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Posts tagged ‘appreciation’

Encounter and Reverence

“Awe, you see, is what moves us forward.”― Joseph Campbell

“We’re so engaged in doing things to achieve purposes of outer value that we forget the inner value, the rapture that is associated with being alive, is what it is all about.”― Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth

Encounter
Majesty
Reverence
Gazing
Beholding
Noticing
In slowing, awe, wonder
Hidden in plain sight
Ordinary places and spaces
Awaiting our senses to tend, participate, awaken
Begin anew each day
Hearty yes

“The big question is whether you are going to be able to say a hearty yes to your adventure ”― Joseph Campbell

infinitesimals

“I am a hunter of beauty and I move slow and I keep the eyes wide, every fiber of every muscle sensing all wonder and this is the thrill of the hunt and I could be an expert on the life full, the beauty meat that lurks in every moment.”― Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are

“The whole of the life — even the hard — is made up of the minute parts, and if I miss the infinitesimals, I miss the whole. These are new language lessons, and I live them out. There is a way to live the big of giving thanks in all things. It is this: to give thanks in this one small thing. The moments will add up.”― Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are

Fullness of time
Made of moments
Ordinary days
Encounters
Glances and gazing
Attention and expectation
Joy before us each day
Woven in beauty, gratitude, grace and noticing

“Wherever you are, be all there.” I have lived the runner, panting ahead in worry, pounding back in regrets, terrified to live in the present, because here-time asks me to do the hardest of all: just open wide and receive.”― Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are

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

Real Time

“Everything beautiful has a mark of eternity.”― Simone Weil, Lectures on Philosophy

“EMILY: “Does anyone ever realize life while they live it…every, every minute?”

STAGE MANAGER: “No. Saints and poets maybe…they do some.”

― Thornton Wilder, Our Town

Manna for this day alone.
Taste and see.
Salt and light.
Hands and feet.
To walk awake and aware.
Through this day alone.
Realizing life while living it.
My prayer, call, intention.
To stay the course of presence, gratitude, joy.
Every, every minute.
Real time abundance.
Cup overflowing.

“There is no wealth but life.”― John Ruskin, The King of the Golden River

Just

“Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.” – Chinese Proverb

“Don’t Just

Don’t just learn, experience.
Don’t just read, absorb.
Don’t just change, transform.
Don’t just relate, advocate.
Don’t just promise, prove.
Don’t just criticize, encourage.
Don’t just think, ponder.
Don’t just take, give.
Don’t just see, feel.
Don’t just dream, do.
Don’t just hear, listen.
Don’t just talk, act.
Don’t just tell, show.
Don’t just exist, live.”
― Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart

Create
Pursue
Receive
Build
Carve
Burrow
Explore
Craft
Shape
Aborb
Sift
In the act
Bridges built
Connections made
Light cast
From hearing to listening
From seeing to vision
From sleep to awake.

“There’s a lot of difference between listening and hearing.”― G.K. Chesterton

Sweet Territory

“Reflection is a flower of the mind, giving out a wholesome fragrance.” – Desiderius Erasmus

“In the sweet territory of silence we touch the mystery. It’s the place of reflection and contemplation, and it’s the place where we can connect with the deep knowing, to the deep wisdom way.” – Angeles Arrien

Anchor and root
In the slowing
Seeing
Observing
Listening
Inquiring
Listening again
Reflection
The path to understanding
Insight
Revelation
Discernment
Gratitude
Joy
Clarity
Peace
Dig, delve, deep dive
Surface
Move out from there
True north

“It’s on the strength of observation and reflection that one finds a way. So we must dig and delve unceasingly.” – Claude Monet

Fertile Ground of Today

“It’s never too late to begin for one who is on the path of making the most of the moment. Where you are is good enough place to begin.” ― Abraham Omorogiuwa

“It is not irritating to be where one is. It is only irritating to think one would like to be somewhere else.”― John Cage

Now.
The only space and place to be.
Not looking back stuck in quicksand of regret, resentment, unforgiveness.
Not looking too far ahead frozen by a fabricated future, assuming, predicting, limiting.
Smack in the middle.
Of the present moment.
Keep me in this day.
Where grace, plenty, and enough overflow.
Witness, partake, participate fully.
Evolving, emerging, unfolding in the fertile rich soil of now.
Dig, seed, nurture.

