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Posts from the ‘Nature’ Category

Oct 20

Harvest Moon

“We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature – trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence… We need silence to be able to touch souls.” – Mother Teresa

“When I admire the wonders of a sunset or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in the worship of the creator.” – Mahatma Gandhi

Bright, brilliant night sun, holding off the dark a bit longer to harvest summer’s bounty.
Pause long enough to be awestruck by the rising of the moon and sun.
Pulling us out of ourselves long enough to see the expanse and bigness of life.
Beyond circumstances and swirling thoughts, anchoring us in beauty and light.
The Author of life created the moon, sun and each of us.
We are held.
Magnificent wonders within and all around.
Harvest the bounty.

“The magnificent cosmos is a palace that has the sun and the moon as its lamps and the stars as its candles; time is like a rope or ribbon hung within it, on to which the Glorious Creator each year threads a new world.” – Said Nursi

Oct 17

Winding River

“He who does not know his way to the sea should take a river for his guide.” – Blaise Pascal

“The sun shines not on us but in us. The Rivers flow not past, but through us.” – John Muir

As the river bends, may you turn gently, washing over rocks, flowing with ease.
As the trees sway to the wind without breaking, may you bend, dancing in the breeze.
Standing knee deep in the river of life, finding joy in ordinary days.
Witness and participate.
Enter the song, the poem, the dance of grace, beauty and light.
The winding river flowing to the sea.

“Blessed are the hearts that can bend; they shall never be broken.” – Albert Camus

Oct 16

Quench

“Now and then it’s good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy.” – Guillaume Apollinaire

“It’s not only moving that creates new starting points. Sometimes all it takes is a subtle shift in perspective, an opening of the mind, an intentional pause and reset, or a new route to start to see new options and new possibilities.” – Kristin Armstrong

Take a field trip today.
No permission slip needed.
Go somewhere close, a place you pass each day but don’t notice.
A path into the woods, a bench by water, your back yard.
Look at the same and familiar with fresh eyes, open arms and listening ears.
This place, this timeout, this detour is where gratitude waits to be found.
Where the present moment resides.
Listen, look and receive.
Life is happening now amidst imperfections, distractions and delays.
Pause long enough to be in it and be quenched by enough.
Weave awe into the fabric of your life in the place you are right now.

“Silence is the pause in me when I am near to God.” – Arvo Part

Oct 15

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Glorious River

“If you get simple beauty and naught else, you get about the best thing God invents.” – Robert Browning

May you be swept away daily in beauty abound.
To be reminded of the expanse and depth in awakening.
To enter the flow of the river of life.
To be held in awe and gratitude, in possibility and beauty.
Glorious moments in ordinary days.

The Brook
By Alfred Lord Tennyson

“I come from haunts of coot and hern,
I make a sudden sally
And sparkle out among the fern,
To bicker down a valley.

By thirty hills I hurry down,
Or slip between the ridges,
By twenty thorpes, a little town,
And half a hundred bridges.

Till last by Philip’s farm I flow
To join the brimming river,
For men may come and men may go,
But I go on for ever.

I chatter over stony ways,
In little sharps and trebles,
I bubble into eddying bays,
I babble on the pebbles.

With many a curve my banks I fret
By many a field and fallow,
And many a fairy foreland set
With willow-weed and mallow.

I chatter, chatter, as I flow
To join the brimming river,
For men may come and men may go,
But I go on for ever.

I wind about, and in and out,
With here a blossom sailing,
And here and there a lusty trout,
And here and there a grayling,
And here and there a foamy flake
Upon me, as I travel
With many a silvery waterbreak
Above the golden gravel,

And draw them all along, and flow
To join the brimming river
For men may come and men may go,
But I go on for ever.

I steal by lawns and grassy plots,
I slide by hazel covers;
I move the sweet forget-me-nots
That grow for happy lovers.

I slip, I slide, I gloom, I glance,
Among my skimming swallows;
I make the netted sunbeam dance
Against my sandy shallows.

I murmur under moon and stars
In brambly wildernesses;
I linger by my shingly bars;
I loiter round my cresses;

And out again I curve and flow
To join the brimming river,
For men may come and men may go,
But I go on for ever”

Oct 12

Into the Wild

“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.” – Albert Einstein

The Peace of Wild Things
by Wendell Berry

“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.”

Open and receive the grace woven in stillness, quiet and rest.
Without effort or forethought of grief.
A holy sacred place, inviting all in.
Enter the peace of the wild things to awaken to the breath, depth and presence of life.

