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Posts tagged ‘Beauty’

Feb 11

The Pause…to Peace

“Practice the pause. Pause before judging. Pause before assuming. Pause before accusing. Pause whenever you’re about to react harshly and you’ll avoid doing and saying things you’ll later regret.”― Lori Deschene

“Regardless of our circumstances, we always have a choice. We can choose more of the same; or we can recognize this moment is different and that we can be different, too.”― Lori Deschene, Tiny Wisdom: On Mindfulness

Turn off autopilot
Disrupt habit
Resist busy
Interrupt spiraling
Ground in gratitude
Wait in wonder
Rest in stillness
Pause, peace, presence.

“If we can observe and understand how our thoughts are impacting us, we can change who we’re being and how we’re experiencing the world.”― Lori Deschene, Tiny Wisdom: On Mindfulness

Feb 9

Surrender to Air

“If you surrendered to the air, you could ride it.”― Toni Morrison

“For things to reveal themselves to us, we need to be ready to abandon our views about them.”― Thich Nhat Hanh, Being Peace

Freedom in not thinking I have all the answers
Of releasing the need to control what is not mine
Of picking up what is mine to carry
Of inquiry, wonder, reverence, imagination.

“The beginning is always today.”― Mary Wollstonecraft

Feb 8

Planting Peace

“If we are peaceful, if we are happy, we can smile and blossom like a flower, and everyone in our family, our entire society, will benefit from our peace.”― Thich Nhat Hanh, Being Peace

“There is peace even in the storm.”— Vincent van Gogh

Drops to waves
Seeds to bloom
Calm to peace
Kindness, generosity, encouragement, a smile
Transform the world
One small act at a time
Compound interest
Cast light.

“Calming, Smiling. Present moment, Wonderful moment”― Thich Nhat Hanh, Being Peace

Feb 6

Soft Days

“Be still. Stillness reveals the secrets of eternity”― Lao Tzu

“Soft days are not wasted days. They are how you remember your breath. Your worth was never tied to your pace.”― Ajmal, The Border of a Mind

Space, margin, blank canvas
Slow pace, no pace
Stillness to clarity, discovery
Rest spilling into restoration
Soft days, creative womb.

“Space and silence are two aspects of the same thing. The same no-thing. They are externalization of inner space and inner silence, which is stillness: the infinitely creative womb of all existence.”― Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment

Feb 4

Opened to Air, Carrying Love

“Likewise, every disturbance, whether resolved or not, is making space for an inner engagement. As a shovel digs up and displaces earth, in a way that must seem violent to the earth, an interior space is revealed for the digging. In just this way, when experience opens us, it often feels violent and the urge, quite naturally, is to refill that opening, to make it the way it was. But every experience excavates a depth, which reveals its wisdom once opened to air.”― Mark Nepo, Seven Thousand Ways to Listen: Staying Close to What Is Sacred

“Hope is the hardest love we carry.”― Jane Hirshfield, The Lives of the Heart

Beneath the surface
Above the noise
Beyond the chaos
Quiet and calm
Soft whisper
Invitation
Pause, abide, engage
Breaking ground
Open to air
Carrying hope, light, love.

“I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.”― Thomas Paine

Feb 3

In Such a Moment

“When your world moves too fast
and you lose yourself in the chaos
introduce yourself to each color of the sunset,
reacquaint yourself with the earth beneath your feet,
thank the air that surrounds you
with every breath you take
find yourself in the appreciation of life.”– Christy Ann Martine

“One breath taken completely; one poem, fully written, fully read – in such a moment, anything can happen.”― Jane Hirshfield, Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry

Abiding in gratitude
Perfection not required
Steeping in grace
Unearned and generous
Dancing with joy
In the middle of winter
Waiting with anticipation
Spring in the making

“One breath taken completely; one poem, fully written, fully read – in such a moment, anything can happen.”― Jane Hirshfield, Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry

Feb 2

Ask, Listen, Pay Attention

“Zen pretty much comes down to three things — everything changes; everything is connected; pay attention.”― Jane Hirshfield

“There are years that ask questions and years that answer.” – Zora Neale Hurston

Living the answers with grace and gratitude
Allowing more questions without knowing the answers
In thin spaces, quiet places, gentle throughways
Releasing the grip of control and knowing
Inviting and allowing
Sacred, holy ground of
Curiosity, inquiry, nuance, noticing, imagination, connection, laughter, gratitude, joy
Rooted in trust, fidelity, love
Different seasons
Each with its own gifts to bear
Opening the gifts
Of presence, awe, wonder, planting, abiding, slowing, savoring
No rushing to get to the other side, in a hurry or to be first
Alignment, attunement, rooting, rising
The work of eternal blooming.

“The most sublime act is to set another before you.”― William Blake, Proverbs of Hell

Jan 31

Opening Doors, Crossing Thresholds

“The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity… and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself.”― William Blake

“There is a kindness that dwells deep down in things; it presides everywhere, often in the places we least expect. The world can be harsh and negative, but if we remain generous and patient, kindness inevitably reveals itself. Something deep in the human soul seems to depend on the presence of kindness; something instinctive in us expects it, and once we sense it we are able to trust and open ourselves.” – John O’Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us

Releasing. Putting down. Untangling.
The weight of opinion.
The ties of judgment.
The gravity of assumption.
The certainty of knowing.
Into unknowing.
Lightness of being.
Generosity of spirit.
Asking. Listening. Witnessing.
Curiosity. Proximity. Complexity.
Kindness. Beauty. Grace.
Opening doors, crossing thresholds.

“In the universe, there are things that are known, and things that are unknown, and in between, there are doors.”― William Blake

Jan 30

Add Joy with a Side of Hope

“If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy,
If a blade of grass springing up in the fields has the power to move you,
If the simple things of nature have a message that you understand,
Rejoice, for your soul is alive.” – Eleonora Duse

“I Am
I Know not whence I came,
I know not whither I go;
But the fact stands clear that I am here
In this world of pleasure and woe.
And out of the mist and murk
Another truth shines plain –
It is my power each day and hour
To add to its joy or its pain.” – Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Time out, away
Pause, pullover
Look up, around
Restore, refill
From grinding to grounding
Myopia to horizon
Chaos to calm
Hope, joy, laughter
Woven through each day
Teaspoons, cups, buckets
If we choose to pay attention
Enter the dance
Carrying and casting light.

“if you see for yourself, hear for yourself, and enter deeply enough this seeing and hearing, all things will speak with and through you.”― Jane Hirshfield, The Heart of Haiku

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

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