Skip to content

Posts tagged ‘Change’

Jan 7

To Lay Hold of It

“What a torment it is to see so much loveliness passing and repassing before us, and yet not dare to lay hold of it!”― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther

“I had been continually exhorted to define my purpose in life, but I was now beginning to doubt whether life might not be too complex a thing to be kept within the bounds of a single formulated purpose, whether it would not burst its way out, or if the purpose were too strong, perhaps grow distorted like an oak whose trunk has been encircled with an iron band. I began to guess that my self’s need was for an equilibrium, for sun, but not too much, for rain, but not always… So I began to have an idea of my life, not as the slow shaping of achievement to fit my preconceived purposes, but as the gradual discovery and growth of a purpose which I did not know. I wrote: “It will mean walking in a fog for a bit, but it’s the only way which is not a presumption, forcing the self into a theory.”― Marion Milner, A Life of One’s Own

Presence and wonder
Mystery and curiosity
Inviting and allowing
Riding the waves
Entering the current
Emergence and clarity
Slowing and savoring
Time, interest, engagement
Trusting the journey
Detours and delays
With joy, gratitude, grace
Gradual discovery
To lay hold of loveliness before
Found rooted in presence
In each new day.

“You cannot buy the right atmosphere or a sense of togetherness. You cannot hygge if you are in a hurry or stressed out, and the art of creating intimacy cannot be bought by anything but time, interest and engagement in the people around you.”― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well

Dec 31

New Year’s Path, One Step at a Time

“Let the wild rumpus start!”― Maurice Sendak, Where the Wild Things Are

“What the New Year brings to you will depend a great deal on what you bring to the New Year.” – Vern McLellan

Intentions spilling into action, inaction too
What to do and what not to do
Daily steps
Consistency
Walking it out
Gentleness
Kindness
Connection
Co-creation
Collaboration
Engaging with forethought
Joy, an act of resistance
Offering peace first
Wandering and rest stops
Deep work
Light play
Unknowing
Learning
Growing
Twists and turns
Acceptance
Generosity
Awe and wonder
Reflection then motion
From divergence to convergence to emergence
Narrowing
Deepening
Laughter, lots of it
Dancing, art, music, nature
Slowing and inviting
Abiding faith, trust, love
Gratitude in, through, with all of it
All of these and more for the new year
Not resolutions as much as ways of living daily

“I think in terms of the day’s resolutions, not the years’.” – Henry Moore

Nov 26

Path of Plenitude

“I will be the gladdest thing under the sun! I will touch a hundred flowers and not pick one.”― Edna St. Vincent Millay

“For a New Beginning
In out-of-the-way places of the heart,
Where your thoughts never think to wander,
This beginning has been quietly forming,
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.
For a long time it has watched your desire,
Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,
Noticing how you willed yourself on,
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.
It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the gray promises that sameness whispered,
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,
Wondered would you always live like this.
Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream,
A path of plenitude opening before you.
Though your destination is not yet clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is at one with your life’s desire.
Awaken your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.”
― John O Donohue

Into the grace of beginning
Crossing the threshold
Of new things blooming, unfolding
Seen with awakened senses
Light spirit
Hope-filled heart
Trusting the journey
Gratitude, praise, awe
And for the choice to live there each day, with delight.

“Fullness of joy is discovered only in the emptying of will.”― Ann Voskamp

Nov 5

Roadblocks or Openings

“The art of being wise is knowing what to overlook.”― William James

“Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do.”― Steve Jobs

What not to do
Making space
For clarity, discernment, meaning
What to carry
What to put down
What not to pick up
Open to being changed
Rather than waiting for circumstances or others to change
Holding things lightly
Grace and gratitude
Ease, joy, delight
Choose your perspective, choose your state of being
Daily work.

“People don’t resist change. They resist being changed.”― Peter Senge

Sep 15

In All Seasons, Blooming

“Deep in their roots, all flowers keep the light.” – Theodore Roethke

“If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.” – Frances Hodgson Burnett

Beginning, ending, beginning, ending
Woven together in ordinary days
Extraordinary ways
Last blooms of summer
First blooms of fall
Choreography of transitions to transformations
Join the dance
From darkness and dirt to light and glory
In all seasons. blooming.

“One day you will look back and see that all along, you were blooming.”- Morgan Harper Nichols

“September is the culmination of the harvest and the storing of earth’s abundance.”― Joan Borysenko, Pocketful of Miracles

Jul 17

How About, Rather Than

“The most basic and powerful way to connect to another person is to listen. Just listen. Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our attention…. A loving silence often has far more power to heal and to connect than the most well-intentioned words. ”― Rachel Naomi Remen

“And I think that’s what our world is desperately in need of – lovers, people who are building deep, genuine relationships with fellow strugglers along the way, and who actually know the faces of the people behind the issues they are concerned about.”― Shane Claiborne, The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical

Connection rather than correction
Kindness rather than judgment
Empathy rather than criticism
Compassion rather than advice
Belonging rather than excluding
Humanity rather than othering
Listening rather than lecturing
Proximity rather than distance
How about the love
The only action that changes the world, others, self
Plant seeds, cast light, love in action
Transformational

