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Posts from the ‘Nature’ Category

Oct 17

Infinite Expectations

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms…”― Henry David Thoreau

“We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us even in our soundest sleep. I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavour. It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.”― Henry David Thoreau, Walden or, Life in the Woods

Get out
Of your head
Of the constant stream of scarcity, doom and fear
Of opinions, judgment, assumptions, assertions, othering
Tonic of wilderness, play, laughter, beauty, light, joy
Abundance overflowing to partake in
My Dad taught us to always fill the gas tank when it’s half full, so you don’t run out
Don’t wait until it’s almost empty, on fumes
Fill ‘er up
Play, wander, explore
Slowing and savoring
Repeat often, be made new daily
Nature calls so we can reclaim our own true nature
To do the work for the long haul, with generosity and a happy heart
Stay awake
Live deliberately

“We need the tonic of wildness…At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature.”― Henry David Thoreau, Walden: Or, Life in the Woods

Aug 29

Bloom Recklessly

“Colors are the smiles of nature.” – Leigh Hunt

“Everything is blooming most recklessly; if it were voices instead of colors, there would be an unbelievable shrieking into the heart of the night.” – Rainer Maria Rilke

Bloom
Recklessly
All seasons
Colorful palette
Paint
Hues
Bright
Brilliant
Beautiful
Enter nature and let it enter you.

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

Aug 1

Wild Things Gazing

“Hidden in the glorious wildness like unmined gold.”― John Muir

“When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.” – Wendell Berry

Withing arms reach, embrace
Outside the door, cross the threshold
The ground before, walk it out
The wild things, the peace and grace
Forest green, woven in plain sight
Slowness to see required
Wonder and awe to enter
Unmined gold
Of nature, not man
Dig daily.

“In every walk with Nature one receives far more than he seeks.”― John Muir

May 14

Rising Up Rooted

“If we surrendered
to earth’s intelligence
we could rise up rooted, like trees.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God

“Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.”― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

How we think of things
The work behind the work
The stories we tell
Plot twist
Draw into mystery rather than false certainty
Inquiry, attention, listening
A new story unfolding
Blank page to be written
Broaden, deepen, widen
Widening circles
Deep roots
New risings

“I live my life in widening circles that reach out across the world.”― Rainer Maria Rilke, Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God

Apr 30

Patches and Streams

“Any patch of sunlight in a wood will show you something about the sun which you could never get from reading books on astronomy. These pure and spontaneous pleasures are ‘patches of Godlight’ in the woods of our experience.”― C.S. Lewis

“…May I live this day
Compassionate of heart,
Clear in word,
Gracious in awareness,
Courageous in thought,
Generous in love.”― John O’Donohue, Benedictus: A Book of Blessings

Ever-present
Curious, open, welcoming
In the details
In anticipation
In spontaneous, simple pleasures
Patches and streams of light woven through this very day.

“Everything in life opens and closes, sheds and renews. We are no different.” – Mark Nepo

Mar 9

Nature’s Song

“Nature is the one song of praise that never stops singing.” – Richard Rohr

“Don’t waste yourself in rejection, nor bark against the bad, but chant the beauty of the good.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

Pick up
Put down
What to bypass, discard, hold, carry
Take a break, a respite, a sliver of pause
The beauty of the good
Praise, gratitude and reverence
To reset, recalibrate and choose where to put attention, effort and energy
Sunday well and walk forward with peace grounded in love.

“The longer I live, the more I observe that carrying around anger is the most debilitating to the person who bears it.”― Katharine Graham

Feb 22

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Young by Heart, Not Years

“If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel’s heart beat, and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence.”― George Eliot, Middlemarch

What Can I Say by Mary Oliver

“What can I say that I have not said before?
So I’ll say it again.
The leaf has a song in it.
Stone is the face of patience.
Inside the river there is an unfinishable story and you are somewhere in it and it will never end until all ends.

