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Posts from the ‘Mindfulness’ Category

Nov 23

The Work of Attention, Presence

“Friluftsliv is about communing with nature and with yourself, and about unburdening oneself from anything but being present. It’s about disconnecting from the day-to-day in order to connect with something older, wilder, and larger.”― Kari Leibowitz, How to Winter: Harness Your Mindset to Thrive on Cold, Dark, or Difficult Days

The work of not working
Of slowing, rest, recreation
Witnessing and observing
Quieting
Noticing
Listening
At ease
Allowing
Abiding
Experiences and encounters
Of presence
Rather than productivity, performance, speed
Awe, wonder, enchantment
Communion, relating, tending
Deep in the journey of this day
Be here, now.

“How we attend to things shapes our existence. Our attention is a powerful tool, and it plays a tremendous role in our everyday experience. What we attend to becomes what we see, and what we see becomes what we engage with, and what we engage with becomes our life.”― Kari Leibowitz, How to Winter: Harness Your Mindset to Thrive on Cold, Dark, or Difficult Days

Nov 16

Forefront and Backdrop

“There is a magic made by melody:
A spell of rest, and quiet breath, and cool
Heart, that sinks through fading colors deep
To the subaqueous stillness of the sea,
And floats forever in a moon-green pool,
Held in the arms of rhythm and of sleep. ”
― Elizabeth Bishop

“There are those fortunate hours when the world consents to be made into a poem.”― Mark Doty

Space and reflection
Curiosity and attention
Pause and praise
Spell of rest to notice
Forefront and backdrop
Magic of melody, flow
Music and poetry woven into this day
To be found, to be written
Joy, no slight thing

“What did you think, that joy / was some slight thing?”― Mark Doty

Oct 30

Uninhibited. Unafraid. Untethered. 

“God is more time than schedules, more grace than boundaries, more everything than the imaginable.”― Kaitlin B. Curtice, Native

“What might we learn if we listen, if we wade in—unafraid, untethered, and uninhibited—ready to become the ones we were created to become.”― Kaitlin B. Curtice, Native

More space, margins, imagination
Less busy, noise, doing
More and less
Awe and gratitude
Beauty and wonder
Always arriving, becoming, unfolding
Time does not stop, rewind, jump ahead
Today is what lies before each of us
For grace, sense and capacity to be here fully
Uninhibited. Unafraid. Untethered.

“You are a human being. You are always arriving.”― Kaitlin B. Curtice, Living Resistance

Oct 13

Opt Out, Opt In

“Hope is often misunderstood. People tend to think that it is simply passive wishful thinking: I hope something will happen but I’m not going to do anything about it. This is indeed the opposite of real hope, which requires action and engagement.”― Jane Goodall, The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times

“Find meaning. Distinguish melancholy from sadness. Go out for a walk. It doesn’t have to be a romantic walk in the park, spring at its most spectacular moment, flowers and smells and outstanding poetical imagery smoothly transferring you into another world. It doesn’t have to be a walk during which you’ll have multiple life epiphanies and discover meanings no other brain ever managed to encounter. Do not be afraid of spending quality time by yourself. Find meaning or don’t find meaning but ‘steal’ some time and give it freely and exclusively to your own self. Opt for privacy and solitude. That doesn’t make you antisocial or cause you to reject the rest of the world. But you need to breathe. And you need to be.”― Albert Camus, Notebooks 1951-1959

Deep breath
Soft heart
Fresh eyes
Attune ears
Reaching hands
Curious intellect
Stance of joy, hope, delight
What we opt of and what opt into makes our day, sets the tone
Choose well.

“there seems to be a disconnect between our clever brain and our compassionate heart.”― Jane Goodall, The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times

Oct 7

Stand Still

“In the midst of movement and chaos, keep stillness inside of you.” Deepak Chopra

Lost
by David Wagoner

“Stand still.
The trees ahead and the bushes beside you Are not lost.
Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you,
If you leave it you may come back again, saying Here.

No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still.
The forest knows Where you are.
You must let it find you.”

Stand still
To be
Present
At ease
Rooted
Joyful
Found
Stand still
Allow
Open
Anticipate
Hope
Laugh
Delight
To be rather than to do
Stand still, sit, gaze
In the pause, treasure.

