Dec 1
“Beauty is a fragile gift.” – Ovid
“The journey itself is my home.”― Matsuo Basho
Beginnings and endings
Firsts and lasts
Starts and finishes
Before and After
Thresholds to cross
Roads to travel
The in betweens, the middle
In all of it, may you find meaning on your journey
Seeking and finding beauty, joy, light amidst the middles and transitions
Awake to transformation unfolding.
“Come dress yourself in love, let the journey begin.” – Francesca da Rimini
“Living in a state of gratitude is the gateway to grace.” Arianna Huffington
“One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar.”― Helen Keller, The Story of My Life
In a sunrise, a sunset.
A walk, a run.
A poem, a song.
A flower, a flake of snow.
Quiet, a breeze.
A conversation, a glance.
A photo, a dance.
Poke gratitude, awaken to what already is awaiting encounter, praise, and awe.
An impulse to soar, falling into flight.
“The only real battle in life is between hanging on and letting go.”― Shannon L. Alder
“Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“That’s what winter is: An exercise in remembering how to still yourself then how to come pliantly back to life again.” – Ali Smith
The strength and brilliance of winter sun.
Blue is bluer.
Air crisp and sharp.
The sound of snow under foot.
A quiet, slowing, softening.
The great pause.
Acceptance opens the door to joy.
Prelude, precursor to spring.
Preparation and transformation in the rest.
“Ô, Sunlight! The most precious gold to be found on Earth.”― Roman Payne
“You enter the extraordinary by way of the ordinary.”― Frederick Buechner
“Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery it is. In the boredom and pain of it, no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it, because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace.”― Frederick Buechner, Now and Then: A Memoir of Vocation
Create margin, white space, quiet to listen, tune in.
Allowing new thoughts and insights to enter, not the same worn-out opinions and assumptions to rule.
Slow to take in the scenery, to be held in the mystery.
Less doing, more being.
Even if only for a short respite.
To be made and remade again and again.
Filling the well to pour more into the world.
Grace, peace and love.
May you receive and give these today.
“We do not pray so that we can get God’s attention. We pray so that God will get our attention.”― David G. Benner, Opening to God: Lectio Divina and Life as Prayer
“…And we pray, not for new
earth or heaven, but to be quiet
in heart, and in eye clear.
What we need is here.”― Wendell Berry
“You mustn’t wish for another life. You mustn’t want to be somebody else. What you must do is this:
“Rejoice evermore.
Pray without ceasing.
In everything give thanks.”
I am not all the way capable of so much, but those are the right instructions.”― Wendell Berry, Hannah Coulter
We get and give advice.
We read the books.
We conjure up the formula, the secret recipe.
We search for the shortcut.
We have the instructions.
And yet, and yet, still.
Amid the schemes, the prescriptions, life continues in the unknowing, uncertainty and mystery.
Changing.
Twisting, turning, flipping, flopping.
From boredom to busy.
We don’t need all the answers.
We need to live well with the questions.
Moving through with a sense of wonder and delight, gratitude and optimism for no good reasons at all.
Merely because we can, especially when it makes no sense at all.
Be present in today.
Be kind, generous, light, laughter, grateful, playful, at ease.
What we need is already here.
“It may be that when we no longer know what to do,
we have come to our real work
and when we no longer know which way to go,
we have begun our real journey.
The mind that is not baffled is not employed.
The impeded stream is the one that sings.”― Wendell Berry
“In being with dying, we arrive at a natural crucible of what it means to love and be loved. And we can ask ourselves this: Knowing that death is inevitable, what is most precious today?”― Joan Halifax
“It’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.”― Lewis Carroll
Leave yesterday at the door and cross the threshold into now and the possibility of unfolding.
Letting go, forgiveness, gratitude, kindness unbind, free, loosen and release.
Lighten the load, only carry what is necessary, what serves you well.
New day, new person.
What is most precious today?
“Resolving grief means both to release ourselves from responsibility for all the things that weren’t up to us, and to come to terms with the choices we’ve made that can’t be undone.”― Edith Eger, The Gift: 12 Lessons to Save Your Life
“God comes to you disguised as your life”― Paula D’Arcy
“Nowhere to go, nothing to do … Lost and found in the moment … Just practice this … Maybe here is where we find wholeheartedness and our true freedom.”― Joan Halifax, Standing at the Edge: Finding Freedom Where Fear and Courage Meet
May you pause long enough to clarity, resting in nothing to see everything.
Nowhere to go, nowhere to return, anchored in this moment.
Lost and found at the same time.
What is right in front of you that is invisible to the hurriedness and checklists?
Beauty, joy, light – hidden in plain sight, slowness, awareness.
Witness the symphony of creation singing.
“Why is all of creation singing?”― Paula D’Arcy, Gift of the Red Bird: The Story of a Divine Encounter
“For the person who has learned to let go and let be, nothing can ever get in the way again.”― Meister Eckhart
“Alice: How long is forever?
White Rabbit: Sometimes, just one second.”― Lewis Carroll
The weight of a drop.
The immensity of small.
Slivers, pocket and crevices.
Thin spaces.
Seconds, moments making up forever.
Be ever present in this day to not miss the wonder of being.
“I have been a drop in the air. I have been a shining star. I have been a word in a book.… I have been the string of a harp, Enchanted for a year in the foam of water. I have been a poker in the fire. I have been a tree in a covert. There is nothing in which I have not been.”― Stephanie Burt, Don’t Read Poetry: A Book About How to Read Poems
“The funny thing about the mind is that if you ask a question and then listen quietly, the answer usually appears.”― Yongey Mingyur, The Joy of Living: Unlocking the Secret and Science of Happiness
“Let your own experience serve as your guide and inspiration. Let yourself enjoy the view as you travel along the path. The view is your own mind, and because your mind is already enlightened, if you take the opportunity to rest awhile along the journey, eventually you’ll realize that the place you want to reach is the place you already are.”― Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, The Joy of Living: Unlocking the Secret and Science of Happiness
Enjoy the path you are on today.
Go off trail, wander a bit.
Look around, listen quietly, inquire with openness.
Your thoughts, assumptions and opinions are your compass.
Choose them well, invite change, allow unknowing.
Beauty, flow and blessings amplified with new eyes.
“The opportunity to experience yourself differently is always available.”― Yongey Mingyur, The Joy of Living: Unlocking the Secret and Science of Happiness
“I’ve begun to realize that you can listen to silence and learn from it. It has a quality and a dimension all its own.”― Chaim Potok
“I have woven a parachute out of everything broken.”― William Stafford
In all that is present, not the past, not the future, create.
The material is available to shape, mold, make our own.
Shapes, dimension, air, space.
Emergence, unfolding, arriving. Daily.
Experience this day in fullness and delight.
“I embrace emerging experience.
I participate in discovery.
I am a butterfly.
I am not a butterfly collector.
I want the experience of the butterfly.”― William Stafford
