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Posts from the ‘Emergence’ Category

Apr 10

Wing Building

“If you are falling….dive.”― Joseph Campbell

“I take pleasure in my transformations. I look quiet and consistent, but few know how many women there are in me.”― Anais Nin

To be never done.
Yet content.
Unfolding.
Unfurling.
Waiting.
Slow then sudden.
Tipping points.
Becoming.
Thresholds and transitions.
Masterpieces in the making, never finished.
Trust the still small voice.
Doing the next right thing.
The stuff of transformation.
Of wing building.

“When she transformed into a butterfly, the caterpillars spoke not of her beauty, but of her weirdness. They wanted her to change back into what she always had been. But she had wings.”― Dean Jackson

Feb 25

Sacred Shaping

“The soul speaks its truth only under quiet, inviting and trustworthy conditions…If we are willing to walk quietly into the woods and sit silently for an hour or two at the base of a tree, the creature we’re waiting for may well emerge.” – Parker J. Palmer, Let Your Life Speak

“The miracle, upside-down work of God is that our failure isn’t an obstacle, it’s an opportunity to remember to sink into God. Not having what it takes is not a liability, it’s a prerequisite. Maybe there is hope for us after all.”― Emily P. Freeman, A Million Little Ways: Uncover the Art You Were Made to Live

In the putting down.
In rest and reflection.
In slowing.
Clenched fists opening.
Seeds falling.
Seeds taking root.
To receive something not of our doing, efficiency and striving.
Borne of our not doing, of our very being.
Wintering to prepare for the brilliance of spring.
In the putting down, in the pause, in the stillness.
We discern what to pick up again.
What to leave behind.
Reshaped, renewed, refreshed.
Sacred shaping at work.

“Be faithful to plant. Release the growing to God. Open up clenched fists and let the seeds drop into the ground, let them burrow down deep and do their secret work in the dark. Sacred shaping happens in the waiting.”― Emily P. Freeman, A Million Little Ways: Uncover the Art You Were Made to Live

Jan 6

No Longer and Not Yet

“In every place, no matter where you look, there are nooks that one seems to see, odd little spaces and hidden corners that hide from the world in plain sight. In every single square inch of the world, no matter how populated, there are what could be called liminal places, tiny little spaces, sometimes vast stretches, where the average laws of space and time are not wholly adhered to, you might say.”― John Kreiter, The Art of Transmutation

“Honor the space between no longer and not yet.”― Nancy Levin

Losses
Shifts
Changes
Transitions
Seasons
Sameness
Suddenness
Twists
Turns
Straight lines
Deadends
Bridges
One, some, all
In different measure
A multitude of things
Concrete and abstract
Emergence
What to do with it all?
Invite and entertain
Joy
Beauty
Light
Hope
Reflection
Kindness
Inquiry
Attunement
Empathy
Compassion
Trust
Faith
Transformation
Enthusiasm
In the known and especially in the unknown
In the unseen but brewing
In the simmer before the boil
In the frozen ground preparing for bud
Doors and windows in all walls and boundaries
Exits and entrances all at once
Thresholds to cross
Reverence, wonder, awe in the knowing and unknowing, the present moment.

“God does not give us more than we can handle,” I am told but I wonder if God doesn’t overestimate me just a little. Or perhaps, and this is likely, I underestimate God.”― Julia Cameron, Finding Water: The Art of Perseverance

Nov 7

Row Your Boat

“Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart.
…live in the question.”― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

“We must row in whatever boat we find ourselves in.”― Christie Watson, Tiny Sunbirds, Far Away

Less angst, paralysis and analysis about the boat you are in.
Or comparing to other boats.
More rowing.
In action rather than inaction.
Listening, faith, movement.
The path unfolds in the traveling, the daily rowing.
Unknowing, unlearning to see what lies beneath the surface.
Emergence at the right time, slower than our demands.
Ready and steady.
Answers and more questions leading to more clarity, discernment.
Live in, with and through the questions.
Row the boat. Your boat.

“We make our way through Everything like thread passing through fabric, giving shape to images that we ourselves do not know.”― Rainer Maria Rilke

Oct 11

Emergence of Wonder

“Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder.”― E.B. White

“I embrace emerging experience.
I participate in discovery.
I am a butterfly.
I am not a butterfly collector.
I want the experience of the butterfly.”― William Stafford

Change your mind.
Think differently about things for a minute.
Give the benefit of the doubt.
Offer second and third chances.
Longer glances.
Put space between stimulus and response.
Respond thoughtfully rather than react habitually.
Assume good intentions and be proven wrong.
Put down rules, judgment, assumptions to invite connection, expansion.
Foster understanding.
Don’t have an opinion about everything.
Offer empathy, compassion and kindness.
Watch what grows.