Take your busy heart to the art museum and the chamber of commerce
but take it also to the forest.
The song you heard singing in the leaf when you were a child is singing still.
I am of years lived, so far, seventy-four, and the leaf is singing still.”

Old, young, in-between
Fast, slow, stop
More slow for awe
Less doing for being
Rapt attention and reverence
To hear the song in the leaf
Rock solid in patience of unfolding and becoming
In the flow and current of life
Young by heart, not years
Embracing joy, wonder, delight

“When I was young, I had to choose between the life of being and the life of doing. And I leapt at the latter like a trout to a fly. But each deed you do, each act, binds you to itself and to its consequences, and makes you act again and yet again. Then very seldom do you come upon a space, a time like this, between act and act, when you may stop and simply be. Or wonder who, after all, you are.”― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Farthest Shore

Nov 21

The Noble Art

“One thing I’ve learned in the woods is that there is no such thing as random. Everything is steeped in meaning, colored by relationships, one thing with another.”― Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass

“Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.” – Lin Yutang, The Importance of Living

In the choosing of the doing.
More in the not doing.
From transactional to relational.
Slowing and pausing.
Pruning to grow.
What is most important?
Put your effort and attention there.
The noble art of choosing well.

“In order to seek one’s own direction, one must simplify the mechanics of ordinary, everyday life.” – Plato

Aug 19

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Like Water Does

“Water is the most perfect traveler because when it travels it becomes the path itself!” ― Mehmet Murat Ildan

“Water does not resist. Water flows. When you plunge your hand into it, all you feel is a caress. Water is not a solid wall, it will not stop you. But water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing, in the end, can stand against it. Water is patient. Dripping water wears away a stone. Remember that, my child. Remember you are half water. If you can’t go through an obstacle, go around it. Water does.” ― Margaret Atwood

River to rapids.
Steady to still.
Movement to pause.
Activity and busy mastered.
Pause and float.
The lesson to learn, to master.
Release control of the uncontrollable.
Tune out the noise, from yourself the most.
Hold what is yours to hold.
Do but also be, more.
Become the path.
Enjoy the daily journey.
Nowhere else to be but where you are now.
Do not miss the depth, breadth, expanse of the present.
Soon to be called, “remember when.”

“Surrender to the flow.” – Mike Gordon

Jul 19

Call to Stillness

“I am love. It is never lacking or able to be stolen from me. I am good enough. I trust life. Life is kind. There is no pain too great not to be fed by my love and kindness. I am strong. My worth is not to be gained. I am already all of the worth I will ever be.”― Sarah Blondin, Heart Minded: How to Hold Yourself and Others in Love

“To the dark nights, the relief of the moon. The soft earth that forms to cradle the shape of my foot. To the crickets and the birds who sing our world into harmony. To the flowers that wish to sit on my windowsill, the trees that grow to reach the most sunlight. To the grass that sways and soothes. To the webs the spider tirelessly builds overnight only to be torn down in the daylight. To the life that pulses in exaltation below my feet every day that I am alive. To the portal it offers into a remembrance of our wholeness. To our source of unconditional love.”― Sarah Blondin, Heart Minded: How to Hold Yourself and Others in Love

In nature, beauty to awaken senses and awe.
In a slow morning, to anchor, root and set course.
In relationships, to feed, foster, be present.
A call to stillness.
To discover what I think, to be changed, to return to love without condition.
Heed the call to broaden, deepen, open, wonder, wander, grow, delight.
May joy meet you today.

“I know how scary or intimidating it can be to disconnect, to walk in the opposite direction of all that bright, shiny, noisy distraction. I have faced that fear again and again as I have answered my own call to stillness. But no matter the size of aversion or fear, you must trust me when I say that all that will matter, all that will ever amount to anything, is the relationship you have with the world you carry around inside of you.”― Sarah Blondin, Heart Minded: How to Hold Yourself and Others in Love

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