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Posts from the ‘Inspiration’ Category

Sep 7

Inspiration, Hope, Action

“America is hope. It is compassion. It is excellence. It is valor.” — Paul Tsongas

“No duty is more urgent than that of returning thanks.” — James Allen

Good friends (thanks Suz and Matt!) invited me back again this year to the Tee It Up for the Troups golf tournament in Eau Claire Wisconsin yesterday. A fantastic nonprofit that has been serving and supporting the military for 20 years, raising $16 million dollars to serve their vision to help military veterans and their families to heal, transition, grow, and thrive.

During the opening ceremonies of honoring our veterans, those serving and Gold Star families, four paratroopers floated down in the sky. A truly inspirational and wonderful event. I share this to not only promote the organization but to also remind us of the good, selfless people that we are surrounded by every single day.

We need to be reminded that “We the People” get the politicians we vote for and tolerate. Our challenges and issues are complex, complicated and nuanced, requiring different perspectives and all sides working together. Solutions don’t fit on a bumper sticker, slogan or sign. No one party has all of the answers. And rather than “othering,” blaming, complaining, mocking, name-calling, fearmongering, we the people are called to something bigger than our own self-interest into service of others. Yesterday was a living example of regular people who accepted the call to serve others and give the best of themselves for freedom and democracy. Do not take it for granted.

Learn about issues, candidates and vote. Take action today by being kind, generous and grateful. And after November, no matter the outcome, get to work and become a participant rather than a complaining spectator. That’s what makes “We the People” the great, imperfect democracy that will thrive, prosper and keep working to serve others and be the best humans we can be.

To all of the military and their families, thank you, thank you for your service, sacrifice and example of what we are all called to do to honor and serve others who are around us every day.

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” — John Quincy Adams

“True patriotism isn’t cheap. It’s about taking on a fair share of the burden of keeping America going.” — Robert Reich

Nov 5

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Full Tilt

“Take every minute, one at a time. Don’t be fooled by a perfect sea at any given moment. Accept and rise to whatever circumstance presents itself. Be in it full tilt, your best self. Summon your courage, your true grit. When the body fades, don’t let negative edges of despair creep in. Allowing flecks of negativity leads to a Pandora’s box syndrome. You can’t stop the doubts once you consent to let them seep into your tired, weakened brain. You must set your will. Set it now. Let nothing penetrate or cripple it.”― Diana Nyad, Find a Way

I’ve been waiting for the new movie Nyad to come out on Netflix.
Watched it last night with friends.
Outstanding, inspirational and ass-kicking.
In 2013, I remember the television coverage of Diana Nyad coming up on shore after five attempts to swim Cuba to Florida.
Exhausted beyond measure, stumbling on shore, pausing to say three things:

“Never, ever give up. You’re never too old to chase your dreams. It looks like a solitary sport, but really a team effort.”― Diana Nyad

Four failures, victory on the fifth.

“I failed and faltered many times, but I can look back without regret because I was never burdened with the paralysis of fear and inaction.”― Diana Nyad

And she did it at 64 years old! – 110 miles. 53 hours. The first person to do this without the use of a shark cage for protection.

Amazing feat and wonderful reminder to keep going, do the work over and over, and not give up or be deterred by failures along the way. True grit, focus and toughness.

“Whatever your Other Shore is, whatever you must do, whatever inspires you, you will find a way to get there.”― Diana Nyad

So here’s to the “other shores” in life and to the resilience, commitment and hard work to keep pushing to get to the other side imperfectly, with failures, detours, delays and always getting up one more time than we fall.

Keep dreaming and pursuing. Never too old.

Oct 1

Equilibrium

“May you experience each day as a sacred gift woven around the heart of wonder.” — John O’Donohue

“For Equilibrium, a Blessing:
Like the joy of the sea coming home to shore,
May the relief of laughter rinse through your soul.

As the wind loves to call things to dance,
May your gravity by lightened by grace.

Like the dignity of moonlight restoring the earth,
May your thoughts incline with reverence and respect.

As water takes whatever shape it is in,
So free may you be about who you become.

As silence smiles on the other side of what’s said,
May your sense of irony bring perspective.

As time remains free of all that it frames,
May your mind stay clear of all it names.

