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Posts tagged ‘Dogs’

Feb 28

The Steps Along the Way

“…there are no wrong turns, only unexpected paths.”― Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening

“We work so hard to get somewhere, to realize a dream, to arrive at some destination, that we often forget that though some satisfaction may be waiting at the end of our endurance and effort, there is great and irreplaceable aliveness in the steps along the way.”― Mark Nepo

The alluring promise of someday.
The comfort of remembering when.
The hot pursuit of the finish line.
The satisfaction in the completion of our “to do” list.
In the midst of our striving, figuring, pursuing, the present sits quietly awaiting to be seen and entered into.
The path beneath our feet.
Sacred ground.
Root in today.
Witness and partake.
Simple joys in the steps along the way.

“Rest is not for weaklings. Hollowing out space for rest is work. Finding time for rest is the hands and feet of the promises we long to claim. It means saying no. It means having limits with ourselves. It means having limits with others. It takes courage to rest in the midst of an outcome-driven society. It takes strength to walk away from good in the pursuit of better.”― Saundra Dalton-Smith, Sacred Rest: Recover Your Life, Renew Your Energy, Restore Your Sanity

Feb 9

Adventures in the Ordinary

“When you see someone putting on his Big Boots, you can be pretty sure that an Adventure is going to happen.”― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

“What day is it?” asked Pooh.
“It’s today,” squeaked Piglet.
“My favorite day,” said Pooh.”― A.A. Milne

Do what you must and more.
“To Do” list, commitments, one thing to the next.
Being present should be at the top of the list.
Pause in between.
Look up and around.
Witness and notice the day.
Partake.
Enjoyment is a worthy pursuit.
Play, have fun, tennis ball fur on your lip kind.
Delight in this day.
Adventures ahead in an ordinary day made extraordinary.

“Never, ever underestimate the importance of having fun.” – Randy Pausch

Dec 27

2 Comments

Happy Christmastide

“Play is the exultation of the possible.”― Martin Buber

“Christmastide (December 25 – January 5) is about the gradual departure of darkness and the gentle dawning of light at Epiphany. We don’t have to cram all of Christmas into one day. At Christmastide, we shed the pressure of “the holidays” and how we always do things, and take on a new, relaxed rhythm of celebration. Kinder. Quirkier. Gentler.” – Kate Bowler

The gentle dawning of light unfolding.
In slowing.
In playing.
In savoring.
In lingering.
In wandering.
In allowing.
In being, not mere doing.
Enter a relaxed rhythm.
And, of course, dance.
Joy. Hope. Wonder. Awe.
Today and each day, even slivers will do.
Happy Christmastide.

“Time is a game played beautifully by children.” (and dogs) ― Heraclitus, Fragments

Aug 16

Slow and Easy

“Slow down and enjoy life. It’s not only the scenery you miss by going to fast – you also miss the sense of where you are going and why.” – Eddie Cantor

“It is an ironic habit of human beings to run faster when they have lost their way.”― Rollo May

Slow down.
Let your imagination saunter and wander.
Allow quiet spaces to hear your own voice.
Anchor in today.
See beauty and light.
There’s fun to be had.
Play to partake in.
Slow and easy.

“What if imagination and art are not frosting at all, but the fountainhead of human experience?”― Rollo May

Aug 13

The Good Things

“Animals praise a good day, a good hunt. They praise rain if they’re thirsty. That’s prayer. They don’t live an unconscious life, they simply have no language to talk about these things. But they are grateful for the good things that come along.” – Mary Oliver

“Beauty is whatever gives joy.” – Edna St. Vincent Millay

Acknowledge the struggle.
Move through it.
Be patient, especially with your harshest critic, yourself.
Invite and welcome joy to come alongside to lighten the load.
Find delight in simple things.
Holding it all.
Praise and prayer.
Gratitude in the sighs.
Life spins us around.
Take a foothold in joy.
Rejoice in the strands of beauty woven through this very day.

“If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy, if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has power to move you, if the simple things of nature have a message that you understand, rejoice, for your soul is alive.” – Eleonora Duse

Jul 2

Dog Days

“Summer has filled her veins with light and her heart is washed with noon.” – C. Day Lewis

“The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.”― Jack London

Summer.
An invitation daily to delight, play and wonder.
Dive in.
Accept the invitation.
Let these days in.
Live not merely exist.
The proper function of man and dog.
Hear and dance to the song of summer.

