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Posts from the ‘Mindfulness’ Category

May 28

Keen Awareness

“Ordinary love, anonymous and unnoticed as it is, is the substance of peace on earth, the currency of God’s grace in our daily life.”― Tish Harrison Warren, Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life

In the economy of the day
Of a life which is made up of the accumulation of days
In what we choose to do and not to do
In plans, in detours, delays, and in what just happens
May each of us have a keen awareness of the details in the present as well as the 10,000 foot view to see the expanse
To be grateful, joyful, even in the struggles, especially then
Senses sharpened, awareness sharp, grace overflowing.

“God is not found in the soul by adding anything but by subtracting” — Meister Eckhart

May 25

Small Bits

“Our task is not to somehow inject God into our work but to join God in the work he is already doing in and through our vocational lives.”― Tish Harrison Warren, Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life

“The new life into which we are baptized is lived out in days, hours, and minutes. God is forming us into a new people. And the place of that formation is in the small moments of today.”― Tish Harrison Warren, Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life

Feeling flat?
In a rut?
Is there more?
Someday when.
Remember when.
When, when, when.
Turn off auto-pilot.
Wake up and dive in.
Beneath the surface, more than skimming.
Participate and play.
Ordinary days.
We are steeped in beauty.
Overflowing in possibilities.
Pay attention, notice, enter the grace of small bits, sacred ground.

“…small bits of our day are profoundly meaningful because they are the site of our worship. The crucible of our formation is in the monotony of our daily routines.”― Tish Harrison Warren, Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life

May 16

Awake Every Day

“Vision is the art of seeing things invisible.”― Jonathan Swift

“May you live every day of your life.”― Jonathan Swift

Slow time by noticing it.
Steeping in it, like a tea bag for full flavor.
The pause, stillness, quiet to be present fully where you are right now.
Witness the unfolding of the petal of a flower.
Feel the break of a smile and delight in laughter.
Put down the world and pick up this moment.
All stages of bloom, seed, bud, broken open.
Live every day, see the invisible and trust you will be put where you should be.

“If I am not, may God put me there; and if I am, may God so keep me.” – Joan of Arc

May 9

Read Well

“There is always something left to love.”― Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude

“Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.”― Voltaire

Like a book
We skim many pages of our days
Rereading some to understand, to redo
Underlining moments to make them stick
To imprint in memory
Read today well
Not merely skimming, passing through without attention
Seek to understand, to learn, to see the story unfolding
Read and write the narrative
How it all ties together in moments, ordinary and extraordinary
Inquire. Love. Dance.

“How will the world change if we do not question it?”― Kate DiCamillo, The Magician’s Elephant

Apr 21

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Miracles Abound

“If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we aren’t really living.” – Gail Sheehy

“Miracles happen everyday, change your perception of what a miracle is and you’ll see them all around you.” – Jon Bon Jovi

With ease, open to receive, to give.
Rapt attention, a shift in perspective, fresh eyes, listening ears.
Senses on and in tune to experience the same in a new way.
Ordinary becomes extraordinary.
Miracles in nature, in flowers bursting to greet spring, in spirit and soul.
Come alive, look longer, breath deeper.
In this day, be present and awake.
Be there fully.

“The glory of God is a human being fully alive.” — Ireneaus

Feb 4

Noticing

“keep fresh before me the moments of my high resolve.”― Howard Thurman

“Everyone chases after happiness, not noticing that happiness is right at their heels.” – Bertolt Brecht

From winter solstice to now, light is lingering longer.
Now seen, felt, noticed.
Sunset in December: 4:39 pm.
Sunset today: 5:22 pm.
Slow start – four minutes total between Christmas and New Year’s Day.
Steady increase – after New Year’s, exponential jump to two minute per day.
Growth zone – gaining three minutes per day by February 20.

Light, always there, returning in its own time, awaiting our attention.
Our noticing.
Beauty, color, joy woven throughout each day.
Our noticing.
In slivers, slices, thin spaces, overflowing and abundant with wonder and awe.
Our noticing.
Threads to fabric to cloth to tapestry, pieces to patterns.
Our noticing.

