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Posts tagged ‘Delight’

Apr 6

A Little More String

“You will find truth more quickly through delight than gravity. Let out a little more string on your kite.” – Alan Cohen

“Let’s go fly a kite
Up to the highest height!
Let’s go fly a kite and send it soaring
Up through the atmosphere
Up where the air is clear
Oh, let’s go fly a kite!” – Song lyrics by David Tomlinson and Dick Van Dyke, Mary Poppins

Like Christmas, Easter is a season not a day, a mere occurrence
A way to live, love, be
A daily choice
To begin again
To hope, imagine, delight
Still tethered and held
And soaring with fresh joy.
Let out a little more string.

“The great gift of Easter is hope.” — Basil C. Hume

Mar 5

Play Time, Daily Recess

“to know what you’re going to draw, you have to begin drawing” – Picasso

“Stepping out of a normal routine, finding novelty, being open to serendipity, enjoying the unexpected, embracing a little risk, and finding pleasure in the heightened vividness of life. These are all qualities of a state of play.”― Stuart Brown, Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul

Recess required everyday
Time out and away
Laughter and delight
Play, stir the drink
Feed the soul
Song. Dance. Serendipity.
Make life lively.

“and engage fully with the world… Life without play is a grinding, mechanical existence organized around doing the things necessary for survival. Play is the stick that stirs the drink. It is the basis of all art, games, books, sports, movies, fashion, fun, and wonder—in short, the basis of what we think of as civilization. Play is the vital essence of life. It is what makes life lively.”― Stuart Brown, Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul

Jan 4

Multitude of Delights

“A multitude of small delights constitute happiness”― Charles Baudelaire

“Genius is nothing more nor less than childhood recaptured at will.”― Charles Baudelaire, The Painter of Modern Life and Other Essays

May wonder tug at your sleeve
Interrupt your trance
Awaken your senses
Spark a smile, spilling into laughter
Call you to play
Follow without delay
Multitude of small delights
Present in this very day.

“The present is the only things that has no end.”― Erwin Schrödinger

Sep 19

1 Comment

No Scarcity of Delight

“Delight is all around us you know, from the food we eat, to the night sky, to the dreams we have. It surrounds us with every moment, you just have to stop and take it in whenever you can.”― Jonathan Maas, Horsemen

The Patience of Ordinary Things
by Pat Schneider

“It is a kind of love, is it not?
How the cup holds the tea,
How the chair stands sturdy and foursquare,
How the floor receives the bottoms of shoes
Or toes. How soles of feet know
Where they’re supposed to be.
I’ve been thinking about the patience
Of ordinary things, how clothes
Wait respectfully in closets
And soap dries quietly in the dish,
And towels drink the wet
From the skin of the back.
And the lovely repetition of stairs.
And what is more generous than a window?”

In abundance.
Simple things.
Ordinary days.
New eyes required, attention too..
On the ground of now.
Windows open wide.
Fresh air of joy.
No scarcity of delight.

“So today I’m recalling the utility, the need, of my own essayettes to emerge from such dailiness, and in that way to be a practice of witnessing one’s delight, of being in and with one’s delight, daily, which actually requires vigilance. It also requires faith that delight will be with you daily, that you needn’t hoard it. No scarcity of delight.”― Ross Gay, The Book of Delights: Essays

Apr 20

In Action

“The measure of love is to love without measure.”― Francis de Sales

“And in this he showed me a little thing, the quantity of a hazel nut, lying in the palm of my hand, as it seemed. And it was as round as any ball. I looked upon it with the eye of my understanding, and thought, ‘What may this be?’ And it was answered generally thus, ‘It is all that is made.’ I marveled how it might last, for I thought it might suddenly have fallen to nothing for littleness. And I was answered in my understanding: It lasts and ever shall, for God loves it. And so have all things their beginning by the love of God.

In this little thing I saw three properties. The first is that God made it. The second that God loves it. And the third, that God keeps it.”― Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love

You are loved.
Give it away.
Multiply, amplify, animate.
Pass it forward, backward, sideways, inward, outward.
Words, embraces, thoughts, kindness, laughter, generosity, joy, awe and wonder.
Put love in action today.
Game changer.

“You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working; and just so, you learn to love by loving. All those who think to learn in any other way deceive themselves.”― Saint Francis De Sales

Dec 7

Astonishment

“Witness each moment in astounded jubilation. Take every holy breath in gratitude. Rejoice in life!”― Bryant McGill, Simple Reminders: Inspiration for Living Your Best Life

“A Permeable Life is about what presses out from the heart, what comes in at a slant and what shimmers below the surface of things. To live permeably is to be open-hearted and audacious, to risk showing up as our truest self, and embracing a willingness to be astonished.”― Carrie Newcomer, A Permeable Life: Poems & Essays

To unknow things.
To forget.
To be naive, or brilliant.
To see each day with astonishment, pause, praise.
A series of firsts, of surprise and enchantment.
Transformed rather than informed.
Wonder, awe, delight.
A place to not only visit but to set up residence.
To make home.
Wandering there often will work too.
Be interrupted by beauty, joy and delight each day.
Find what shimmers below the surface of things, of you, of others, of life.

“But why the last? I ask. Why not
live each day as if it were the first—
all raw astonishment . . .”
― Linda Pastan

Sep 4

Placidly

“Happiness held is the seed; Happiness shared is the flower.” – John Harrigan

“Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender, be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly, and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant; they too have their story.

Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love – for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is perennial as the grass. Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.

Nurture strength of spirit to shield you from misfortune. But do not distress yourself with imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labours and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.”― Max Ehrmann, Desiderata: A Poem for a Way of Life

May your mind be able to be changed.
Your heart opened wider.
Your spirit ascend again and again.
And hope and joy be the song you sing each day.
Anticipation, delight and ease be yours this day.

“To be devoid of life is to lack spiritual dimension that brings heaven to earth”― Sunday Adelaja

Jul 10

3 Comments

Open Window Day

“Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one.” – Dr. Seuss

“What is the good of your stars and trees, your sunrise and the wind, if they do not enter into our daily lives?” – E. M. Forster

Open the windows.
Put your head out.
Feel the wind on your face, flowing through your hair.
Seize joy at every turn.
Pursue delight in simple acts.
Breath in the fresh air.
Clear the clutter from your thoughts.
Enjoy this day and all that is offers.
There’s wonder, awe and frolic in reach.
Partake.

“I still get wildly enthusiastic about little things… I play with leaves. I skip down the street and run against the wind.” – Leo Buscaglia