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Posts tagged ‘Contemplation’

Dec 4

Yield to Silence

“Sometimes it’s the quiet currents that tell the deepest truths.” – Stephanie Duncan Smith, Even After Everything

“A day of Silence
Can be a pilgrimage in itself.

A day of Silence
Can help you listen
To the Soul play
Its marvelous lute and drum.

Is not most talking
A crazed defense of a crumbling fort?

I thought we came here
To surrender in Silence,

To yield to Light and Happiness,

To Dance within,
In celebration of Love’s Victory”
― Hafez, I Heard God Laughing: Poems of Hope and Joy

Pilgrimage of silence.
A day, an hour, a few minutes.
Woven through the day.
Beams, chards, threads.
Peace awaits.
Yield.

“The season of Advent means there is something on the horizon the likes of which we have never seen before… .What is possible is to not see it, to miss it, to turn just as it brushes past you. And you begin to grasp what it was you missed, like Moses in the cleft of the rock, watching God’s [back] fade in the distance. So stay. Sit. Linger. Tarry. Ponder. Wait. Behold. Wonder. There will be time enough for running. For rushing. For worrying. For pushing. For now, stay. Wait. Something is on the horizon.”– Jan L. Richardson, Night Visions: Searching the Shadows of Advent and Christmas

Dec 3

Beauty Distilled

“How
Did the rose
Ever open its heart
And give to this world
All its
Beauty?
It felt the encouragement of light
Against its Being.
Otherwise,
We all remain
Too Frightened”― Hafez

“I wish I could show you when you are lonely or in darkness the astonishing light of your own being.
Even After All this time The Sun never says to the Earth, “You owe me.” Look What happens With a love like that, It lights the whole sky.

Fear is the cheapest room in the house. I would like to see you living in better conditions.”― Hafez

In the hurry
Doing
Performing
Over functioning
Busy
Pushing
Scarcity and never enough

In the opening
Being
Inviting
Allowing
Abiding
Reflection
Stillness
Abundance overflowing

Astonishing light
Fear dissipates
Beauty appears where it is rooted and blooms
Front and center
Fertile ground
The whole sky
Fresh eyes, soft heart, arms open.

“When all your desires are distilled
You will cast just two votes:
To love more,
And be happy.”― Hafez

Nov 21

The Noble Art

“One thing I’ve learned in the woods is that there is no such thing as random. Everything is steeped in meaning, colored by relationships, one thing with another.”― Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass

“Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.” – Lin Yutang, The Importance of Living

In the choosing of the doing.
More in the not doing.
From transactional to relational.
Slowing and pausing.
Pruning to grow.
What is most important?
Put your effort and attention there.
The noble art of choosing well.

“In order to seek one’s own direction, one must simplify the mechanics of ordinary, everyday life.” – Plato

Nov 12

A Kernal Bursting

“Beauty surrounds us.” ― Rumi

“Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach, undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life.

A tree says: A kernel is hidden in me, a spark, a thought, I am life from eternal life. The attempt and the risk that the eternal mother took with me is unique, unique the form and veins of my skin, unique the smallest play of leaves in my branches and the smallest scar on my bark. I was made to form and reveal the eternal in my smallest special detail.

When we are stricken and cannot bear our lives any longer, then a tree has something to say to us: Be still! Be still! Look at me! Life is not easy, life is not difficult. Those are childish thoughts. Let God speak within you, and your thoughts will grow silent. You are anxious because your path leads away from mother and home. But every step and every day lead you back again to the mother. Home is neither here nor there. Home is within you, or home is nowhere at all.” ― Herman Hesse, Bäume: Betrachtungen und Gedichte

Be still.
Be quiet.
Listen.
Observe.
Examine.
With your heart, not your opinion.
The world, starting with self, needs love, not your judgment.
We make God in our image – small, petty, othering, self-righteous.
No wonder people run away fast.
We are made in God’s image.
Beyond comprehension by our underused imagination.
When we discover that, we change the world.
Invite. Welcome. Embrace.
Be kind. Love well.

“And you? When will you begin that long journey into yourself?” ― Rumi

Oct 11

Sweet Territory

“Reflection is a flower of the mind, giving out a wholesome fragrance.” – Desiderius Erasmus

“In the sweet territory of silence we touch the mystery. It’s the place of reflection and contemplation, and it’s the place where we can connect with the deep knowing, to the deep wisdom way.” – Angeles Arrien

Anchor and root
In the slowing
Seeing
Observing
Listening
Inquiring
Listening again
Reflection
The path to understanding
Insight
Revelation
Discernment
Gratitude
Joy
Clarity
Peace
Dig, delve, deep dive
Surface
Move out from there
True north

“It’s on the strength of observation and reflection that one finds a way. So we must dig and delve unceasingly.” – Claude Monet

Oct 1

Daily Reverence

“Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world.” – John Milton

The Sun by Mary Oliver

“Have you ever seen
anything
in your life
more wonderful
than the way the sun,
every evening,
relaxed and easy,
floats toward the horizon
and into the clouds or the hills,
or the rumpled sea,
and is gone–
and how it slides again
out of the blackness,
every morning,
on the other side of the world,
like a red flower
streaming upward on its heavenly oils,
say, on a morning in early summer,
at its perfect imperial distance–
and have you ever felt for anything
such wild love–
do you think there is anywhere, in any
language,
a word billowing enough
for the pleasure
that fills you,
as the sun
reaches out,
as it warms you
as you stand there,
empty-handed–
or have you too
turned from this world–
or have you too
gone crazy
for power,
for things?”

