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Posts from the ‘Summer’ Category

Let Us Dance

“Let us dance in the sun, wearing wild flowers in our hair…”― susan polis Schutz

“I do love the beginning of the summer hols,’ said Julian. They always seem to stretch out ahead for ages and ages.’

‘They go so nice and slowly at first,’ said Anne, his little sister. ‘Then they start to gallop.”― Enid Blyton, Five Go Off in a Caravan

Too cold, too hot
Too slow, too fast
Too much, too little
Measure, compare, grumble less
Invite, receive, open up to joy more
Summer’s call to presence, awe, life.
Dance.

“Some of the best memories are made in flip flops.”― Kellie Elmore

Hovering

“Plants do not speak, but their silence is alive with change.”― May Sarton, Plant Dreaming Deep

“Slowly slowly O mind…
Everything in own pace happens,
Gardner may water a hundred buckets…
Fruit arrives only in its season.”― Kabir

Savor and slow
Partake and witness
Summer’s work is rest, play
Still here, do not miss it looking too far ahead
Harvest all of the colors
Deep breath
Hover and delight

“Breathe the sweetness that hovers in August.” – Denise Levertov

Summer’s Third Act

“This morning, the sun endures past dawn. I realise that it is August: the summer’s last stand.”― Sara Baume, A Line Made By Walking

The Pond

“August of another summer, and once again
I am drinking the sun
and the lilies again are spread across the water.
I know now what they want is to touch each other.
I have not been here for many years
during which time I kept living my life.
Like the heron, who can only croak, who wishes he
could sing,
I wish I could sing.
A little thanks from every throat would be appropriate.
This is how it has been, and this is how it is:
All my life I have been able to feel happiness,
except whatever was not happiness,
which I also remember.
Each of us wears a shadow.
But just now it is summer again
and I am watching the lilies bow to each other,
then slide on the wind and the tug of desire,
close, close to one another,
Soon now, I’ll turn and start for home.
And who knows, maybe I’ll be singing.”
― Mary Oliver, Felicity

Time slows when we do
Immersion, presence, attention
This place and space of now
Soak in the rest of summer, third act
Fruits of harvest to follow
A little thanks, maybe more.

“Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.”― John Lubbock, The Use Of Life

Summer Canvas

“Certainly work is not always required of a man. There is such a thing as a sacred idleness, the cultivation of which is now fearfully neglected.”― George Mac Donald, Wilfrid Cumbermede

“A man is as free as he chooses to make himself, never an atom freer.”― George MacDonald, Lilith

Sacred idleness
Stirring up gratitude
Anchoring in the present
Interior life
Shifting exterior perspective
Do your part, the work
Contribute, create, build, rest
Pick up the brush
Swirl color on the canvas
Open the window
Breath in fresh air, absorb light
Carve joy into each day
The chisel is in your hands.

“The great open secret of gratitude is that it is not dependent on external circumstance. It’s like a setting or channel that we can switch to at any moment, no matter what’s going on around us. It helps us connect to our basic right to be here, like the breath does.”― Joanna Macy

Holy Underachievement

“The universe is transformation.”― Louise Erdrich

“Blessed are you who are burned out, sun-drenched, and soul-beary.
You who long for rest, but feel pulled in a dozen good directions.
You who feel behind before the day even starts.
Whose group texts go unanswered, and whose sunscreen ran out, and who cannot remember what day of the week it is.
Blessed are you who are trying to care for others, when you barely have anything left to give.
You are blessed when you don’t volunteer to bring orange slices to the soccer match.
When you eat cheese and crackers for dinner again.
When you say, Sorry, I can’t make it.
You’re not lazy. You’re not failing. You are honoring your humanity.
May you find pockets of rest when your body says no more.
May you find something that you can sit down when your calendar begs for margin.
You find a friend who helps shoulder it with you when you are spread too thin.
And may you remember you are not a project to be optimized.
You are a person, a beloved one.
You don’t have to earn rest.
You just have to receive it.”
Kate Bowler: The Summer of Too Much: Practicing Holy Underachievement,

Pockets of rest
No permission needed
Earning not required
Slow down
Savor and soak in this day
Wide margins
Blank canvas
Space to let awe and wonder find you
Receive it
Amazing grace
Peace. Be still.

