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Posts tagged ‘Contemplation’

Sep 15

Write Your Story

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”― Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Tend to the narratives you tell yourself, what you’ve come to believe.
Is it familiar, flat and stale?
Does it serve your growth, healing, transformation?
Unlearn, relearn, learn.
Choose a different story line.
Change the arc.
Expansion over contraction.
Knowing in the unknowing.
Depth and dimension.
Salt and light.
Becoming through unbecoming.
Listen, write, rewrite.
The first draft is never the final draft.
Edit and hone.
Keep writing your story each day.

“What a wonderful life I’ve had! I only wish I’d realized it sooner.” – Colette

Aug 7

Still Points

“I drank the silence of God from a spring in the woods.” – Georg Trakl

“At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,
Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards,
Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,
There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.”― T.S. Eliot

Stand still in body, mind and spirit
From the hustle and hurry of somewhere else
Allow ease in from quiet reflection
To the awareness that somewhere, some day is now
Pause long enough to see blessings already present
If gifts available in this moment are unseen, how will you ever recognize more?
Depth rather than shallow width
Stop counting and start receiving what is
Abundance beyond measure
Separate your being from circumstances so as not to be bound by them
Let gratitude, awareness and attention be your guide
Go from doing to accepting, to acknowledging, to praise
Receive, accept, absorb
Close your eyes, create still points and simply say “thank you”

“So Joseph stored up the grain in such abundance-like the sand of the sea-that he stopped measuring it; it was beyond measure.”-Genesis 41:49

Jul 29

Deliberately

“Trees are poems that the earth writes upon the sky.”― Khalil Gibran

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms…”― Henry David Thoreau

Shed the chaos
Tune out the noise
Narrow to go deeper
Plant seeds
Prune dead branches
Transcend the nonessential
Define your essential
Go there
Live deliberately.

“Essentialism is not about how to get more things done; it’s about how to get the right things done. It doesn’t mean just doing less for the sake of less either. It is about making the wisest possible investment of your time and energy in order to operate at our highest point of contribution by doing only what is essential.”― Greg Mckeown, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

Jul 6

Same New

“Beauty itself is but the sensible image of the Infinite.” – Francis Bacon

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” – Viktor E. Frankl

The space between stimulus and response
See the same in a new way
Take a different route
Tilt your head to see a different angle
Pause

Detach from the old
Draw outside the lines
Throw away the box you put yourself in
Throw away the box others put you in
Wide open spaces

Venture out beyond old stories, thoughts, opinions, assumptions
Make the unknown, known
Do not settle for familiarity, complacency, and certainty over fruition and growth
We are built for more, called to better, capable for hard
Density over volume
Imperfect wholeness and completion

Energy, creativity and light
Do not play small
Listen, look, receive, release
Make the same new
Always choose to bloom

“You have to color outside the lines once in a while if you want to make your life a masterpiece.” – Einstein

Jun 29

Inside Larger than Outside

“…I heard an architect say that a contemplative building is not one built for meditating, though meditation may take place there, but more a building where the inside is larger than the outside. It made me realize that anything that does this, that makes the inside larger than the outside, leads us to our core. And breathing there gives us peace.” – Mark Nepo, Finding Inner Courage

May you love yourself enough to travel within to make your inside larger than the outside.
May you love others enough to invite them to the same journey.
May you find peace, joy and light in this very day.

Accept the invitation. Take the trip daily.

“It is a constant challenge to find our center, our core, and to stay there long enough to uncover our capacities. Both require a steady movement inward.” – Mark Nepo, Finding Inner Courage

 

May 24

Cathedral

“May your heart be an altar, from which the bright flame of unending thanksgiving ascends to heaven.” – Mary Euphrasia Pelletier

“A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery

What’s in front of you right now?
Where will you put your energy and effort today?
What altars are you kneeling at?
What fruit will you bear?
Do you see a pile of rocks or the makings of a cathedral?

Each day we make choices, actively or passively. Decisions that direct our path. What we take in, what we cast out, what we make of the material present and available within.

Make a hard stop. Take a deep breath. Look around. Then proceed. Choose your direction on the path that serves your becoming, expanding and unfolding. Finish the cathedral, rock by rock.

Grace. Gratitude. Great works.

“Keep alive within you and bring under wise control that courage which makes you long to undertake great works, which others might consider it folly to attempt.” – Mary Euphrasia Pelletier

Apr 19

Liberation

“we are souls who have met for a purpose on this mysterious journey; that each of us is here for the other, and all that is required is to strip down to the marrow and to be present. To look into each other’s eyes and to search beyond the identity of victim and helper, sick one and well one, weak one and strong one—to look deeper and to find the dignified soul of each being, and to stand in solidarity as a fellow human who is striving to be free. This is how all of us can try to be with each other, every day—wherever we go and whatever disparities may exist between us.”— Marrow: A Love Story by Elizabeth Lesser

Last night, I finished Elizabeth Lesser’s’ book Marrow: A Love Story. The past weeks, I’ve scattered several quotes from the book throughout posts. It’s been the right book at the right time for me.