Partake in beauty.
Embrace stillness.
Sit with wonder.
Witness awe.
Ordinary days filled with extraordinary opportunities.
Path to reverence, narrow and ever present.

“Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence.” – Henry David Thoreau

Sep 22

Pause to Awe

“Your hopes, dreams and aspirations are legitimate. They are trying to take you airborne, above the clouds, above the storms, if you only let them.”― William James

“In our own contemporary context of the rat race of anxiety, the celebration of Sabbath is an act of both resistance and alternative. It is resistance because it is a visible insistence that our lives are not defined by the production and consumption of commodity goods.”― Walter Brueggemann, Sabbath as Resistance: Saying No to the Culture of Now

No to faster, urgent, hustle, noise, opinion, judgment, complaint, comparison, cynicism, fear.
Yes to slow, important, presence, allowing, beauty, joy, wonder, delight, enthusiasm, kindness, love.
No’s and Yes’s that bring us to this day fully.
Pathway to gratitude, grace, rest.
Pause to awe.

“Human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives.”― William James

Sep 20

The Light Within

“And then there were the poets, those unbelievable people so different from other men, who told anyone who would listen that a wish is more important than a fortune, and that a dream can weigh more than iron or steel.”― Jacques Lusseyran, And There Was Light

“Inside me there was everything I had believed was outside. There was, in particular, the sun, light, and all colors. There were even the shapes of objects and the distance between objects. Everything was there and movement as well… Light is an element that we carry inside us and which can grow there with as much abundance, variety, and intensity as it can outside of us…I could light myself…that is, I could create a light inside of me so alive, so large, and so near that my eyes, my physical eyes, or what remained of them, vibrated, almost to the point of hurting… God is there under a form that has the good luck to be neither religious, not intellectual, nor sentimental, but quite simply alive.”― Jacques Lusseyran, And There Was Light

Hidden within you the whole time.
Not off in far off places.
In other people.
In circumstances or some day “when”
Your light.
The well you rush by each day on the way to puddles.
Deep waters. Big sky. Brilliant light.
Within.
Home in you.
The light within awaits your attention, kindness and care.
Feed the fire.
Shine.

“Two truths: the first of these is that joy does not come from outside, for whatever happens to us it is within. The second truth is that light does not come to us from without. Light is in us, even if we have no eyes.”― Jacques Lusseyran, And There Was Light

Sep 13

Start Close In

“What do you think is the biggest waste of time?”
“Comparing yourself to others,” said the mole.”
― Charlie Mackesy, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse

Start Close In by David Whyte

“Start close in, don’t take the second step or the third,
start with the first thing close in,
the step you don’t want to take.
Start with the ground you know, the pale ground beneath your feet,
your own way of starting the conversation.
Start with your own question, give up on other people’s questions,
don’t let them smother something simple.
To find another’s voice, follow your own voice,
wait until that voice becomes a private ear listening to another.
Start right now take a small step you can call your own
don’t follow someone else’s heroics,
be humble and focused,
start close in,
don’t mistake that other for your own.”

Turn down the volume.
The noise and clanging.
Others’ expectations, assumptions, opinions, fear.
Start close in.
Comparison and counting.
People pleasing and over functioning.
Should, must, have to, expectations, rules.
Start close in.
A firm pause, stillness, hard stop.
Wide space, margins.
To hear your own voice, soft whisper, home.
Start close in.
To cut your own path, one small step at a time.
Listen, foster, be gentle.
Kindness, grace, love.
Start close in.
Then go back out anew.

“Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own.”― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

Jun 26

Overflowing and Precious Opportunities

“At some point we must plunge in to discover a greater expanse; yet when this broader horizon does appear, a new depth will open up at our point of entry.”― Edith Stein, Potency and Act

“Daily life provides countless occasions for adapting to change and impermanence. Yet we squander these precious opportunities, assuming that we have all the time in the world.”― Yongey Mingyur, Turning Confusion into Clarity

The “someday when” trap.
Another place.
Different circumstances.
When this person changes.
When this happens.
When I arrive here.
You are here, now.
Nowhere else, so root and anchor in the present.
Certain to change with twists and turns, lulls in between.
The days pass swiftly with age.
Do not miss your life seeking someday, squandering precious opportunities.
Someday is today.
Dive in with enthusiasm, awe and wonder.

“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

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