“NO” for me now is all about making room for more “YES.”― Abbi Jacobson, I Might Regret This: Essays, Drawings, Vulnerabilities, and Other Stuff

Summer’s Work of Presence and Ease

“I drifted into a summer-nap under the hot shade of July, serenaded by a cicada lullaby, to drowsy-warm dreams of distant thunder.”― Terri Guillemets

“The silence in me propels me to fully feel the majesty of nature, to connect to my aliveness in the presence of trees, water, mountains, soft earth.” – John O’Donohue

Summer
A season
A flow
A whisper
A way of being
An ease inviting pause and restoration
Relax and witness the beauty abound
Warm sun
Blue skies
Flowers in bloom
Birds in song
Trees swaying
Soft breeze waltzing
Let summer do its work in you
Majesty and rapt presence
Sweet, slow time

“The beauty of nature insists on taking its time. Everything is prepared. Nothing is rushed. The rhythm of emergence is a gradual slow beat always inching its way forward; change remains faithful to itself until the new unfolds in the full confidence of true arrival.” – John O’Donohue

Summer’s Song, Symphony

“I want to sing like the birds sing, not worrying about who hears or what they think.”― Rumi

Warm Summer Sun
by Mark Twain

Warm summer sun,
Shine kindly here.
Warm southern wind,
Blow softly here.
Green sod above,
Lie light, lie light.
Good night, dear heart,
Good night, good night.

Lute and drum
Silence and song
Summer sun
Soft breeze
Summer, a string of Sundays
Sabbath rest carried through the week
Full bloom
Brilliant color
Slowing, seeing, savoring
Holy sacred ground
Surrender. Yield. Dance.

A day of Silence
Can be a pilgrimage in itself.

A day of Silence
Can help you listen
To the Soul play
Its marvelous lute and drum.

Is not most talking
A crazed defense of a crumbling fort?

I thought we came here
To surrender in Silence,

To yield to Light and Happiness,

To Dance within,
In celebration of Love’s Victory”― Hafez, I Heard God Laughing: Poems of Hope and Joy

Insert Summer, Delight and Savor

“Summertime, and the living is easy.” – Ella Fitzgerald

“In early June the world of leaf and blade and flowers explodes, and every sunset is different.” – John Steinbeck

Wild air.
Blue skies.
Long slow days of the sun and delight.
Sit.
Savor.
Summer.
Soak it in.
Joy and fun at work.

“Summer has a flavor like no other. Always fresh and simmered in sunshine.” – Oprah Winfrey

“Live in the sunshine, swim in the sea, drink in the wild air.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Wonderful Things

“We meet wonderful people, but lose them
in our busyness.
We’re, as the saying goes, all over the place.
Steadfastness, it seems,
is more about dogs than about us.
One of the reasons we love them so much.”
― Mary Oliver, Dog Songs: Poems

“Or maybe it’s about the wonderful things that may happen if you break the ropes that are holding you.”― Mary Oliver, Dog Songs

Summer slow, delight, play.
Come in, sit awhile.
Linger.
Steadfast.
Anchored.
Single-tasking.
Attention, awe, wonder in abundance.
At ease.

“Listen, whatever you see and love-
that’s where you are.”― Mary Oliver, Dog Songs: Poems

Days of Pink Lemonade

“Spring being a tough act to follow, God created June.” – Al Bernstein

“In early June the world of leaf and blade and flowers explodes, and every sunset is different.”― John Steinbeck, The Winter of Our Discontent

Colors ablaze.
Flowers exploding.
June enters big and bright.
Take a long pause.
Sit down.
Enjoy the show.
Days of pink lemonade.

“Imagination is the eye of the soul.”― Joseph Joubert