Keep looking for the good.
Be awed by beauty.
Carried by hope.
Surprised by joy.
Held in peace.

“But hope has an astonishing resilience and strength. Its very persistence in our hearts indicates that it is not a tonic for wishful thinkers but the ground on which realists stand.”― Kathleen Norris, Acedia & Me: A Marriage, Monks, and a Writer’s Life

Sep 29

Already Here

“In the unexpected, we find the deep stillness. In the unrehearsed, we come ablaze.” — Mark Nepo, Falling Down and Getting Up: Discovering Your Inner Resilience and Strength

“Lifted and dropped enough by life, I finally put down the yearning that kept prodding me with the misperception, “If I could just get over there, then I would be fully alive.” I am already fully alive. You are already fully alive. We all are. By following our passion, we just become more of who we are. We just brighten like the sun, which doesn’t go anywhere. We are not chasing truth. We are becoming truth.” — Mark Nepo, Falling Down and Getting Up: Discovering Your Inner Resilience and Strength

In the pause of stillness.
Heart-centered.
Light and with ease.
May you know the expanse of what already is present.
Overflowing with anticipation of what will bloom from the roots of where you are planted now.
Becoming, allowing and unfolding are the journey we are on.
Grounded in today.
Already here.

“As great a tool as the intellect is, the mind chases, while the heart grounds. And so, a liability of the mind is that it seduces us to believe that life is always over there. But through great love and great suffering, the heart discovers, again and again, that life is always where we are—always here. This sometimes painful and sometimes tender realization grounds us in our lives and in life itself.” — Mark Nepo, Falling Down and Getting Up: Discovering Your Inner Resilience and Strength

Sep 28

Shift Your Thoughts

“You find peace not by rearranging the circumstances of your life, but by realizing who you are at the deepest level.”― Eckhart Tolle

“The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but your thoughts about it.”― Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose

Some answers are yes or no.
Some multiple choice.
Both, and, plus.
Yes and no.
Most an essay.
Some unanswered, a mystery to be lived.
Nuance and complexity.
Listen. Inquire. Be receptive.
Be open to new paths.
Unexpected detours and delays.
Find ease, joy and delight right where you are now.
Allow the journey to unfold one step at a time.
Beauty emerging. New eyes to see it. Fresh legs to walk it.

“Some changes look negative on the surface but you will soon realize that space is being created in your life for something new to emerge.”― Eckhart Tolle

Sep 15

One More Time

“The afternoon knows what the morning never suspected.”― Robert Frost

“When Medieval Monks were asked how they practiced their faith, they said, “By falling down and getting up.” This is the human journey from which no one is exempt. We are constantly challenged to get up one more time than we fall, to open one more time than we close, and to put things together one more time than we take them apart.”— Mark Nepo, Falling Down and Getting Up: Discovering Your Inner Resilience and Strength

Transitions of seasons.
External and internal.
Thresholds and openings.
Starts and stops.
Betweenness.
Trips and stumbles.
Overcoming and ease.
Emergence.
Trust the journey that flowers and butterflies know by heart.
Seed in the dark. Bloom in the light.
Weight of the cocoon. Lift of flight.
Time. Waiting. Anticipation.
Getting up again and again.
Seeing beauty along the way.

“In a modern age that commodifies everything, our challenge is to grow from the inside out, letting every holy calling find its own expression within us and between us. After decades of listening to the stories and struggles of others, I can bear witness that teaching, in its most profound form, is not moving a life from here to there, or from effort to achievement, or even from chaos to order. Rather, teaching is creating the enduring environment in which the seed of the soul can know itself and blossom.” — Mark Nepo, Falling Down and Getting Up: Discovering Your Inner Resilience and Strength

Aug 26

Emergence Under Construction

“Be like the sun for grace and mercy. Be like the night to cover others’ faults. Be like running water for generosity. Be like death for rage and anger. Be like the Earth for modesty. Appear as you are. Be as you appear.”― Rumi

“Everything must break open in order to live. The seed must break open in order for the tree to grow. The egg must break open in order for life to emerge. The Earth must be turned and the cloud must burst. You were never meant to stay in your shell.”― Thomas Lloyd Qualls, Painted Oxen

In the ordinary.
In the daily.
A river runs deep within.
An ocean, ebb and flow, rhythm and raging.
Grounding and transformation.
Sharpen your senses to go within and reach out.
Surface and deep.
One song.
Emergence under construction.

“This is a uni-verse (”one song’). There’s one song playing everywhere and we are all notes in it. There are no “special” or “better” notes. Every note is necessary and contains the whole essence of the music. All the power and substance of the universe is seeking to sing its song through you as magnificently as it has ever been sung before.”― Derek Rydall