We have cues, clues, signs and directions right in front of us waiting to be seen and heard. Look and listen. Be bold and enter that quiet space within to hear that still small voice, your inner knowing, your intuition, your soul, your GPS, your True North. Beyond rules, assumptions, judgment, ego, offense, irritations, neatly-packaged narratives, the past and the future, there’s an open field ready to be explored, revealed and discovered.

“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I’ll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass the world is too full to talk about.”― Rumi

Daily rituals and practices that pull us into that wide open field include meditation (Insight Timer makes it so easy to break old thought patterns and create new ones!), Morning Pages (Julia Cameron’s recipe that works wonders and fosters creativity and clarity), gratitude (count your blessings and gifts, take inventory) and movement (get out in nature, spin up a stretching class on YouTube, get your blood pumping). All doable and worth the effort.

“We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand – out in the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise.” – Romans 5:2

Try one new thing today. Expand, engage, participate in the unfolding of your life. Repeat tomorrow, the next and the next. Wide open spaces.

“The goal of meditation is liberation. Liberation from the stormy weather occurring between our skull bones. Liberation from the war within. We meditate to become comfortable with whatever is going on in any moment. To engage with reality on its own terms.”— Marrow: A Love Story by Elizabeth Lesser

Mar 31

Claim the Sky

“A free bird leaps on the back of the wind and floats downstream till the current ends and dips his wing in the orange sun rays and dares to claim the sky.” – Maya Angelou, Caged Bird

“In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect. Trees can be contorted, bent in weird ways, and they’re still beautiful.” – Alice Walker

Church is not a place to go or not go once a week for an hour to check the attendance box and return to “normal” life. We are the church, not a building. Individually and collectively, we make up the church. What we believe in, what altars we kneel at, who we become if we dare to take the journey within and venture out.

We put ceilings up to limit God, circumstances, other people, self to be comfortable, safe and certain. We want to know the ending, but the ending is being written each new day in choices, thoughts, actions and inactions.

Our willingness to expand and open without fear of losing our sense of security and stability is the dance, the balance beam, the inflection point that pulls us into this moment, this day, aware of the mystery and entering it without full knowing but trusting it will unfold as it should.

“There is nothing but mystery in the world, how it hides behind the fabric of our poor, browbeat days, shining brightly, and we don’t even know it. — Sue Monk Kidd

Regret’s only purpose is to change our behavior and actions. Carrying it further slows and stalls the journey forward. When we stop circling the same mountains looking for new terrain, we can venture off trail cutting new paths to new mountains.

Life is a series of interwoven journeys, moments to savor and memories in the making. Be present, feel the ground under your feet, expand your lungs with a deep breath.  Grasp the immensity and breadth of all that is before you and most importantly in you.

Allow the mystery to unfold and be revealed in quiet reflection and inquiry. Feel the pull of gravity. Follow the compass of intuition. Trust the soul’s compass. Ask the questions. Listen for the answers. There is no ceiling, just sky. Claim the sky.

“Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.” —Henry David Thoreau

Mar 26

Ice Out

“First comes thought; then organization of that thought, into ideas and plans; then transformation of those plans into reality. The beginning, as you will observe, is in your imagination.” – Napoleon Hill

“The tree
That wanted to be
A beautiful book
It would die
If that’s what it took…” – Butterfly Boucher

Thin ice remains on the shore as the middle gives way to open, cold, deep water. The transformation from winter to spring almost complete. As winter and spring dance, transitioning who leads, a mix of cold and warm, dry and wet will bring us into April. The rain softens and greens the grass. Spring is certain. Winter returning in eight months is certain as well. The dance continues, steps in sync, choregraphed by the Author of Life.

Seasons, cycles, transitions, change are certain. Transformation, growth and transcendence are a choice, a decision. We can remain on the surface, on thin ice, in the hardness of winter or give way to spring, to dance, to deep waters.

The journey is not to foreign lands beyond but within to unfold, unwind and peal the layers to reveal our authentic self. It calls for letting go, dying to old self, releasing what was to be on its own to fully embrace what is while anticipating the fruit that comes with time, sun and rain. Take the journey.

“Well everything’s
Full of dreams for one thing…
And everything’s
Full of dreams for reasons…
And everything’s
Full of dreams for one thing…
So keep dreaming” – Butterfly Boucher

Mar 6

Daily Gifts

“Roses do not bloom hurriedly; for beauty, like any masterpiece, takes time to blossom.”
― Matshona Dhliwayo

“Small minds are concerned with the extraordinary, great minds with the ordinary.” – Blaise Pascal

A wave
A breeze
A floating leave

A blooming flower
A spring shower
A sunrise and set

A smile
A laugh
A hug

In music
In art
In nature

Simple
Soft
Subtle

Ordinary
Miracles
Daily

Find
Be found
Embrace

“Miracles happen everyday, change your perception of what a miracle is and you’ll see them all around you.” – Jon Bon Jovi

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