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Posts tagged ‘Encouragement’

Jul 29

Butterfly Work

“We are freed to free others.
We are affirmed to affirm others.
We are loved to love others.”
― Ann Weems, Kneeling in Bethlehem

“With every step of our lives we enter into the middle of some story which we are certain to misunderstand.”― G.K. Chesterton

To move from getting over things to transforming them
Caterpillar to butterfly
Beauty for ashes
Being transformed in the process
Opening and allowing
Unlearning and learning anew
Putting down the weight and walls of assumption, judgment, being right, certainty
For curiosity, discovery, unfolding, emergence, surprise, softness
Asking the next question and the next one after that
The dance of doing, being, accepting, allowing, yielding, merging, becoming
Day by day
Glory to glory
Trip and fall, get back up again and again
Laughter too, lots of it, with a side of delight
Grace overflowing
Giving and receiving
Ebb and flow
To understand rather than be understood
Dimensions rather than a flat world
Brilliant colors and hues
Peace that passes understanding
Overcoming the world while remaining in it
Salt and light
Hands and feet
Loving people exactly where they are rather than where they were or where we want them to be, especially oneself
A light, a container, a homecoming, an embrace, a warm blanket on a cool evening, a breeze on a hot summer day
Too much to ask?
Ask anyway, without ceasing.

“If I can put one touch of rosy sunset into the life of any man or woman, I shall feel that I have worked with God.”― G.K. Chesterton

Jul 25

Hope, Dare, Bother

“Hope is often misunderstood. People tend to think that it is simply passive wishful thinking: I hope something will happen but I’m not going to do anything about it. This is indeed the opposite of real hope, which requires action and engagement.”― Jane Goodall, The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times

“Dare to Be

When a new day begins, dare to smile gratefully.
When there is darkness, dare to be the first to shine a light.
When there is injustice, dare to be the first to condemn it.
When something seems difficult, dare to do it anyway.
When life seems to beat you down, dare to fight back.
When there seems to be no hope, dare to find some.
When you’re feeling tired, dare to keep going.
When times are tough, dare to be tougher.
When love hurts you, dare to love again.
When someone is hurting, dare to help them heal.
When another is lost, dare to help them find the way.
When a friend falls, dare to be the first to extend a hand.
When you cross paths with another, dare to make them smile.
When you feel great, dare to help someone else feel great too.
When the day has ended, dare to feel as you’ve done your best.
Dare to be the best you can –
At all times, Dare to be!”
― Steve Maraboli, Life, the Truth, and Being Free

Interior resilience to respond rather than react
Ebb and flow of what comes in and what goes out
Daily choosing
Kindness, empathy, joy, laughter, play, gratitude, curiosity, encouragement, faith, trust, grace, peace, love
Planting seeds on the path you walk this day
Bear fruit
Hope, dare, bother.

“We have the choice to use the gift of our life to make the world a better place–or not to bother”― Jane Goodall

Jul 10

Sacred Spaces and Places

“Your sacred space is where you can find yourself over and over again.” – Joseph Campbell

“People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on a purely physical plane will have resonances with our innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.” – Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth

Walk the path.
Enjoy the journey.
Open to surprise.
Still growing.
Unfolding.
Becoming.
One beautiful day at a time.
Gratitude in this imperfect, unplanned, unexpected, different or same place.
Not in what was, what should have been or what might be.
In now.
This sacred space.
Dive in.

“If you can see your path laid out in front of you step by step, you know it’s not your path. Your own path you make with every step you take. That’s why it’s your path.” – Joseph Campbell

Jun 24

Bear Fruit Not Busy

“Love turns work into rest.”― Teresa of Avila

“Untilled ground, however rich, will bring forth thistles and thorns; so also the mind of man.”― St. Teresa of Avila

Till and turn.
Dig and loosen.
Rich soil.
Plant seeds.
Water and wait.
Nurture and pull weeds.
Thoughts, words, right action.
Change and be changed.
Growth and fruition.
Hope, joy, enthusiasm, kindness, generosity, encouragement, laughter, delight.
Daily practices to live big, each ordinary day.
Bear good fruit not empty busy.

“Pessimism, cynicism and fear will only lead to a very small life. Don’t live small.”― Neil Abramson

Jun 19

Take In and Give Out Good

“Taking in the good, whenever and wherever we find it, gives us new eyes for seeing and living.”― Krista Tippett, Becoming Wise: An Inquiry into the Mystery and Art of Living

“But if I’ve learned anything, it is that goodness prevails, not in the absence of reasons to despair, but in spite of them. If we wait for clean heroes and clear choices and evidence on our side to act, we will wait forever, and my radio conversations teach me that people who bring light into the world wrench it out of darkness, and contend openly with darkness all of their days. […] They were flawed human beings, who wrestled with demons in themselves as in the world outside. For me, their goodness is more interesting, more genuinely inspiring because of that reality. The spiritual geniuses of the ages and of the everyday simply don’t let despair have the last word, nor do they close their eyes to its pictures or deny the enormity of its facts. They say, “Yes, and …,” and they wake up the next day, and the day after that, to live accordingly.” – Krista Tippett, Speaking of Faith

Fight the good fight.
Do not back down.
Do not despair.
Work to do.
Get to it.
Daily.
Love wins.
Long hard haul, worth the trip.
Journey and destination,
Till dry soil.
Dig deep to fertile soil.
Plant seeds.
Tend, nourish, feed.
Bloom love, kindness, curiosity, enthusiasm, resolve, joy, freedom, resilience, hope.
Cast light.