“To lead the orchestra, you have to turn your back on the crowd.” ― Max Lucado

Sep 12

Freshened Honed Senses

“Great Mystery, I awaken this morning with deep gratitude for the gift of life. May the renewal of faith in this season be the ground from which perfect peace will grow.”― Joan Borysenko, Pocketful of Miracles

“When we are mindful, experiencing the world around us freshly with all our senses, we leave the judgements of small mind behind and enter the web of interconnectedness, the Big Mind of God. Happiness, joy, peace and gratitude arise spontaneously from within our hearts.”― Joan Borysenko, Pocketful of Miracles

Small mind shifting to Big mind
Panoramic view to see expanse
Re-entering the details with freshened honed senses
Teaspoon of gratitude making the way for gallons, overflowing
May I be fully awake to today
Beauty, blessings, peace, awe, wonder
All of it, in abundance
Ordinary to extraordinary, a breath away

“Gratitude is a natural outcome of mindfulness. It is also a way to become mindful. We often shut out natural beauty by becoming mindlessly absorbed in the chatter and worry of small mind with its endless self-absorbed attachments to past and future.”― Joan Borysenko, Pocketful of Miracles

Sep 2

Walking and Waking

“Memory is not a place to retreat to or hide in, but the lighting of some very tender kindling in the back of our heart to warm us going forward.” – Mark Nepo, The Fifth Season: Creativity in the Second Half of Life

The path unfolds walking it out
Delays, detours, curves, part of the journey too
Walking and waking
Attune and aware
Trusting the unfolding
Curiosity and wonder
Walking today’s road, gratitude the map
Waking to the beauty, senses ready
One step at a time, grounded and lightly.

“At this point in my life, I was coming to understand the more enduring nature of acceptance. It is not resignation or compliance. It is not giving up. More deeply, it is how our soul cooperates with the truth of things as they are, the way a fish swims with the current of the river that is its home. In this, acceptance is not static but quite active, requiring our dexterity. When fully engaged, the practice of acceptance gives us the strength and agility to live as fully as possible, regardless of our circumstances.” – Mark Nepo, The Fifth Season: Creativity in the Second Half of Life

Aug 26

Spacious Radiance

“The ripple effect stemming from a single moment of love might be infinite in reach.”― Narissa Doumani, A Spacious Life: Memoir of a Meditator

“It starts with a single breath and the present moment, but where it takes you is into the vast radiance of your true nature, into a magical, spacious life.”― Narissa Doumani, A Spacious Life: Memoir of a Meditator

Spacious
Stillness
Attention
Reverence
Immersion
Emergence
Reflection
The beauty, width, density, depth of moments
And for the sense to recognize them while in them
Single breath
Fresh eyes
Vast radiance
Take the trip often, daily.

“The whole present moment was a celebration; it always had been; all I needed was fresh eyes to see it.”― Narissa Doumani, A Spacious Life: Memoir of a Meditator

Jul 22

Deep Breath, Rapt Attention

“The breath of the mind is attention”― Joseph Joubert, The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert: A Selection

“Breath is the bridge which connects life to consciousness, which unites your body to your thoughts. Whenever your mind becomes scattered, use your breath as the means to take hold of your mind again.”― Thich Nhat Hanh, The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation

Deep breath
Flow and ebb
Rapt attention
Beauty and gratitude rising to the forefront
In communion with this day, fullness of moments
The secret of life

“Remember to breathe. It is after all, the secret of life.”― Gregory Maguire, A Lion Among Men

Jul 20

Center of Things

“The journey itself is my home.”― Matsuo Basho

“In Chinese lore, the fifth season is late summer, when the glare is gone and only the color of things as they are can reach us. It takes all the seasons to become this bare. All the turmoil to be worn of our edges. All the loss to hold on to nothing. All the seasons to wear our hands open. Landing here, I no longer want things. I only want moments. In the sun. In the rain. With you. When confused or sad, I only want to look to what is and tumble into joy. Together. Alone. I want to put down all I’ve been carrying and simply be.” – Mark Nepo, The Fifth Season: Creativity in the Second Half of Life

May this day be filled with moments
Of attention, wonder, joy, gratitude, laughter, peace, presence
Being awake and alive in the Center of Things
Light
Simply being.

“When drawn into the race of the surface world, we find ourselves running to and from. But when blessed to fall down, we are broken of the trance. When blessed to fall into the Center of Things, we and the life before us become clear.” – Mark Nepo, The Fifth Season: Creativity in the Second Half of Life

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