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Posts tagged ‘Faith’

Oct 29

Shrink or Expand

“He who jumps into the void owes no explanation to those who stand and watch.” ― Jean-Luc Godard

“From caring comes courage.” — Lao Tzu

Courage to not…

Chase empty
Go faster
Bypass the present
Get stuck in the past
Cement the future with limits, mere repetition of the same
Justify the means for the end
Search for the shortcut
Pursue easy
Numb to incivility and vitriol
Succumb to cynicism
Merely sit on the sidelines and criticize

Courage to…

Be kind and generous
Listen with rapt attention, seek understanding
Seek with curiosity and interest
Be open to change, transformation
Ask good questions
Challenge assumptions, opinions and othering
Yield to hope
Try new things, daily
Go off trail of the beaten path
Invite discernment and clarity
Make mistakes and keep going
Do the hard work
Grow, deepen and expand
Have faith, accept grace
To keep climbing mountains, leaping into the unknown
To love, without condition, the only way to really love
One step, one day at a time.

“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” ― Anais Nin

Oct 25

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Life Woven in Today

“The world is alive, blinking and clicking, winking at us slyly, inviting us to get up and dance to the music that’s been playing since the beginning of time, if you bend all the way down and put your ear to the ground and listen for it.”― Shauna Niequist

“Today is your big moment. Moments, really. The life you’ve been waiting for is happening all around you. The scene unfolding right outside your window is worth more than the most beautiful painting, and the crackers and peanut butter that you’re having for lunch on the coffee table are as profound, in their own way, as the Last Supper. This is it. This is life in all its glory, swirling and unfolding around us, disguised as pedantic, pedestrian non-events. But pull of the mask and you will find your life, waiting to be made, chosen, woven, crafted.

Your life, right now, today, is exploding with energy and power and detail and dimension, better than the best movie you have ever seen. You and your family and your friends and your house and your dinner table and your garage have all the makings of a life of epic proportions, a story for the ages. Because they all are. Every life is.

You have stories worth telling, memories worth remembering, dreams worth working toward, a body worth feeding, a soul worth tending, and beyond that, the God of the universe dwells within you, the true culmination of super and natural.

You are more than dust and bones.
You are spirit and power and image of God.
And you have been given Today.”― Shauna Niequist, Cold Tangerines: Celebrating the Extraordinary Nature of Everyday Life

Delight in this day.
Steep in beauty.
Let joy in.
She’s on your doorstep.
Present and awake.
Unfolding and unfurling.
Ordinary moments, extraordinary grace, deep awe, sweet wonder.
Life woven in today.
Show up.

“Present is living with your feet firmly grounded in reality, pale and uncertain as it may seem. Present is choosing to believe that your own life is worth investing deeply in, instead of waiting for some rare miracle or fairytale. Present means we understand that the here and now is sacred, sacramental, threaded through with divinity even in its plainness. Especially in its plainness.”― Shauna Niequist, Present Over Perfect: Leaving Behind Frantic for a Simpler, More Soulful Way of Living

Oct 9

Hold Your Wheel

“The less theorizing you do about God, the more receptive you are to His inpouring.”― Meister Eckhart

“Spirituality is not to be learned by flight from the world, or by running away from things, or by turning solitary and going apart from the world. Rather, we must learn an inner solitude wherever or with whomsoever we may be. We must learn to penetrate things and find God there.”― Meister Eckhart

The quiet of morning.
An anchoring, rooting, framing.
Reflection, intention, direction.
Perfect until entering the day.
When others, circumstances, busy, your own spiraling thoughts try to take the wheel and drive sporadically, aimlessly.
Hold your wheel.
Drive your car.
Not others.
Expect detours, delays, distractions, potholes, construction zones, beauty too.
The detour is the road.
What is it showing you?
Pay attention.
Hold your wheel.
Go off trail.
Take a different path.
Wander, stray, wonder. Laugh too.
Keep your peace.
Hold your wheel.
Especially when it does not go the way you thought it should.
Trust the journey, look, listen, learn.
Allow, invite, welcome.
When you change, the world suddenly follows.
Spaciousness, inner solitude, quiet in noise.
Hold your wheel.
This place is where power, capacity, surprise, delight and mystery resides.
A deep well.
The daily work, unfolding and unfurling of transformation.
Peace, joy, inpouring.
The quiet of the morning carried through the day.
Hold your wheel.
Enjoy the journey.

“It’s a transformative experience to simply pause instead of immediately fill up the space. By waiting, we begin to connect with fundamental restlessness as well as fundamental spaciousness. – Pema Chodron, When Things Fall Apart

Oct 6

Discoveries of this Day

“Only the blindness of habit convinces us that we continue to live in the same place, that we see the same landscape. In truth, no place ever remains the same because light has no mind for repetition; it adores difference. Through its illuminations, it strives to suggest the silent depths that hide in the dark. Light”
― John O’Donohue, Divine Beauty: The Invisible Embrace

“…May I live this day

Compassionate of heart,
Clear in word,
Gracious in awareness,
Courageous in thought,
Generous in love.”― John O’Donohue, Benedictus: A Book of Blessings

Adore difference as light does.
No mind for repetition.
Stray from habit.
Wander off trail.
Let fresh air in.
Live this day with love, reverence and awe.
A journey of discovery, richness before you.
In this very place.

