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Jan 27

Poetry in Flowers

“I must have flowers, always, and always.”― Claude Monet

“Nobody sees a flower – really – it is so small it takes time – we haven’t time – and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time.”― Georgia O’Keeffe, Georgia O’Keeffe

Make time
A sliver, a slice
For beauty
Noticing
Attention
Awe
Wonder
Light
Color
Joy
Poetry in flowers
In the pause, peace rises
Spilling into the day.

“In joy or sadness, flowers are our constant friends.”― Okakura Kakuzo, The Book of Tea

Jan 26

Part the Veil

“Be the lighthouse in the ocean.”― Delphanie Frank

“Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.”
– Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi (Prayer for Peace)

In rupture, seeds of repair.
In grief, roots of love.
In hope, the path forward.
Be kind.
Be present.
Be help.
Be the lighthouse.
Peace. Hope. Love.
Cast light.

“My continuing passion is to part a curtain, that invisible veil of indifference that falls between us and that blinds us to each other’s presence, each other’s wonder, each other’s human plight.”― Eudora Welty

Jan 25

The Cliff

“Be like the cliff against which the waves continually break; but it stands firm and tames the fury of the water around it.”― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“Long before morning I knew that what I was seeking to discover was a thing I’d always known. That all courage was a form of constancy. That it is always himself that the coward abandoned first. After this all other betrayals come easily.”― Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses

Steadfast
Constancy
Fidelity
Care
Calm
Courage
Right action
Rooted in love
Walked out in peace.

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

Jan 24

Awash in Hope

“And hope is like love…a ridiculous, wonderful, powerful thing.”― Kate DiCamillo, The Tale of Despereaux

“Nothing is more terrifying to evil than joy.”― Kate DiCamillo, The Beatryce Prophecy

Joy. Hope. Expectancy.
Not fluffy, naïve, futile.
Powerful, practical, transformative.
Fight the good fight.
Radical love.
Ridiculous wonder.
Bold delight.
Beauty, light, color.
Fuel for the journey.

“You must be filled with expectancy. You must be awash in hope. You must wonder who will love you, whom you will love next.”― Kate DiCamillo, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane

Jan 23

Poetry of Pause and Presence

“We look about the world, by the light we have made, and realise it’s all vulnerable, and all worth saving, and no one can do it but us.”― Kathleen Jamie, Findings

“The way we are living,
timorous or bold,
will have been our life.”
― Seamus Heaney

Hope and grace
Kindness and laughter
Light and joy
Love

All present in this day, within
Amidst chaos, noise, busy
May we have sense and boldness
To choose these again and again
Over worry, fear, apathy

To love the live we’re shown
For this day will not come again
Poetry of pause and presence
To be made new.

“How perilous is it to choose not to love the life we’re shown?”― Seamus Heaney, Opened Ground

Jan 22

Altars in the Ordinary

“Walk on air against your better judgement.”― Seamus Heaney

“Isn’t that a kind of prayer? The care and maintenance of the web of our noticing, the paying heed?”― Kathleen Jamie, Findings

Walking on air
Better yet, running with abandon, delight, ease
Attention, witnessing, partaking
Overflowing, abundant, intricate
Altars in the ordinary
Found in pause, quiet, noticing
Invitation and homecoming
To kneel in reverence, awe, wonder
With gratitude, gravity, grace
Woven in the beautiful mess, imperfected, unfinished, unfolding
Awaiting our care and maintenance
Reciprocating the same and so very much more.

