Skip to content

Posts tagged ‘Contemplation’

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

Nov 14

Sacred Spaces, In and Out

“It seems that intuitive listening requires us to still our minds until the beauty of things older than our minds can find us.”― Mark Nepo, Seven Thousand Ways to Listen: Staying Close to What Is Sacred

“Let all your thinks be thanks.”― W.H. Auden

Within, to heart, not head
Venturing out, beauty abound
Enter the stream
At ease in the flow
Stay here for a spell
Sacred spaces, of awe and wonder
Tune out the noise to listen.

“Now, I want only to give away all that I’m blessed to know and disappear in the stream.”― Mark Nepo, Seven Thousand Ways to Listen: Staying Close to What Is Sacred

Oct 16

Two Lives

“This sky
Where we live
Is no place to lose your wings
So love, love
Love.”― Hafez, The Gift

“My time is too short:
I want the essence,
my soul is in a hurry.
I don’t have many sweets
in the package anymore.
I want to live next to human people,
very human,
who know how to laugh at their mistakes,
and who are not inflated by their triumphs,
and who take on their responsibilities.
Thus, human dignity is defended, and we move towards truth and honesty.
It is the essential that makes life worth living.
I want to surround myself with people who know how to touch hearts, people who have been taught by the hard blows of life to grow with gentle touches of the soul.
Yes, I’m in a hurry, I’m in a hurry to live with the intensity that only maturity can give.
I don’t intend to waste any of the leftover sweets.
I am sure they will be delicious, much more than what I have eaten so far.
My goal is to reach the end satisfied
and at peace with my loved ones
and my conscience.
We have two lives.
And the second begins when you realize you only have one.” – Mário Raul de Morais Andrade

Urgency to slow, deepen
Attention to find beauty and joy woven in this very day
Seen with fresh eyes, open heart
Reverence for presence
Love, grace, gratitude
Awe, wonder, delight
Kindness, light, love
Rooted and in flight.

“The highest and most beautiful things in life are not to be heard about, nor read about, nor seen but, if one will, are to be lived.”― Søren Kierkegaard

Sep 21

How to Live Well

“When earth and sky collide, it’s a dance older than time.”― Heidi Barr, Collisions of Earth and Sky

“Practicing presence is remembering how to live.”― Heidi Barr, 12 Tiny Things

Silence
Within
Reflection
Presence
Kindness
Contemplation
Empathy
Gentleness
Prayer
Gratitude
Generosity
Beauty
Awe
Joy
Curiosity
Wonder
Hope
Daily prescription
To live well in this world
Catch and cast light.

“life, you will fill me with joy in your presence.” – Thomas Keating, The Daily Reader for Contemplative Living

Sep 20

Astonishment and Delight

“Every dew wet apple blossom, every garden plot filled with creeping flowers and weeds, each crimson leaf, each sparkle in a newly white morning – each nuance of creation offers up a sense of place and rhythm.”― Heidi Barr, Woodland Manitou: To Be on Earth

“We applaud in silent awe
at how something as simple
as the alignment of
water
trees
light
creates a masterpiece
every single day,
just by existing.”
― Heidi Barr, Cold Spring Hallelujah

Color, light, nuance
Astonishment, delight, awe
Patiently waiting to be found, held
Already here and now
Woven in the ordinary present
Awaiting our awakening
Backdrop to forefront
Attention, noticing, proximity
Clean your glasses
Look again.

“What i want in life
is an aptitude for astonishment
room for unanticipated delight.”
― Heidi Barr, Cold Spring Hallelujah

Aug 7

1 Comment

Cusping

“Be where you are; otherwise you will miss your life.” – Buddha

You do not always have to be producing, creating, harvesting. Learn to be idle. Learn to rest.”― Joyce Rupp, The Circle Of Life: The Heart’s Journey Through The Seasons

Making space, creating margins
Ordinary days, simple joys, laughter, color, hue
Flow and ease of being present, on the ground of this day
Cusping and leaping
Free falling
Trusting and seeking
Slow and deliberate
Idle and rest
Intention and direction
Honing and glistening
Choosing “and” rather than “or”
Present over perfect
Gratitude over comparison, calculation, counting
Essay rather than equation
All of these things and more
No “to do” lists or bucket list but one
To be fully alive both in reflection, projection and real time.