“Generous listening is powered by curiosity, a virtue we can invite and nurture in ourselves to render it instinctive. It involves a kind of vulnerability – a willingness to be surprised, to let go of assumptions and take in ambiguity. The listener wants to understand the humanity behind the words of the other, and patiently summons one’s own best self and one’s own best words and questions.”― Krista Tippett, Becoming Wise: An Inquiry into the Mystery and Art of Living

Jun 7

Let the Beauty…

“For the grace of the presence, be grateful.” – Rumi

“You wander from room to room
Hunting for the diamond necklace
That is already around your neck!”
― Rumi

Grace of presence.
Beauty abounds.
Awash with gratitude.
To kneel and kiss the ground.
Let quiet, reflection, slowness in.
Work to be done in this place.
Joy to be had.
Delight to partake in.
Wearing diamonds and knowing it.

“Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.”― Rumi

May 8

1 Comment

Spring Dance

“Let your life lightly dance on the edges of Time like dew on the tip of a leaf.” – Rabindranath Tagore

“Why was she dancing? No reason. Just alive, I guess.”― George Saunders, Tenth of December

Out of your own head
Holding back, holding out, waiting for things to change
Apart from circumstances as they are but not chosen
Find and be found by joy amid messes
The imperfect and unplanned
To dance with delight, joy, wonder
For no reason but being alive
Awake to the here
Rooted in the now
Days are passing
Do not miss them because they are not what you planned or expected
They call this life
Join the dance

“These are the words I want on my gravestone: that I was a helper and that I danced.” – Anne Lamott

May 5

Shout of Joy!

“Inside everyone is a great shout of joy waiting to be born.”― David Whyte, River Flow: New & Selected Poems

Everything is Waiting for You by David Whyte

“Your great mistake is to act the drama
as if you were alone. As if life
were a progressive and cunning crime
with no witness to the tiny hidden
transgressions. To feel abandoned is to deny
the intimacy of your surroundings. Surely,
even you, at times, have felt the grand array;
the swelling presence, and the chorus, crowding
out your solo voice. You must note
the way the soap dish enables you,
or the window latch grants you freedom.
Alertness is the hidden discipline of familiarity.
The stairs are your mentor of things
to come, the doors have always been there
to frighten you and invite you,
and the tiny speaker in the phone
is your dream-ladder to divinity.

Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into the
conversation. The kettle is singing
even as it pours you a drink, the cooking pots
have left their arrogant aloofness and
seen the good in you at last. All the birds
and creatures of the world are unutterably
themselves. Everything is waiting for you.” – David Whyte

Poetry of presence, beginnings, spring bloom
Everything is waiting for you to notice
Coming alive
Bursting with color
Dance with wonder, awe and beauty
Woven through this very day

“Colors are the smiles of nature.” – Leigh Hunt

Apr 16

The Cusp of Spring

“…new life starts in the dark. Whether it is a seed in the ground, a baby in the womb, or Jesus in the tomb, it starts in the dark.”― Barbara Brown Taylor, Learning to Walk in the Dark

“To be human is to live by sunlight and moonlight, with anxiety and delight, admitting limits and transcending them, falling down and rising up.”― Barbara Brown Taylor, Learning to Walk in the Dark: Because Sometimes God Shows Up at Night

To beautiful imperfection
To joy in struggle
To falling, shaking it off and popping back up
To fresh air of spring with lingering winter breeze
To the dark where seeds wait, ruminate then break ground to seek and bask in light
To resistance then sweet surrender to change, growth, full bloom
Signs of life in unexpected places, thin spaces and wide-open fields
Rooted in winter, spring is springing, ready to bust at the seams.

“Time will explain” – Jane Austen

Apr 10

Defying Gravity

“You wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down.”― Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon

“A bird is safe in its nest – but that is not what its wings are made for.”― Amit Ray, World Peace: The Voice of a Mountain Bird

A shift in attitude
An ounce of gratitude
A cup of encouragement
Putting down my way
For what is
Seeking and finding delight, joy and beauty
On ground of now
In the imperfect, unchosen, unexpected
Abundance in mystery, unknowing, wandering
Some days may be long, but the years are short
Use your wings
Defy gravity
Take flight in the sky of this day.

“The days are long, but the years are short.” – Gretchen Rubin

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