“It’s poetry’s job, isn’t it, to keep making sense of the world in language, to keep the negotiation going? We can’t relinquish that.”― Kathleen Jamie, Findings

Jan 21

Spinning Wildflowers

“God is not a technician. God is an Artist. This is the God who made you. The same God who lives inside of you. He comes into us, then comes out of us, in a million little ways. That’s why there’s freedom, even in the blah. Hope, even in the dark. Love, even in the fear. Trust, even as we face our critics. And believe in the midst of all that? It feels like strength and depth and wildflower spinning; it feels risky and brave and underdog winning. It feels like redemption. It feels like art.”― Emily P. Freeman, A Million Little Ways: Uncover the Art You Were Made to Live

“If you ask a question, you
can’t stop there.
You must keep going.
You can’t stop there: World will
wave; will be
facetious, angry. You can’t stop there.
You have to keep on going.”
― Gwendolyn Brooks

Hope
Light
Joy
Laughter
Grit
Faith
Trust
Enthusiasm
Resilience
Stay strong
One step at a time
Keep going
Spinning wildflowers.

“I am somewhat of a meliorist. That is to say, I act as an optimist because I find I cannot act at all, as a pessimist. One often feels helpless in the face of the confusion of these times, such a mass of apparently uncontrollable events and experiences to live through, attempt to understand, and if at all possible, give order to; but one must not withdraw from the task if he has some small things to offer – he does so at the risk of diminishing his humanity.”― Bernard Malamud, The Fixer

Jan 20

Moments Blooming, Full Color

“Exhaust the little moment. Soon it dies.
And be it gash or gold it will not come
Again in this identical disguise.”― Gwendolyn Brooks, Annie Allen

“Wherever life can grow, it will.
It will sprout out,
and do the best it can.
I give you what I have.
You don’t get all your questions answered in this world.
How many answers shall be found
in the developing world of my Poem?
I don’t know. Nevertheless I put my Poem,
which is my life, into your hands, where it will do the best it can.”
― Gwendolyn Brooks, Winnie

Life blooming.
In the moment.
Woven in plain sight of this day.
Notice and participate.

“She was learning to love moments. To love moments for themselves. ”― Gwendolyn Brooks

Jan 19

Faith, Hope, Love

“This is the urgency: Live!
And have your blooming in the noise of the whirlwind.”― Gwendolyn Brooks, The World of Gwendolyn Brooks

“I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

Faith, hope, love
The greatest is love
Unconditional or it’s not real
The resilient, gritty, tough, stick and stay, fight the good fight kind
Jumping hurdles, leaping fences, knocking down walls
Cast light, with a side of hope, and an extra helping of joy and peace.

“Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.” – Maya Angelou

Jan 18

At Any Time, All the Time, Light

“I don’t believe there is one great thing I was made to do in this world. I believe there is one great God I was made to glorify. And there will be many ways, even a million little ways, I will declare his glory with my life.”― Emily P. Freeman, A Million Little Ways: Uncover the Art You Were Made to Live

“At any time you can ask yourself:
At which threshold am I now standing?
At this time in my life, what am I leaving?
Where am I about to enter?
What is preventing me from crossing my next threshold?
What gift would enable me to do it?
A threshold is not a simple boundary; it is a frontier that divides two different territories, rhythms, and atmospheres.
Indeed, it is a lovely testimony to the fullness and integrity of an experience or a stage of life that it intensifies toward the end into a real frontier that cannot be crossed without the heart being passionately engaged and woken up.
At this threshold a great complexity of emotion comes alive: confusion, fear, excitement, sadness, hope. This is one of the reasons such vital crossings were always clothed in ritual. It is wise in your own life to be able to recognize and acknowledge the key thresholds: to take your time; to feel all the varieties of presence that accrue there; to listen inward with complete attention until you hear the inner voice calling you forward.
The time has come to cross.” – John O’Donohue

Varieties of presence
Close up
Far away
Big
Small
Busy, over busy, distractions
Mostly in-between, a mix and muddle
Where sweetness lies, right next to grief, beside gratitude
Cloaked in grace, awe, wonder
For the taking and receiving
If we choose
Someday is now
Ordinary days
Steps leading to thresholds
Rarely aware walking it out
Slowly then suddenly
Breathe, witness, partake
Wherever you are on this leg of the journey
Slow, pause, stop
Look up and around
Beauty, light, hope, love
On the ground you stand
This very day.

“Poetry is life distilled.”― Gwendolyn Brooks

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