May your prayer of listening deepen enough
to hear in the depths the laughter of God.”

― John O’Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

May wisdom enter so we can see and open the gifts woven in each day.
Centered and awake in this sacred place of ordinary.
On holy ground of joy detached from circumstances.
A return to self and rapt awareness of how we are connected to all living beings.
Grace, reverence, respect, freedom, perspective, clarity, the laughter of God.
Seek equilibrium and reside in the balance and ease.

Sep 25

Expanse and Enormity

“The vastness of this endless sky is reflected in the corner of an eagle’s eye. In just this way, the heart when lifted up, reflects the universe.” – Mark Nepo

“The sun will not rise or set without my notice, and thanks.” – Winslow Homer

Lay down the unnecessary. Pick up the essential. Walk lightly. Hover and float. Breathe in beauty. Take notice. Embrace the vastness of now.

Awake. Aware. In awe.

 

Aug 15

Pink Power

“Flowers have spoken to me more than I can tell in written words. They are the hieroglyphics of angels, loved by all men for the beauty of their character, though few can decipher even fragments of their meaning.” – Lydia M. Child

Tickled Pink by Kevin Kling

“At times in our pink innocence, we lie fallow, composting, waiting to grow.
And other times we rush headlong like so many of our ancestors.
But rushing or fallow, it doesn’t matter
One day you’ll round a corner, you’ll blink
And something is missing
Your heart, a memory, a limb, a promise, a person
An innocence is gone
Your path, as though channeled through a spectrum, is refracted, and has left you in a new direction.
Some won’t approve
Some will want the other you
And some will cry that you’ve left it all
But what has happened, has happened, and cannot be undone.
We pay for our laughter. We pay to weep. Knowledge is not cheap.
To survive we must return to our senses…touch, taste, smell, sight, sound.
We must let our spirit guide us, our spirit that lives in breath.
With each breath we inhale, we exhale.
We inspire, we expire.
Every breath holds the possibility of a laugh, a cry, a story, a song.
Every conversation is an exchange of spirit, the words flowing bitter or sweet over the tongue.
Every scar is a monument to a battle survived.
When you’re born into loss, you grow from it.
But when you experience loss later in life, you grow toward it.
A slow move to an embrace,
An embrace that holds tight the beauty wrapped in the grotesque,
An embrace that becomes a dance, a new dance, a dance of pink.”

May you dance with pink
May all of your senses embrace grace and gratitude
The frailties, imperfections and brilliance of this life
Exhale, inhale, exhale, return to your breath and the present
Grow toward it all and fall forward into the newness of this very day.

Jul 18

Divinity

“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

“Your lesson in this lifetime is to find and trust your own precious voice.”― Elizabeth Lesser

May your heart be soft
Ears attuned
Eyes clear
Imagination open for business
Hands unclenched to receive
Your yolk easy and burden light

Work with the clay you have now to shape the life that is only yours to create
Found in what is already present in this moment
Awaken and be held by the divine, the sacred, the holy.

“Then Jacob woke from his sleep, ‘Surely the Lord is in this place – and I did not know it!” – Genesis 28:16

Jun 10

Color Parade

“Your attitude is like a box of crayons that color your world. Constantly color your picture gray, and your picture will always be bleak. Try adding some bright colors to the picture by including humor, and your picture begins to lighten up.” – Allen Klein

“Life did not stop, and one had to live.”— Leo Tolstoy

The bright brilliant, unending parade of flowers remind us that life continues to unfold, bloom, burst, fade, finish and then begin yet again. Allow yourself to be surprised, to be awed, to be awakened. Look around, not back and not too far ahead. This season is overflowing with beauty – cannon ball into the deep end and flap around with delight. One has to live. Seek, soak and cast light.

“That though the radiance which was once so bright be now forever taken from my sight. Though nothing can bring back the hour of splendor in the grass, glory in the flower. We will grieve not, rather find strength in what remains behind.” – William Wordsworth

Apr 24

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Radiant Colors

“Nature always wears the colors of the spirit.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“What we think is less than what we know: What we know is less than what we love: What we love is so much less than what there is; and to this precise extent, we are much less than what we are.” – R.D. Laing

Break free from the constraints and boundaries of certainty, scarcity and calculation. It is futile work to try to figure out the ending before you begin. Enter the mystery of your becoming, your gifts, your genius.