“i will never have
this version of me again
let me slow down
and be with her
– always evolving”
― Rupi Kaur, Home Body

Belonging and Beloved

“Because true belonging only happens when we present our authentic, imperfect selves to the world, our sense of belonging can never be greater than our level of self-acceptance.”
― Brené Brown, Daring Greatly

“Owning our story can be hard but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it. Embracing our vulnerabilities is risky but not nearly as dangerous as giving up on love and belonging and joy—the experiences that make us the most vulnerable. Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light.”― Brene Brown

You belong.
That doesn’t require fitting in everywhere and with everyone.
Nor perfection or completeness.
Being you is the only requirement.
Wherever you are at on whatever path behind or ahead, you are loved.
Keep blooming into the flower that you are becoming each day.
Rooting deep in your own uniqueness, hue, nuance and color.
Be kind, love and find joy right where you are planted.
Infinite light.
You are loved.
You belong.

“Stop walking through the world looking for confirmation that you don’t belong. You will always find it because you’ve made that your mission. Stop scouring people’s faces for evidence that you’re not enough. You will always find it because you’ve made that your goal. True belonging and self-worth are not goods; we don’t negotiate their value with the world. The truth about who we are lives in our hearts. Our call to courage is to protect our wild heart against constant evaluation, especially our own. No one belongs here more than you.”― Brené Brown, Braving the Wilderness

Undone

The Sun by Mary Oliver
Have you ever seen
anything
in your life
more wonderful
than the way the sun,
every evening,
relaxed and easy,
floats toward the horizon
and into the clouds or the hills,
or the rumpled sea,
and is gone–
and how it slides again
out of the blackness,
every morning,
on the other side of the world,
like a red flower
streaming upward on its heavenly oils,
say, on a morning in early summer,
at its perfect imperial distance–
and have you ever felt for anything
such wild love–
do you think there is anywhere, in any language,
a word billowing enough
for the pleasure
that fills you,
as the sun
reaches out,
as it warms you
as you stand there,
empty-handed–
or have you too
turned from this world–
or have you too
gone crazy
for power,
for things?

“There is more to life than increasing its speed.” – Mahatma Gandhi

Efficiency
Progress
Checklists
Speed
Grind
More, more, more
Never enough
Multi-tasking
Getting ahead
Hacks
Shortcuts
Formulas
3 easy steps
The race

To where?
Why?
Are we having fun?

Things need to get done.
Many things do not need to get done.
Choosing where to put energy, effort, attention is where our power lies.
Relationships, generosity, kindness, asking, listening, empathy, meaning, purpose, joy, delight, laughter, frolic, presence, fully aware, awake and in awe.
May you choose to undo as often as do.
Putting down, creating space, stillness, rest, reflection, fun, wandering, lost in time for a bit.
Depth more than width.
Gratitude over gripping.
Turtle pace to see the view.
Joy, beauty, slowness, engagement, enthusiasm, energy and light.
May all of these be yours in both the doing and undoing.

“Above all, trust in the slow work of God.”― Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Take Delight

“Nothing in the world is permanent, and we’re foolish when we ask anything to last, but surely we’re still more foolish not to take delight in it while we have it.”― W. Somerset Maugham

“Exquisite beauty
is often hidden
in life’s fragile,
fleeting moments.”
― John Mark Green, Taste the Wild Wonder: Poems

To be where I stand.
Fully awake and aware.
Not losing today looking back or too far ahead.
Steeped in now with gratitude, awe and thanks.
Color. Light. Beauty.
Balm and binding.
Take delight in this day.
Fleeting and full.

“We would worry less if we praised more. Thanksgiving is the enemy of discontent and dissatisfaction.”― Harry A. Ironside