of accumulation.
Choose flow, fruition, seed to bloom, waiting in joy in the in between.
Unfoldings abase and abound.

“As life has a way of unfolding as it is meant to, I have learned to trust life.” – Linda Thompson

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