“When you regain a sense of your life as a journey of discovery, you return to rhythm with yourself. When you take the time to travel with reverence, a richer life unfolds before you.”― John O’Donohue, Beauty: The Invisible Embrace

Sep 27

Four Good Agreements

“Well, I must endure the presence of a few caterpillars if I wish to become acquainted with the butterflies.”― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

“1. Be Impeccable With Your Word
Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.

2. Don’t Take Anything Personally
Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.

3. Don’t Make Assumptions
Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.

4. Always Do Your Best
Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret.”― Don Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements

Change your thoughts, change your life.
Optimism, hope, laughter, kindness, generosity, compassion, love.
These are what last after you pass through and by.
Intention, attention, action.
Plant seeds, scatter love, harvest joy.

“Every human is an artist. The dream of your life is to make beautiful art.”― Don Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements

Jul 6

Behold and Beheld

“Flowers live, they are perfect and they affect us; they are God’s glory, they make us know why we are alive and human, that we behold. ― Elizabeth Alexander, The Light of the World

“I will have nothing to do with a God who cares only occasionally. I need a God who is with us always, everywhere, in the deepest depths as well as the highest heights. It is when things go wrong, when good things do not happen, when our prayers seem to have been lost, that God is most present. We do not need the sheltering wings when things go smoothly. We are closest to God in the darkness, stumbling along blindly.”― Madeleine L’Engle

Heights, depths.
Smooth road, potholes.
Sun, rain.
And everything in between.
Always present.
Walking alongside, behind, ahead.
Never alone. Ever.
May you feel loved today wherever you are on your journey.
Because you are loved, carried, accompanied.
Always.
Behold and beheld.

“Don’t try to comprehend with your mind. Your minds are very limited. Use your intuition.”― Madeleine L’Engle, A Wind in the Door

Jun 28

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Fresh Paths

“We do not have a fear of the unknown. What we fear is giving up the known.” – Anthony DeMello

“Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.

New beginnings.
Thresholds to cross.
Bridges from the old to the new.
Narrow paths.
Uncharted territory.
One step at a time.
Rooted in the willingness to start in a direction, without the entire journey mapped out.
The first step, then the next. Repeat.
Leaving the old behind to make space for the new.
Eyes on the road ahead.
Trust the gift, the call, the pull of new beginnings.
Start.
Never too late, never too old.
Dreams and the work to achieve them available to all.
Trust the still small voice.
Do the work.
Follow.

“You can learn new things at any time in your life if you’re willing to be a beginner. If you actually learn to like being a beginner, the whole world opens up to you.” — Barbara Shur

May 19

Number 23

“Be patient with everyone, but above all with yourself…do not be disheartened by your imperfections, but always rise up with fresh courage.”― St. Frances de Sales

Psalm 23 – The LORD Is My Shepherd

“The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
forever.”

When the grinding, speed, doing, overdoing, list checking come up short, empty, flat.
Again and again.
Rest, long pause, quiet.
A soft whisper.
An invitation.
A command.
A welcoming.
Green pastures.
Still waters.
Soul restored.
Cup overflowing.
Again and again.
You cannot outrun yourself.
Home calls.
Answer the call.
Still small voice. Listen.
Restored and renewed.
Made new.
Again and again.

“People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own souls. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.”― Carl Jung, Psychology and Alchemy

May 16

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Moors and Hills

“Roads? Who spoke of roads? We go by the moor and the hills, and tread granite and heather as the Druids did before us.”― Daphne du Maurier, Jamaica Inn

“I do not believe that sheer suffering teaches. If suffering alone taught, all the world would be wise, since everyone suffers. To suffering must be added mourning, understanding, patience, love, openness, and the willingness to remain vulnerable.”― Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Gift from the Sea

On your journey, wherever you are right now, may you know love.
Love that walks beside, before, beneath and above you.
Not fixing, but accompanying, present.
Some seasons weigh heavy.
Be kind to yourself.
Open to hope, beauty, joy.
You do not walk alone.
Love, light, peace.

“I beg you, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.”― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

Apr 28

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Fortunate Hours

“There are those fortunate hours when the world consents to be made into a poem.”― Mark Doty

“The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves.”― Alan Wilson Watts, The Culture of Counter-Culture: Edited Transcripts

Moments of stillness.
Quiet symphony.
Awake to beauty.
Drawn to light.
Pause here.
To root, anchor, steep.
Ordinary days.
Fortunate hours.

“Hoping to live days of greater happiness, I forget that days of less happiness are passing by.”― Elizabeth Bishop

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