Skip to content

Posts from the ‘Love’ Category

Sep 16

Tend to the Garden

“If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.” – Frances Hodgson Burnett

“I Choose Love…
No occasion justifies hatred; no injustice warrants bitterness. I choose love. Today I will love God and what God loves.

I Choose Joy…
I will invite my God to be the God of circumstance. I will refuse the temptation to be cynical. I will refuse to see people as anything less than human beings, created by God. I will refuse to see any problem as anything less than an opportunity to see God.

I Choose Peace…
I will live forgiven. I will forgive so I may live.

I Choose Patience…
I will overlook the inconveniences of the world. Instead of cursing the one who takes my place, I’ll invite him to do so, Rather complain that the wait is to long, I will thank God for a moment to pray. Instead of clenching my fist at new assignments, I will face them with joy and courage.

I Choose Kindness…
I will be kind to the poor, for they are alone. Kind to the rich, for they are afraid. And kind to the unkind, for that is how God has treated me.

I Choose Goodness…
I will go without a dollar before I take a dishonest one. I will be overlooked before I will boast. I will confess before I accuse. I choose goodness.

I Choose Faithfulness…
Today I will keep my promises. My debtors will not regret their trust. My friends will not question my word. And my family will not question my love.

I Choose Gentleness…
Nothing is won by force. I choose to be gentle. If I raise my voice may it only be in praise. If I clench my fist, may it only be in prayer. If I make a demand, may it be only of myself.

I Choose Self-Control…
I refuse to let what will rot, rule the eternal. I choose self-control. I will be drunk only by joy. I will be impassioned only by my faith. I will be influenced only by God. I will be taught only by Christ. I choose self-control.

Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control. To these I commit my day. If I succeed, I will give thanks. If I fail, I will seek His grace. And then when this day is done I will place my head on my pillow and rest.”― Max Lucado

Perspective and intention.
Abundance or scarcity, a bit of both.
Thoughts and words.
How they turn into action or inaction.
Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control.
Gifts and fruits of the spirit.
For a world in desperate need.
Daily choices.
Choose well.
Love trumps fear.
Tend to the garden.
Cast light.

“A world of grief and pain
flowers bloom—
even then.” – Kobayashi Issa

Jun 25

Bloom Joy

“It is love alone that gives worth to all things.”― St. Teresa of Avila

“You can safely assume you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.”― Anne Lamott

With the passage of time, I have fewer opinions, judgments, assumptions, need for certainty.
Assuming the best, that there’s more to the story.
Caring little about what “they say” I should do or not do.
Not bothering with approval, permission, acceptance.
Picking up fewer rocks to carry.
Owning less to walk softly, lightly.
Open heart, hands, fresh eyes.
To see the same differently.
Fear turns to hate, constricts, diminishes, condemns, narrows.
Love multiplies, invites, allows, welcomes, expands, deepens, seeks understanding, yields, connection.
Giving worth to all people, things, self.
Walk in love today.
A smile, laughter, a call, asking, listening, observing.
Transform your patch of the world.
Cast light, plant love, bloom joy.

“Thank God for the things that I do not own.”― St. Teresa of Avila

Jun 24

Bear Fruit Not Busy

“Love turns work into rest.”― Teresa of Avila

“Untilled ground, however rich, will bring forth thistles and thorns; so also the mind of man.”― St. Teresa of Avila

Till and turn.
Dig and loosen.
Rich soil.
Plant seeds.
Water and wait.
Nurture and pull weeds.
Thoughts, words, right action.
Change and be changed.
Growth and fruition.
Hope, joy, enthusiasm, kindness, generosity, encouragement, laughter, delight.
Daily practices to live big, each ordinary day.
Bear good fruit not empty busy.

“Pessimism, cynicism and fear will only lead to a very small life. Don’t live small.”― Neil Abramson

Jun 19

Take In and Give Out Good

“Taking in the good, whenever and wherever we find it, gives us new eyes for seeing and living.”― Krista Tippett, Becoming Wise: An Inquiry into the Mystery and Art of Living

“But if I’ve learned anything, it is that goodness prevails, not in the absence of reasons to despair, but in spite of them. If we wait for clean heroes and clear choices and evidence on our side to act, we will wait forever, and my radio conversations teach me that people who bring light into the world wrench it out of darkness, and contend openly with darkness all of their days. […] They were flawed human beings, who wrestled with demons in themselves as in the world outside. For me, their goodness is more interesting, more genuinely inspiring because of that reality. The spiritual geniuses of the ages and of the everyday simply don’t let despair have the last word, nor do they close their eyes to its pictures or deny the enormity of its facts. They say, “Yes, and …,” and they wake up the next day, and the day after that, to live accordingly.” – Krista Tippett, Speaking of Faith

Fight the good fight.
Do not back down.
Do not despair.
Work to do.
Get to it.
Daily.
Love wins.
Long hard haul, worth the trip.
Journey and destination,
Till dry soil.
Dig deep to fertile soil.
Plant seeds.
Tend, nourish, feed.
Bloom love, kindness, curiosity, enthusiasm, resolve, joy, freedom, resilience, hope.
Cast light.