Oct 4

Forest and Trees

“The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.”― John Muir

“In our mediocrity and distraction, we forget that we are privileged to live in a wondrous universe.”— John O’Donohue

When you cannot see the forest for the trees, step back and observe the forest, the entire picture, the full journey. Uncover the narrative you’ve come to believe. Fiction or nonfiction? When too close to opinions, assumption and criticism, step back and find the connection between self and others. We are more alike than different. Humans, carrying stories that confine and constrict, trying to figure out the ending and missing the journey in the process. Joy can exist separate from circumstances and is rooted in gratitude.

Find the sacred in this day, found within. Be gentle and others. Kindness and peace to you today and each day that follows. Enter the sanctuary of the trees to be brought back to the fundamental and holiness of living daily. Clarity found in quiet. Ease found in pause. Gratitude found in seeing both the forest and the trees.

“Nothing is holier, nothing is more exemplary than a beautiful, strong tree. When a tree is cut down and reveals its naked death-wound to the sun, one can read its whole history in the luminous, inscribed disk of its trunk: in the rings of its years, its scars, all the struggle, all the suffering, all the sickness, all the happiness and prosperity stand truly written, the narrow years and the luxurious years, the attacks withstood, the storms endured…

Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach, undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life.

A tree says: A kernel is hidden in me, a spark, a thought, I am life from eternal life. The attempt and the risk that the eternal mother took with me is unique, unique the form and veins of my skin, unique the smallest play of leaves in my branches and the smallest scar on my bark. I was made to form and reveal the eternal in my smallest special detail.

A tree says: My strength is trust. I know nothing about my fathers, I know nothing about the thousand children that every year spring out of me. I live out the secret of my seed to the very end, and I care for nothing else. I trust that God is in me. I trust that my labor is holy. Out of this trust I live.

When we are stricken and cannot bear our lives any longer, then a tree has something to say to us: Be still! Be still! Look at me! Life is not easy, life is not difficult. Those are childish thoughts. Let God speak within you, and your thoughts will grow silent. You are anxious because your path leads away from mother and home. But every step and every day lead you back again to the mother. Home is neither here nor there. Home is within you, or home is nowhere at all.” – Herman Hess, Bäume. Betrachtungen und Gedichte

“You should belong first in your own interiority.”— John O’Donohue

Sep 25

Expanse and Enormity

“The vastness of this endless sky is reflected in the corner of an eagle’s eye. In just this way, the heart when lifted up, reflects the universe.” – Mark Nepo

“The sun will not rise or set without my notice, and thanks.” – Winslow Homer

Lay down the unnecessary. Pick up the essential. Walk lightly. Hover and float. Breathe in beauty. Take notice. Embrace the vastness of now.

Awake. Aware. In awe.

 

Sep 18

Here and Now

“Sunset is still my favorite color, and rainbow is second.” – Mattie Stepanek

“The real enemies of our life are the ‘oughts’ and the ‘ifs.’ They pull us backward into the unalterable past and forward into the unpredictable future. But real life takes place in the here and now.” – Henri Nouwen

Take this day and shape it, mold it, embrace it.
Steep like a tea bag, allowing the flavor to release fully with pause and patience.
Reflect and shine.
Appreciate and comprehend the immensity of breath and flow with ease.
Later will take care of itself.
Remain in the here and now.
Be fully present and awake.

“God is a God of the present. God is always in the moment, be that moment hard or easy, joyful and painful.” – Henri Nouwen

Sep 13

Pause and Praise

“Take a walk with a turtle. And behold the world in pause.” – Bruce Feiler

“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” – Lao Tzu

Stop in your tracks;
Feel your feet on the earth;
Eyes to sky;
Pause to anchor in the essentials;
Release distractions;
No hurrying or flurrying
Unfolding, unwrapping;
Gratitude requires observation, demands reflection, sparks awe;
Slow and steady, pause and praise.

“Nature’s music is never over; her silences are pauses, not conclusions.” – Mary Webb

Sep 12

Big Canvas

“The sky is the daily bread of the eyes.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Life is a great big canvas; throw all the paint you can at it.” – Danny Kaye

Break out the paint and color your day.
In solitude and contemplation, collect and release.
Accept and embrace.

“Solitude is not something you must hope for in the future. Rather, it is a deepening of the present, and unless you look for it in the present you will never find it.” – Thomas Merton

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