Hone your senses, your noticing skills.
Pull back, zoom in.
Savor, delight, steep.
A shift, a tilt, a different angle.
Seeing the same in a new way.
In the pause, in the lingering, in the noticing.
Moments of high resolve.

“Silence is the eloquence of the wise.”― Augusto Branco

Dec 30

Make Me Think

“The Abrahamic religions refer to God as Spirit, the holy wind animating life.”― Diana Butler Bass, Grounded: Finding God in the World-A Spiritual Revolution

“I wonder how many people I’ve looked at all my life and never seen.”― John Steinbeck, The Winter of Our Discontent

I love things that make me think, really think.
Move me to another level, to discovery, an unfolding.
That challenge, make me look twice and again, longer, beneath the surface, above the obvious.
To beauty, to patterns, to connection, to wonder, imagination and awe.
A space of unknowing, unlearning, undoing of assumptions, opinions and judgment.
Relational rather than transactional.
A book, a song, a poem, a flower, a sunset, a child, an adult who remembers what it’s like to be a child.
Expanding rather than contracting.
An invitation, allowing and opening.
From me and other to us.
A response and action to change and be changed.
To see and be seen.
Make me think and think again.
Through my mind but mostly through my heart.

“Dream up the kind of world you want to live in. Dream out loud.”― Bono

Dec 27

Respond

“The resting place of the mind is the heart.”― Elizabeth Gilbert

“Respond to every call
that excites your spirit.”
― Rumi, The Essential Rumi

From the temporal to the eternal, back again.
The tide, ebb and flow.
Close then pull back, microscope to telescope.
From the petal of a flower to the expanse of the sky.
The dance, the poem, the song.
Heart, spirit, soul, body, parts to whole.
A shepherd, leading back to self and other, connection, home again.

“Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder. Help someone’s soul heal. Walk out of your house like a shepherd.”― Rumi

Dec 26

Underneath, Above, All Around

“Man is equally incapable of seeing the nothingness from which he emerges and the infinity in which he is engulfed.”― Blaise Pascal

“Find the life underneath your life situation.” – Eckhart Tolle

If there is one resolution, one intention to set, finding the life underneath situation and circumstances seems to be a pretty solid pursuit.
A framework, a perspective, a mindset.
Changing what can be changed and leaving the rest.
Living in the unknowing, the unplanned, the unexpected, the mystery.
Finding joy, beauty, light on the journey.
Underneath, above and all around.
Nothingness and infinity.
Emerge and engulf.
Discover and expand.

 “Like the padre said, life is a mystery to be lived. Live your mystery.”― Kelly Corrigan, Tell Me More: Stories about the 12 Hardest Things I’m Learning to Say

Nov 16

Already Here

“…And we pray, not for new
earth or heaven, but to be quiet
in heart, and in eye clear.
What we need is here.”― Wendell Berry

“You mustn’t wish for another life. You mustn’t want to be somebody else. What you must do is this:
“Rejoice evermore.
Pray without ceasing.
In everything give thanks.”
I am not all the way capable of so much, but those are the right instructions.”― Wendell Berry, Hannah Coulter

We get and give advice.
We read the books.
We conjure up the formula, the secret recipe.
We search for the shortcut.
We have the instructions.

And yet, and yet, still.

Amid the schemes, the prescriptions, life continues in the unknowing, uncertainty and mystery.
Changing.
Twisting, turning, flipping, flopping.
From boredom to busy.
We don’t need all the answers.
We need to live well with the questions.
Moving through with a sense of wonder and delight, gratitude and optimism for no good reasons at all.
Merely because we can, especially when it makes no sense at all.
Be present in today.
Be kind, generous, light, laughter, grateful, playful, at ease.
What we need is already here.

“It may be that when we no longer know what to do,
we have come to our real work
and when we no longer know which way to go,
we have begun our real journey.

The mind that is not baffled is not employed.
The impeded stream is the one that sings.”― Wendell Berry

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