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”― Søren Kierkegaard

Jul 19

Holy Underachievement

“The universe is transformation.”― Louise Erdrich

“Blessed are you who are burned out, sun-drenched, and soul-beary.
You who long for rest, but feel pulled in a dozen good directions.
You who feel behind before the day even starts.
Whose group texts go unanswered, and whose sunscreen ran out, and who cannot remember what day of the week it is.
Blessed are you who are trying to care for others, when you barely have anything left to give.
You are blessed when you don’t volunteer to bring orange slices to the soccer match.
When you eat cheese and crackers for dinner again.
When you say, Sorry, I can’t make it.
You’re not lazy. You’re not failing. You are honoring your humanity.
May you find pockets of rest when your body says no more.
May you find something that you can sit down when your calendar begs for margin.
You find a friend who helps shoulder it with you when you are spread too thin.
And may you remember you are not a project to be optimized.
You are a person, a beloved one.
You don’t have to earn rest.
You just have to receive it.”
Kate Bowler: The Summer of Too Much: Practicing Holy Underachievement,

Pockets of rest
No permission needed
Earning not required
Slow down
Savor and soak in this day
Wide margins
Blank canvas
Space to let awe and wonder find you
Receive it
Amazing grace
Peace. Be still.

“NO” for me now is all about making room for more “YES.”― Abbi Jacobson, I Might Regret This: Essays, Drawings, Vulnerabilities, and Other Stuff

Jun 26

Window on the World

“Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won’t come in.”― Alan Alda

“Curiosity is the wick in the candle of learning.” – William Arthur Ward

What am I missing that’s right in front of me?
What don’t I know?
What’s beneath the surface?
Ask good questions
Give space and margins for the answers to rise up
To take shape and form
Unlearning, relearning, discovery
Inquiry, curiosity, imagination
Listening, hearing, receptivity
Crack the door
Open the window
Let fresh air of unknowing and mystery in
Get out of your own way to find the way
May you see the delight, wonder and awe that cross your path today
Let the light in.

“Dreams don’t die.
They move on to the next available dreamer.”― Michael Bassey Johnson

May 20

As Though I Had Wings

“The day I understood everything, was the day I stopped trying to figure everything out. The day I knew peace was the day I let everything go.”― C. JoyBell C.

“When I say it’s you I like, I’m talking about that part of you that knows that life is far more than anything you can ever see or hear or touch. That deep part of you that allows you to stand for those things without which humankind cannot survive. Love that conquers hate, peace that rises triumphant over war, and justice that proves more powerful than greed.”― Fred Rogers

Framing
Thinking
Perspective
A shift
A tilt
A turn
Same becomes new
Familiar becomes fresh
Telescope to kaleidoscope
As though I had wings.

“I want to think again of dangerous and noble things.
I want to be light and frolicsome.
I want to be improbable beautiful and afraid of nothing,
as though I had wings.” – Mary Oliver

Mar 21

Steadfast and Still

“…smile first, then speak.”― George Saunders, The Braindead Megaphone

“Be still, my soul, and steadfast.
Earth and heaven both are still watching
though time is draining from the clock
and your walk, that was confident and quick,
has become slow.

So, be slow if you must, but let
the heart still play its true part.
Love still as once you loved, deeply
and without patience. Let God and the world
know you are grateful. That the gift has been given.” – Mary Oliver

Become slow.
Stop.
What we take up
What we put down
Choose
Inflection point
A-ha moment
The pivot
Emergence in the pause
The gift has been given
Accept and embrace

“Grateful and awake, ask what you need to know. Say what you feel now. Love what you love now.” – Mark Nepo

« Older Entries