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Posts from the ‘Spring’ Category

Glimpse

“Seeing beauty in a flower could awaken humans, however briefly, to the beauty that is an essential part of their own innermost being, their true nature.” – Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth

"The Amen of nature is always a flower.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

“The Amen of nature is always a flower.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Let each day unfold without pretense or prediction of what will or should be. Look for the good in others and yourself and let the rest go. Stop trying to fix others and control the uncontrollable. Glimpses of light and clarity are woven through each day to awaken us to life, to ourselves.

Plentiful

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” – Anne Frank

“Find out how much God has given you and from it take what you need; the remainder is needed by others.” – Saint Augustine

“Find out how much God has given you and from it take what you need; the remainder is needed by others.” – Saint Augustine

As spring takes its time to arrive, the warmth of the sun assures that it will come and stay for a while.  As winter takes its time to depart, the grass peeking out in patches assures that it will leave for a while. Seasons come and go as time keeps unfolding before us. And the alarm is going off. It’s your wake up call. Capture each moment while you are in it. Each moment, each season brings its own gifts to be opened.

Be impatient. Do not wait to change the world. Find those who need you and need them in return. Plant seeds of hope, water them with enthusiasm. A beautiful pink bouquet is waiting to bloom. There is plenty for all. Cast light. Cast pink.

Park Your Mind

“Slow down and everything you are chasing will come around and catch you.” ― John De Paola

As I pondered what to do more of or do less of during Lent, the answer suddenly revealed itself loud and clear – SLOW DOWN. So often, I rush through, multi-task, check off lists, faster, bouncing, quantity over quality. And I know I’m not alone. This is the way of the world. And it’s hollow.

We need to park our mind each day to be present, to listen, to stop the fleeting thoughts that keep us off balance. Pull over and put it in park. Take time to gaze, graze, watch the clouds float by, to breathe in the beauty and fragrance of a single flower.

“When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.” – Ansel Adams

“When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.” – Ansel Adams

Beneath

“The day the Lord created hope was probably the same day he created Spring.” – Bernard Williams

Beneath the weight of the snow lies green grass ready to awaken, flowers ready to burst from the earth. The warmth of the sun brings a slow, steady melt. Renewed and refreshed from the dormancy of Winter, Spring patiently waits to unfold in its time.

Through the seasons of our life, we cycle from hibernation to fruition, never the same, growing and unfolding into ourselves. We can remain buried beneath the layers and weight or we can let the heaviness melt away, letting go, forgetting, forgiving, moving on.

Spring releases Winter. We need not carry it any further. It has served its purpose. Melt, soften, become more gentle. Breakthrough the layers, burst, bud, bloom. Be bright, bold and beautiful. Beneath, beneath, Spring has come.

“The winter solstice has always been special to me as a barren darkness that gives birth to a verdant future beyond imagination, a time of pain and withdrawal that produces something joyfully inconceivable, like a monarch butterfly masterfully extracting itself from the confines of its cocoon, bursting forth into unexpected glory.” – Gary Zukav

“The winter solstice has always been special to me as a barren darkness that gives birth to a verdant future beyond imagination, a time of pain and withdrawal that produces something joyfully inconceivable, like a monarch butterfly masterfully extracting itself from the confines of its cocoon, bursting forth into unexpected glory.” – Gary Zukav

The Journey Begins

“There are Christians whose lives seem like Lent without Easter. I realize of course that joy is not expressed the same way at all times in life, especially at moments of great difficulty. Joy adapts and changes, but it always endures, even as a flicker of light born of our personal certainty that, when everything is said and done, we are infinitely loved.” – Pope Francis

Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the Lenten 40 day journey leading to Easter. A time of preparation, prayer, reflection, contemplation, inventory, honesty. Going deeper and farther. Into the desert. To search. To find. To thirst. To be satisfied. Less becomes more. To be quiet to hear the whisper that we are loved, infinitely. And to return the love that has been modeled so stunningly for us. Life-changing if we let it enter and move us.

Winter Washes Away

“I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day, a fresh try, one more start, with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewhere behind the morning.” – J. B. Priestley

“It is always the simple that produces the marvelous.” – Amelia Barr

“It is always the simple that produces the marvelous.” – Amelia Barr

A seventy degree weekend, running in shorts, a fresh breeze, a bath to wash away the sand. Spring may come late, but it always arrives, in its own time. Each season, each day brings its own gifts. We only need to recognize them.

Bloom

“The fact that I can plant a seed and it becomes a flower, share a bit of knowledge and it becomes another’s, smile at someone and receive a smile in return, are to me continual spiritual exercises.” – Leo Buscaglia

Go out today and give flowers to yourself and someone else. Whether you buy flowers or the petals are your smile, a hug, a word of encouragement, plant seeds and delight in what blooms. No grand gestures, rather simple acts done with love.

“To see the world in a grain of sand, and to see heaven in a wild flower, hold infinity in the palm of your hands, and eternity in an hour.” – William Blake

“To see the world in a grain of sand, and to see heaven in a wild flower, hold infinity in the palm of your hands, and eternity in an hour.” – William Blake

Endurance

“Our real blessings often appear to us in the shape of pains, losses and disappointments; but let us have patience and we soon shall see them in their proper figures.” – Joseph Addison

“Wondrous is the strength of cheerfulness, and its power of endurance - the cheerful man will do more in the same time, will do it; better, will preserve it longer, than the sad or sullen.” – Thomas Carlyle

“Wondrous is the strength of cheerfulness, and its power of endurance – the cheerful man will do more in the same time, will do it; better, will preserve it longer, than the sad or sullen.” – Thomas Carlyle

Whether it’s the prediction of seven inches of snow in late April or the challenging co-worker, we have a choice. We can see the sun in the clouds, the summer chair under the layer of snow. Be patient, be of good cheer. True summer is a state of mind.

A Few Degrees

“Small change, small wonders – these are the currency of my endurance and ultimately of my life.” – Barbara Kingsolver

“Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content.” – Helen Keller

“Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content.” – Helen Keller

This year, our April showers became four-eight inches of snow with a shift in a few degrees. On the surface, it’s wearing. As winter lingers, anticipation of spring grows strong accompanied with impatience. Beneath the surface, we are reminded that change and transformation happens in just a few degrees.

Melt

“I will greet this day with love in my heart. For this is the greatest secret of success in all ventures. Muscles can split a shield and even destroy life itself but only the unseen power of love can open the hearts of man. And until I master this act I will remain no more than a peddler in the marketplace. I will make love my greatest weapon and none on who I call can defend upon its force… my love will melt all hearts liken to the sun whose rays soften the coldest day.” – Og Mandino

“I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in.” – George Washington Carver

“I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in.” – George Washington Carver

Even as winter lingers into the dawn of April, the sun’s strength melts away the past, the ice, the cold. Transforming the winter into nurturing water to awaken the ground, turning the brown to green. Nature teaches us to melt, to soften, to wash away the sand and awaken to the newness of the day with gratitude and joy. Easter and Spring partner to renew and refresh. Melt.