“Every day has a story to tell.
Can you hear it?”― Emmanuel Onimisi

“In summer, the song sings itself.” – William Carlos Williams

Jun 18

2 Comments

No Leashes Day

“of all the sights I love in this world — and there are plenty — very near the top of the list is this one: dogs without leashes.” – Mary Oliver, Dog Songs: Poems

“We meet wonderful people, but lose them
in our busyness.
We’re, as the saying goes, all over the place.
Steadfastness, it seems,
is more about dogs than about us.
One of the reasons we love them so much.”
― Mary Oliver, Dog Songs: Poems

The simplicity of a dog, or two.
To seize the moment.
Squeezing every drop of delight.
Off leash, free to roam.
Unbound and bounding.
Joy on four legs.
Showing the way.
Leaping, retrieving, delighting.
Steadfast, focused, steeped into the moment completely.
May you go off leash today, each day.
Unbusy, awake and attune.
Finding magic in the ordinary by being fully present.
To a leash-free day!

“Or maybe it’s about the wonderful things that may happen if you break the ropes that are holding you.”― Mary Oliver, Dog Songs: Poems

“But I want to extol not the sweetness nor the placidity of the dog, but the wilderness out of which he cannot step entirely, and from which we benefit. For wilderness is our first home too, and in our wild ride into modernity with all its concerns and problems we need also all the good attachments to that origin that we can keep or restore. Dog is one of the messengers of that rich and still magical first world.”― Mary Oliver, Dog Songs

Mar 30

Pup Cups and Other Simple Things

“It is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all.” – Laura Ingalls Wilder

“Sometimes, we have to stand on the commitment and hard work of others. Yet, there are other passages in life that each of us has to journey through alone. We can call the first process, progress, and the second, incarnation.” – Mark Nepo, Surviving Storms: Finding the Strength to Meet Adversity

So much resides and lives in the simple things.
Time with family and friends.
Making new friends, connecting with a stranger, if but for a moment.
Laughter, a walk in the woods, trips to dog parks to chase balls and other dogs, and the newly discovered “pup cup” filled with whipped cream.
Find your path into the clearing.
We’ll see each other on the way.
Walking along side, sharing the road.
Paying attention to the simple things.
Tripping on joy and grace.
Incarnation, vastness, doing for others, seeing for self.

“Like everyone before us, we each must find our own path into the clearing, where we can build a home near the vastness of life. And we each must pass on what we can, so that those who follow will have the chance to awaken their own lives, which no one but they can live. Like everyone who will follow us, we are each called to reveal and enliven the twin ethics of doing for others and seeing for ourselves.” – Mark Nepo, Surviving Storms: Finding the Strength to Meet Adversity

Mar 24

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Too Full to Put into Words

“May I create plain fields by collecting clouds and bedeck them with arching rainbows.”― Suman Pokhrel

“Patience is power.
Patience is not an absence of action;
rather it is “timing”
it waits on the right time to act,
for the right principles
and in the right way.”― Fulton J. Sheen

When I let go of their leashes, the girls running full speed into the open, unbound and free.
Not too far out, they stop, turning back to see where I am at.
Never out of sight but out of reach.
Waiting for me to catch up to join them in frolic and play, ball throwing, field pouncing.
Moving on ahead when I catch up, but not too far again.
Just enough and still close.
Wide open fields.
Big horizons.
Deep blue sky.
Waiting, wandering, joy-seeking and finding.
All available to us each day.
I’ll meet you in the field.
And wait.

“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

Mar 18

Steadfastness

“Come with me into the woods where spring is
advancing, as it does, no matter what,
not being singular or particular, but one
of the forever gifts, and certainly visible.”
― Mary Oliver, Dog Songs: Poems

“Or maybe it’s about the wonderful things that may happen if you break the ropes that are holding you.”― Mary Oliver, Dog Songs

“Listen, whatever you see and love—
that’s where you are.”― Mary Oliver, Dog Songs: Poems

It was Sasha’s 6th birthday on Tuesday, March 14th, the day of Mom’s wake. So this birthday post is late, appropriately so. Kids, dogs, Mom. Sasha loves the kids, Abby and Mom, and other dogs too. Abby and Sasha have been sticking close to me the past few days. Our pack got smaller this week. Love remains. At some point, we carry on. We shift, adjust, and keep moving. And we never forget. A chair is empty and our hearts our full.

“We meet wonderful people, but lose them
in our busyness.
We’re, as the saying goes, all over the place.
Steadfastness, it seems,
is more about dogs than about us.
One of the reasons we love them so much.”
― Mary Oliver, Dog Songs: Poems

“Because of the dog’s joyfulness, our own is increased. It is no small gift. It is not the least reason why we should honor as well as love the dog of our own life, and the dog down the street, and all the dogs not yet born. What would the world be like without music or rivers or the green and tender grass? What would this world be like without dogs?”― Mary Oliver, Dog Songs: Poems

“You’re like a little wild thing
that was never sent to school.”
― Mary Oliver, Dog Songs: Poems

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