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Posts from the ‘Contemplation’ Category

Feb 26

A Listening, One Inch at a Time

“And the world cannot be discovered by a journey of miles, no matter how long, but only by a spiritual journey, a journey of one inch, very arduous and humbling and joyful, by which we arrive at the ground at our own feet, and learn to be at home.”― Wendell Berry, The Unforeseen Wilderness: Kentucky’s Red River Gorge

“A LISTENING: Going through Lent is a listening. When we listen to the word, we hear where we are so blatantly unliving. If we listen to the word, and hallow it into our lives, we hear how we can so abundantly live again.” – Ann Weems, Kneeling in Jerusalem

Listening and hearing.
Watching and seeing.
Witnessing and awe.
A journey rather than race.
Being over doing.
Sabbath. Lent. Dailyness. Sacred.
Baffled to employment of the mind.
To wonder, wander, seek, ponder.
An essay not a math problem to be solved.
A question to be lived, often unanswered, the seeking continues.
Abundantly living each day, again and again.
One inch at a time.
What will this day reveal to you?
Listen.

“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

Jan 22

What to Leave Out

“In music, silence is more important than sound.” – Miles Davis

“Some day I’m gonna call me up on the phone, so when I answer, I can tell myself to shut up.”― Miles Davis

Our innate reaction to challenges is to figure out what to do.
Action is important to trigger change, shift behavior, make progress.
Often, the right action is not in doing and adding but in silence and subtracting.
Creating space to hear anew, see with fresh eyes.
To see what’s in right in front of us that we keep stepping over, going around, avoiding, bypassing.
In search of the “answer,” the “easy button,” that’s out there somewhere, in some day if and when this and that happens.
Many answers lie within, most require time and all require quiet to rise to the surface. Some never come at all, remaining a mystery, an unknowing.
Discerning what is in my control (me), what is not (others) and what just is.
We can then respond insightfully rather than react habitually.
Quiet your internal chatter, tune out external noise, inquire and observe, listen with an open heart and arms.
The sound of silence at work.

“I always listen to what I can leave out.”― Miles Davis

Sep 9

Slowly Born

“No single event can awaken within us a stranger totally unknown to us. To live is to be slowly born. It would be a bit too easy if we could go about borrowing ready-made souls.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery

“There is meaning in every journey that is unknown to the traveler.”― Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Pause, gaze, witness.
Below the surface.
At your feet.
Within reach.
Observe the details, the layers.
Patterns, themes, threads.
Known, unknown.
Understood, misunderstood
The story of your life.
Sentences, chapters, the arc of the story.
Unfolding, opening, transforming.
Not done yet.
The story continues.
Slowly born.

“There are things known and things unknown and in between are the doors.” – Jim Morrison

Aug 29

Embrace the Bloom

“Coincidences are God’s way of getting our attention.”― Frederick Buechner

“The original, shimmering self gets buried so deep that most of us end up hardly living out of it at all. Instead we live out all the other selves, which we are constantly putting on and taking off like coats and hats against the world’s weather.” ― Frederick Buechner, Telling Secrets

Invite your shimmering self out to play, to remain
Release what was, should have been or what might be
Enter the flow of bud to bloom, everything in between
Awake, aware, in tune to this day, what it will bring with fresh eyes
Embrace the bloom, the mystery and certainty.

“Just let go. Let go of how you thought your life should be, and embrace the life that is trying to work its way into your consciousness.”― Caroline Myss

Aug 14

Unseize

“Doing nothing often leads to the very best of something.” – Winnie the Pooh

“Peace is not something you can force on anything or anyone… much less upon one’s own mind. It is like trying to quiet the ocean by pressing upon the waves. Sanity lies in somehow opening to the chaos, allowing anxiety, moving deeply into the tumult, diving into the waves, where underneath, within, peace simply is.” – Gerald May

Put it all down for the day.
Wander with no sense of time.
No place to be, no deadlines.
Simply rest, take in the day.
Feed your spirit with quiet, lightness, undoing.
Unseize the day so you can seize what is truly important and worthy.

“Your mind will answer most questions if you learn to relax and wait for the answer.” – William S. Burroughs

Jul 19

1 Comment

The Task

“The beginning is always today.” – Mary Wollstonecraft

“The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts.” – C. S. Lewis

New day.
Fresh start.
Inquire.
Explore.
Learn.
Unlearn.
Retire old thoughts.
Expand.
Plant.
Irrigate deserts.
Begin anew.
Ask better questions.
Allow answers to surface.
Move out from there.

“Is the life I’m living the life that wants to live in me?” – Parker Palmer

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