“Perhaps the most important thing we bring to another person is the silence in us, not the sort of silence that is filled with unspoken criticism or hard withdrawal. The sort of silence that is a place of refuge, of rest, of acceptance of someone as they are. We are all hungry for this other silence. It is hard to find. In its presence we can remember something beyond the moment, a strength on which to build a life. Silence is a place of great power and healing.”― Rachel Naomi Remen

Feb 6

A Different Way

“You have the power to heal your life, and you need to know that. We think so often that we are helpless, but we’re not. We always have the power of our minds…Claim and consciously use your power.”― Louise L. Hay

“The pessimist resembles a man who observes with fear and sadness that his wall calendar, from which he daily tears a sheet, grows thinner with each passing day. On the other hand, the person who attacks the problems of life actively is like a man who removes each successive leaf from his calendar and files it neatly and carefully away with its predecessors, after first having jotted down a few diary notes on the back. He can reflect with pride and joy on all the richness set down in these notes, on all the life he has already lived to the fullest. What will it matter to him if he notices that he is growing old? Has he any reason to envy the young people whom he sees, or wax nostalgic over his own lost youth? What reasons has he to envy a young person? For the possibilities that a young person has, the future which is in store for him?

No, thank you,’ he will think. ‘Instead of possibilities, I have realities in my past, not only the reality of work done and of love loved, but of sufferings bravely suffered. These sufferings are even the things of which I am most proud, although these are things which cannot inspire envy.”― Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning

The pessimist tears down.
The optimist, who knows all that the pessimist knows, decides to respond a different way.
Rather than complaint, criticism, complacency, lament, self-pity.
The optimist builds, creates, contributes, unites, keeps going despite circumstances and odds.
Hatred and division weaken, diminish, paralyze.
Love is hard and yet proves again and again to be the only viable answer and call

Psychiatrist and neurologist, Viktor Frankl, a Holocaust survivor who lost his family in concentration camps wrote the pivotal book Man’s Search for Meaning in 9 days. (Read the book)
The apostle Paul wrote five of his thirteen letters from within a Roman jail cell.
The cloud of witnesses who came before and who are among us today showing the way.
Reminding us that in the very midst of our circumstances of blessings and losses that love, light, joy, contentment comes from within.
Life is moving swiftly and will surely take a sharp turn with an unexpected punch in the face around the corner.
It is in our response where our power lies.
Be an “naïve” optimist.
Reflect, grieve, rest then build, carry on, and love in thoughts, words, actions most of all.
Cast light.

“Love is the only way to grasp another human being in the innermost core of his personality. No one can become fully aware of the very essence of another human being unless he loves him. By his love he is enabled to see the essential traits and features in the beloved person; and even more, he sees that which is potential in him, which is not yet actualized but yet ought to be actualized. Furthermore, by his love, the loving person enables the beloved person to actualize these potentialities. By making him aware of what he can be and of what he should become, he makes these potentialities come true.”― Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning

Jan 21

Seeds of Transformation

“Things which do not grow and change are dead things.”― Louise Erdrich

“That’s what it takes to get what you want. Not big scary leaps once a year. It takes small, but irritating moves every single day.”― Mel Robbins, Stop Saying You’re Fine: Discover a More Powerful You

Big ideas at the beginning of January.
Big leap, new year, fresh start.
Falling to the wayside.
Waning, fading, dissipating.
Snap out of it.
Eyes on the road of this day.
Reboot, restart, it’s a long game.
Change, growth, transformation.
Recipe of daily actions, repetition, discipline, trying, resilience.
January wasn’t meant to carry it all.
Small acts, shifts, commitment with slip ups along the way.
Know your why.
Do the daily work.
Make mistakes.
Keep going.
And put joy, awe, wonder, connection, delight, laughter, play on your list too.
Thrive.

“Inspiration and information without personal application will never amount to transformation.”― Lysa TerKeurst, Uninvited

Jan 13

Winding Path to Bloom

“For what it’s worth, it’s never too late to be whoever you want to be. I hope you live a life you’re proud of, and if you find you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start over.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald

“The secret of change is to focus not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” — Socrates

We put a lot of weight on January.
Extremes, overdoing, marathon at sprint pace, shortcut seeking.
High expectations, low resilience.
If it was easy, it would be done already.
And it wouldn’t mean much either.
Do not fall into “quitter’s day/week/month” mindset.
There would be no flowers if the seed gave up after a few weeks.
No spring without the grounding of winter.
No harvest without planting.
Keep going.
Never too late.
Daily work, long-game, meaningful change.
Start over, adjust, carry on.
The work and winding path of bloom.

“She was unstoppable, not because she did not have failures and doubts, but because she continued on despite them.” — Beau Taplin

Jan 5

The Gifts of Seeding

“Your heart is full of fertile seeds, waiting to sprout.” – Morihei Ueshiba

“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

Plant seeds
Daily
Thoughts, words, deeds
Time, following by more time, consistency
Patience, nurturing, timing
Assurance of seasons
Bloom never comes without sowing
Cast seeds, care, patience, light, love
Fertile ground of daily attention, intention, action
The beauty and gifts of seeding well.

“The greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions and not on our circumstances. We carry the seeds of the one or the other about with us in our minds wherever we go.” – Martha Washington

« Older Entries