“Generous listening is powered by curiosity, a virtue we can invite and nurture in ourselves to render it instinctive. It involves a kind of vulnerability – a willingness to be surprised, to let go of assumptions and take in ambiguity. The listener wants to understand the humanity behind the words of the other, and patiently summons one’s own best self and one’s own best words and questions.”― Krista Tippett, Becoming Wise: An Inquiry into the Mystery and Art of Living

Jun 8

Spirit of Generous Love

“Only love can be divided endlessly and still not diminish.”― Anne Morrow Lindbergh

WHEN WE BREATHE TOGETHER
A Blessing for Pentecost Day

“This is the blessing
we cannot speak
by ourselves.

This is the blessing
we cannot summon
by our own devices,
cannot shape
to our own purposes,
cannot bend
to our own will.

This is the blessing
that comes
when we leave behind
our aloneness,
when we gather
together,
when we turn
toward one another.

This is the blessing
that blazes among us
when we speak
the words
strange to our ears,

when we finally listen
into the chaos,

when we breathe together
at last.”

—Jan Richardson, Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons

Community.
Connection.
Communion.
Core to widening circles.
Woven and knit.
Empathy, compassion, kindness.
We belong to each other.
Love generously, without measure.
The only kind.
Breathing together.

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

Jun 3

Plant Rather than Weed

“Forgiveness is the name of love practiced among people who love poorly. The hard truth is that all people love poorly. We need to forgive and be forgiven every day, every hour increasingly. That is the great work of love among the fellowship of the weak that is the human family.”― Henri J.M. Nouwen

“You will find it less easy to unroot faults than to choke them by gaining virtues. Do not think of your faults, still less of others faults; in every person who comes near you look for what is good and strong; honor that; rejoice in it and as you can, try to imitate it; and your faults will drop off like dead leaves when their time comes.”― John Ruskin

To walk in love.
With self and others.
Lightly and with kindness.
Yielding and merging.
May goodness be the lens through which we see today.
An instrument of peace.
Conduit of encouragement, laughter, joy.
The great and daily work of love in bloom.
Plant more, weed less.

“I believe that the first test of a great man is his humility. I don’t mean by humility, doubt of his power. But really great men have a curious feeling that the greatness is not of them, but through them. And they see something divine in every other man and are endlessly, foolishly, incredibly merciful.”― John Ruskin

May 28

Light and Gravity

“Love is not consolation. It is light.”― Simone Weil

“Late Fragment

And did you get what
you wanted from this life, even so?
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved, to feel myself
beloved on the earth.”
― Raymond Carver, A New Path to the Waterfall

 May you experience the light of love.
Invite, embrace and cast it back out.
The gravity of joy, awe, wonder.
Anchor, root, extend.
Beloved on the earth.
Inviting others to partake.
Taste and see.
Light and gravity.
Love always wins.

“Two forces rule the universe: light and gravity.”― Simone Weil

May 24

Creating Beauty, Lens of Love

“Whenever you are creating beauty around you, you are restoring your own soul.” – Alice Walker

“Love as a disposition does not primarily act on abstract principle. Instead it is a way of seeing habitually and responding to the real, separate, individual needs of each of the people we encounter in our lives every single day.”― Roberta C. Bondi, To Love as God Loves

To be kind when it is not offered or withdrawn
To go first again
To not count or compare
To be peace in the chaos
To be patient longer
To yield rather than lunge
To slow and gaze
To abide and embrace
To trust and allow
A state of grace, awe, wonder
Love in action

“A waiting person is a patient person. The word patience means the willingness to stay where we are and live the situation out to the full in the belief that something hidden there will manifest itself to us.”― Henri J.M. Nouwen

May 13

Another Story

“Since love grows within you, so beauty grows. For love is the beauty of the soul.” – Saint Augustine

“There’s always another story. There’s more than meets the eye.”― W.H. Auden

May I be better at counting what is already present and available
Recording rights
Racking up joy
Frivolous with kindness
Hoarding awareness
Hearty with laughter
Harboring reverence
Rapt with attention
Careless with forgiveness, compassion, empathy
Slow to judge, assume, name, dismiss
Quick to inquiry
Choosing abundance over scarcity
Blown away again and again by simple beauty, abase and abound
Wandering aimlessly into unknowing, unlearning, undoing
On the hunt for wonder, awe, delight
Swift to praise, encouragement, enthusiasm
A bleeding heart, a sucker for believing in goodness, light, generosity
Early to welcoming, inviting and hospitality
Saving chairs at the table of love.

“There isn’t anyone you couldn’t love once you’ve heard their story. ”― Mary Lou Kownacki

May 11

Love without Measure

“The measure of love is to love without measure.”― Augustine of Hippo

“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.”― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

Mothers, sisters, aunts, friends
To all the women
Fierce
Brilliant
Bold
Resilient
Tough
Beautiful
Gritty
Patient
Grace
Endurance
Nurturing
Creative
Kind
Love with no boundaries, walls, borders
Grateful for all the women who bless my life each day
Past, present, to come
Here, gone ahead but remaining ever present, alive in my heart
Happy Mother’s Day today and each day
The world is complete, colorful, ever blooming with your presence
Shine

“You educate a man; you educate a man. You educate a woman; you educate a generation.”― Brigham Young

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »