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Posts tagged ‘Fun’

Nov 12

Unraveling Magic

“In times of joy, all of us wished we possessed a tail we could wag.”― W. H. Auden

“This is a reminder to let you know that you are not here just to do stuff, just to perform duties and complete tasks.
You are here also to feel happy, and content, and inspired and well within yourself.
You are here to have some fun, create meaningful moments and find the sparkle in your eyes again.
You are here to unravel the magic of being alive, the magic of being you. To heal, to feel whole again.
Do something today that lights you up. That activates your joy. That brings about a genuine smile from your heart.
You are worth the effort.” – S.C. Lourie

Permission granted
To pause
To not crowbar everything into a day
To have fun, the tail wagging kind
A call to joy
Answer the call
Unravel some magic today.

“Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance.”― Steven Pressfield

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

Aug 6

Simple Joys, Available Delights

“And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

“Simplicity, patience, compassion.
These three are your greatest treasures.
Simple in actions and thoughts, you return to the source of being.
Patient with both friends and enemies,
you accord with the way things are.
Compassionate toward yourself,
you reconcile all beings in the world.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

Do not bypass this day
Succumb to delight, fun, ease
Simple joys
Available delights
Scattered everywhere
Awaiting our noticing, attention, awe
Heart’s eyes, wide open.

“The simple things are also the most extraordinary things, and only the wise can see them.”― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

Jul 31

Summer’s Third Act

“This morning, the sun endures past dawn. I realise that it is August: the summer’s last stand.”― Sara Baume, A Line Made By Walking

The Pond

“August of another summer, and once again
I am drinking the sun
and the lilies again are spread across the water.
I know now what they want is to touch each other.
I have not been here for many years
during which time I kept living my life.
Like the heron, who can only croak, who wishes he
could sing,
I wish I could sing.
A little thanks from every throat would be appropriate.
This is how it has been, and this is how it is:
All my life I have been able to feel happiness,
except whatever was not happiness,
which I also remember.
Each of us wears a shadow.
But just now it is summer again
and I am watching the lilies bow to each other,
then slide on the wind and the tug of desire,
close, close to one another,
Soon now, I’ll turn and start for home.
And who knows, maybe I’ll be singing.”
― Mary Oliver, Felicity

Time slows when we do
Immersion, presence, attention
This place and space of now
Soak in the rest of summer, third act
Fruits of harvest to follow
A little thanks, maybe more.

“Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.”― John Lubbock, The Use Of Life

Jul 15

Congruence

“Through our eyes, the universe is perceiving itself. Through our ears, the universe is listening to its harmonies. We are the witnesses through which the universe becomes conscious of its glory, of its magnificence.”― Alan Wilson Watts

“When we feel, a kind of lyric is sung in our heart. When we think, a kind of music is played in our mind. In harmony, both create a beautiful symphony of life.” – Toba Beta.

Pause
Explore
Inquire
Ask better questions
Beyond our tidy box of assumptions, opinions, judgments, ordering, comfort seeking, pining, worrying, way getting, certainty, knowing
Reordering, repurposing, reclaiming
The capacity for joy, gratitude, praise, dance, song, art, poetry, color, silliness, stillness, awe, wonder
Into the wide-open spacious lush field of imagination, ease, beauty, delight, laughter, fun
Playground of curiosity
Adventure woven into ordinary days
Rich, dense communion in and with the brilliance of life
Pause
Explore
Inquire
Symphony of this very day

“In the end we shall have had enough of cynicism, skepticism and humbug, and we shall want to live more musically.”― Vincent Van Gogh

Jul 13

Embrace of Presence

“As all mountains stand on the ground,
As all trees root in the soil,
As all rivers flow to the sea,
there’s a substance under all life
that joins us and holds us up.” – Mark Nepo

“When learning how to swim, we feel that we’re sinking, and yet we don’t. In just this way, there’s something that holds us up, a mystical buoyancy under all our problems. Of course, a stone will sink and a heart turned to stone will keep dropping. But not all things sink. So our job is to stay light enough to stay afloat, and to trust amid the turbulence that there’s some element of being that will sustain us, if we surrender to it. This buoyancy of existence doesn’t eliminate the turbulence of the surface where we have to live. But as the air that makes up the sky also fills our lungs, what holds us up is around us and within us. It lifts us when we least expect it, with a wave of being that will carry us, when we’re still enough to receive it. Yet living on the surface, we never know what will round our edges or touch us in a way that will stop our chatter. It might be when our eyes meet at the farmers market in the bright sun. Or after a movie in the night parking lot when we realize that we’ve been looking at the same star. Like roots growing a mile apart in the stream, we’re touched by the same current of life, though we may never know each other. Despite our complaints, the friction of the world slows us down till we receive everything. Though we often feel alone, we’re never alone. And when we feel a sense of being held, we’re coming alive. This is where we’re really going, into the embrace of where we are.” – Mark Nepo, Things That Join the Sea and the Sky

Put down your don’ts
Your shoulds
Your musts
Your have tos
Your can’ts
Your rules
Open and embrace
Dive beneath the surface
Better yet, cannonball
Free falling into fun, frolic, delight
Ease of being
Receive everything
Hidden in right in front of you
Woven into the fabric of this day.

“Life offers its wisdom generously. Everything teaches. Not everyone learns.”― Rachel Naomi Remen

Jun 20

Insert Summer, Delight and Savor

“Summertime, and the living is easy.” – Ella Fitzgerald

“In early June the world of leaf and blade and flowers explodes, and every sunset is different.” – John Steinbeck

Wild air.
Blue skies.
Long slow days of the sun and delight.
Sit.
Savor.
Summer.
Soak it in.
Joy and fun at work.

“Summer has a flavor like no other. Always fresh and simmered in sunshine.” – Oprah Winfrey

“Live in the sunshine, swim in the sea, drink in the wild air.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Jun 11

Bits and Pieces

“The path to a greater life is not “suffering until you achieve something,” but letting bits and pieces of joy and gratitude and meaning and purpose gradually build, bit by bit.”― Brianna Wiest, 101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think

“The key to finding happiness in this life is realizing that the only way to overcome is to transcend; to find happiness in the simple pleasures, to master the art of just being.”― Brianna Wiest

May today be enough.
Overflowing.
Ebb and flow.
Fun, laughter, play.
Delight in the art of being.
Space, margins, pause, praise.
For what already is.
Fresh eyes.
Grateful heart.
Chasing joy.
Being caught by it too.
Bits and pieces.
Abundance of presence.
Spectator and participant in this day.
Simple delicious pleasures.

“It’s not about getting over things, it’s about making room for them. It’s about painting the picture with contrast.”― Brianna Wiest

May 17

Accept the Invitation to Joy, Daily

“Life is filled with invitations to experience joy and goodness.”― Laurie E. Smith, Leap With Me

Invitation by Mary Oliver

“Oh do you have time
to linger
for just a little while
out of your busy

and very important day
for the goldfinches
that have gathered
in a field of thistles

for a musical battle,
to see who can sing
the highest note,
or the lowest,

or the most expressive of mirth,
or the most tender?
Their strong, blunt beaks
drink the air

as they strive
melodiously
not for your sake
and not for mine

and not for the sake of winning
but for sheer delight and gratitude—
believe us, they say,
it is a serious thing

just to be alive
on this fresh morning
in the broken world.
I beg of you,

do not walk by
without pausing
to attend to this
rather ridiculous performance.

It could mean something.
It could mean everything.
It could be what Rilke meant, when he wrote:
You must change your life.”

For sheer delight and gratitude
Walk lightly with rapt attention
Your path this day
Accept the invitation to joy whenever and wherever offered, without delay
To pause, praise, savor
And, of course, chase a tennis ball or two.

“if you see for yourself, hear for yourself, and enter deeply enough this seeing and hearing, all things will speak with and through you.”― Jane Hirshfield, The Heart of Haiku

May 3

Spring Work Begins

"In spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt." —Margaret Atwood

“In spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.” —Margaret Atwood

“That is one good thing about this world…there are always sure to be more springs.”― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Avonlea

Unapologetically walking in
Dirt embedded in her paws, face too
Hole expanded
Work done
Fun had
The dance of filling and un-filling the perennial hole begins
Spring delight
Lesson learned
Lighten up, put the world down, enjoy the journey
Go wear some spring today

“It is spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.”― Rainer Maria Rilke

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