Move out a step at a time, allow the path to unfold, the beauty to take stage, front and center. A shift, a tilt, a new angle. That’s all that it takes to see the same world in a new way, the same you in a new way. It starts and end within. Use all of the colors in the box and color outside the lines.

Seek light, depth, abundance, gratitude, joy, more – all within your reach each day. Reach.

“Within the clear light of a crystal lie all of the colors of the rainbow. Within our own nature lies everything we need to find our way through the experiences of the world. Most of us only use one or two colors. We forget that we have all the wisdom, strength, patience, compassion, perseverance, and joy necessary to meet our every challenge. Radiance will shine forth from within when we open to the Radiant Light that is our True Nature.” – Ann Mortifee, In Love with the Mystery

Mar 21

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Fresh and Refresh

“Ever since happiness heard your name, it has been running through the streets trying to find you.” – Hafez

It’s a daily job, an obligation, a calling. Letting go.

Letting go of our opinions, judgment, complaints, our rightness and others wrongness to open up to love, to optimism, to fresh expansive boundless territory. Pursuing light and not stopping until we find it. We find what we pursue and expect. Be intentional and pay attention. The light remains whether we seek it or not. Seek it.

Self-awareness is the first step to self-mastery, empathy and hope – a mighty trio. Be open to surprise, expansion, depth and growth woven through ordinary days.

One of my daily non-negotiable rituals is meditation using Insight Timer. This morning I chose, or perhaps it chose me, the poem She Let Go by Safire Rose as spoken and composed by Jac Godsman.

She Let Go
by Safire Rose

She let go. Without a thought or a word, she let go.

She let go of the fear.
She let go of the judgments.
She let go of the confluence of opinions swarming around her head.
She let go of the committee of indecision within her.
She let go of all the ‘right’ reasons.
Wholly and completely, without hesitation or worry, she just let go.

She didn’t ask anyone for advice.
She didn’t read a book on how to let go.
She didn’t search the scriptures.
She just let go.
She let go of all of the memories that held her back.
She let go of all of the anxiety that kept her from moving forward.
She let go of the planning and all of the calculations about how to do it just right.
She didn’t promise to let go.
She didn’t journal about it.
She didn’t write the projected date in her Day-Timer.
She made no public announcement and put no ad in the paper.
She didn’t check the weather report or read her daily horoscope.
She just let go.

She didn’t analyze whether she should let go.
She didn’t call her friends to discuss the matter.
She didn’t do a five-step Spiritual Mind Treatment.
She didn’t call the prayer line.
She didn’t utter one word.
She just let go.
No one was around when it happened.
There was no applause or congratulations.
No one thanked her or praised her.
No one noticed a thing.
Like a leaf falling from a tree, she just let go.

There was no effort.
There was no struggle.
It wasn’t good and it wasn’t bad.
It was what it was, and it is just that.
In the space of letting go, she let it all be.
A small smile came over her face.
A light breeze blew through her.
And the sun and the moon shone forevermore…

 

Jan 25

Beauty in the Details

“Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity; so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand.” – Henry David Thoreau

“They say that every snowflake is different. If that were true, how could the world go on? How could we ever get up off our knees? How could we ever recover from the wonder of it?” – Jeanette Winterson

In our need to have certainty, to be right, to feed our ego, we snuggle up in our assumptions, judgments and narratives. We bucket people, circumstances and experience, creating a sense of security and stability. Building foundations on sand, we are perplexed when they crumble.

Be willing to unlearn, to go deep to the root, to see the complexity in the details. Expand your capacity for joy through sincere inquiry, rapt attention and childlike curiosity. Open to the wonder hidden in each day, go past mere knowing to understanding, nuance and transformation.

From a distance, the snow is a white blanket. Up close, a brilliant tapestry of light, art and delicate form reminding us of the beauty in the details. Invite and accept the gift of deep awareness of what already is present. Awaken your senses and embrace delight in the ordinary.

In the details, in still points, within each soul, the spark of divinity longs to be revealed and released. To your knees, remaining long enough to hear the voice of divinity.

“Your inner voice is the voice of divinity. To hear it, we need to be in solitude, even in crowded places.” – A. R. Rahman

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