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Posts from the ‘Light’ Category

Nov 19

Inner Pause, Trail of Light

“Leave a trail of light behind you
Everywhere you go.
Whose darkness you’ll illuminate
You may never know.”― L.R. Knost

“Here’s to the bridge-builders, the hand-holders, the light-bringers, those extraordinary souls wrapped in ordinary lives who quietly weave threads of humanity into an inhumane world. They are the unsung heroes in a world at war with itself. They are the whisperers of hope that peace is possible. Look for them in this present darkness. Light your candle with their flame. And then go. Build bridges. Hold hands. Bring light to a dark and desperate world. Be the hero you are looking for. Peace is possible. It begins with us.” – L.R. Knost

Freely
In abundance
Without reserve, measure, comparison
Be kind
Door opener
Gentle breeze
Dancer of hope
Bridges not walls
Hand holding and hugs
Make this day a better place and space
Offer peace, enthusiasm, delight
Leave a trail of joy
Cast light

“Patience is an inner pause, a brief stillness, a moment we give ourselves to breathe through our initial reaction so we can move to the place where a calm, thoughtful response is born. Patience is a gift of time we give ourselves so we can give the gift of peace to others.”― L.R. Knost

Nov 18

Color this Day

“As we work to create light for others, we naturally light our own way.”― Mary Anne Radmacher

“what if
we just
acted like
everything
was easy?”
― Mary Anne Radmacher

Travel lightly
Easy
Unencumbered
Untethered
Put down rocks of yesterday and tomorrow
Grace for this day
Abundance in presence
Joy on purpose
Cast light, color too.

“Begin each day as if it were on purpose.”― Mary Anne Radmacher

Sep 22

Aperture Adjustment

“Deep in their roots, all flowers keep the light.” – Theodore Roethke

“Within you is the light of a thousand suns.” — Robert Adams

The lens aperture is the adjustable opening within a camera lens that controls the amount of light reaching the image sensor.
Measured in f-stops, a smaller f-number indicates a larger aperture, allowing more light in.
Less is more.
Slow down.
Reflect.
Focus on today.
Adjust the aperture.
Let the light in.
Beauty and joy too.

“Love is not consolation. It is light.” – Friedrich Nietzsche

Sep 13

Guardians of Light

“Everything takes time. Bees have to move very fast to stay still.”― David Foster Wallace, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men

“Let us be grateful
for the bees and fireflies—
small wonders
that keep the world
blooming and glowing,
our tiny guardians
of life and light.”
― Bhuwan Thapaliya

To put the world down
If but for a moment
To enter wonder and beauty
Revery and reverence
Let us be torches of kindness, of home
Lighthouses and warm embraces
To pick the world back up with love.

“To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,
One clover, and a bee,
And revery.
The revery alone will do,
If bees are few.”
― Emily Dickinson, The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson

Sep 9

Grand Spectacles

“Call for the grandest of all earthly spectacles, what is that? It is the sun going to his rest.”― Thomas de Quincey

The Sun by Mary Oliver

“Have you ever seen
anything
in your life
more wonderful
than the way the sun,
every evening,
relaxed and easy,
floats toward the horizon
and into the clouds or the hills,
or the rumpled sea,
and is gone–
and how it slides again
out of the blackness,
every morning,
on the other side of the world,
like a red flower
streaming upward on its heavenly oils,
say, on a morning in early summer,
at its perfect imperial distance–
and have you ever felt for anything
such wild love–
do you think there is anywhere, in any
language,
a word billowing enough
for the pleasure
that fills you,
as the sun
reaches out,
as it warms you
as you stand there,
empty-handed–
or have you too
turned from this world–
or have you too
gone crazy
for power,
for things?”

Between sunrise and sunset
May peace, joy, delight visit
Be interrupted, delayed, held up
For a long conversation
Beauty abound
Do not pass it by.

Sep 1

Threshold to Light

“There will always be a door to the light.”― Shiro Amano, Kingdom Hearts, Vol. 1

“CIRCLES OF LIFE

Everything
Turns,
Rotates,
Spins,
Circles,
Loops,
Pulsates,
Resonates,
And
Repeats.

Circles
Of life,
Born from
Pulses
Of light,
Vibrate
To
Breathe,
While
Spiraling
Outwards
For
Infinity
Through
The lens
Of time,
And into
A sea
Of stars
And
Lucid
Dreams.
― Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun

Seek and cast light today.
Simple and hard.
In a noisy distracted world.
In and out.
We can do hard things.
Crossing the threshold to light.

“Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.”― Leonard Cohen

Jul 26

Consecration of Light

“What if I’m in charge of my own damn light switch?”― Jandy Nelson, I’ll Give You the Sun

“All this hastening
Will soon be done;
For only lingering
Can consecrate our being”― Rainer Maria Rilke, Sonnets to Orpheus

Lingering in light
Seen and unseen
Outside but mostly within
Flip your light switch
Cast light.

“Light
Light
The visible reminder of Invisible Light.”― T.S. Eliot

May 9

Cheerful Beams

“Some people, in order to discover God, read books. But there is a great book: the very appearance of created things. Look above you! Look below you! Read it. God, whom you want to discover, never wrote that book with ink. Instead, He set before your eyes the things that He had made. Can you ask for a louder voice than that?”― Augustine of Hippo

“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

Luminous
Above, abound, within
Wonder, beauty, nature’s canvas
Painting cheerful beams
May the spring that is unfolding outside, cascade within
Peace, awe, light

“O Holy Spirit, descend plentifully into my heart. Enlighten the dark corners of this neglected dwelling and scatter there Thy cheerful beams.” – Saint Augustine

Feb 5

To Stand and Stare

“It will never rain roses: when we want to have more roses, we must plant more roses.”― George Eliot

“What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty’s glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
– Leisure”

― W.H. Davies, Common Joys and Other Poems

To stand and stare
Deep breath
Drink in beauty, hope, light
Stop, sit, rest
An empty vessel is of no use
We can’t carry it all
Long game
No short cuts
Detour, distractions, delays
Pause, gaze, anchor
To restore, bind, heal
Joy on the journey
Planting seeds of love along the way

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”― Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning

Jan 23

Illuminate Hope

“There are two kinds of light – the glow that illuminates, and the glare that obscures.” – James Thurber

“The great poets have sympathized with the people. They have uttered in all ages the human cry. Unbought by gold, unawed by power, they have lifted high the torch that illuminates the world.” – Robert Green Ingersoll

What can one person do?
I can be …

Kind
Welcoming
Generous
Unassuming
Non-judgmental
Joyful
Forgiving
Compassionate
Tough
Resilient
Empathetic
Listening
Inviting
Hope
Peace
Grace
Light
Love
Choose well
Fight the good fight
Illuminate, glow, do not be dimmed
We belong to each other

“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.” – Mother Teresa

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