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Posts tagged ‘Golden Retriever’

Sep 4

Reckless Ripples

“To frolic with the wind, and tease the sea.” — Lord Byron

“Ripples are made by those reckless enough to jump into the ocean.”― Michael Bassey Johnson, Before You Doubt Yourself

Frolic, play, fun.
Performance and production put aside.
Opinions and assumptions on a time out.
Lighten and loosen up.
Life is happening now in ordinary days.
Awaiting your attention, participation, partaking.
Simple acts, deep gratitude, easy smile.
Hold hands with awe and wonder.
Joy, laughter, delight too.
A leap away.

“It is a happy talent to know how to play.”― Ralph Waldo Emerson

Aug 19

Duty of Whimsy

“You must not ever stop being whimsical. And you must not, ever, give anyone else the responsibility for your life.”― Mary Oliver, Wild Geese

“Instructions for living a life.
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.”― Mary Oliver

When, if, then
Falling into…
Now, here, presence

“Sometimes I need
only to stand
wherever I am
to be blessed.”― Mary Oliver, Evidence: Poems

Aug 13

Masters of Joy

“You may not agree, you may not care, but if you are holding this book you should know that 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

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

Delight complete, begin again
In play
Rapt presence
Simple pleasures
Uncomplicated, undeterred, unwavering
Masters of joy
Teachers of fun and frolic
May I be a good student.

“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

Jun 13

Hidden in Plain Sight

“And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.”― Roald Dahl

May I see what’s hidden
In plain sight
Beauty
Fun
Peace
Delight
Joy
In abundance
Rooted in hope and anticipation
Found with curiosity
Fresh eyes, open heart.

“In all things lies a hidden wonder, a transcendent force that eludes the ordinary gaze. Only the conscious soul—awakened and willing to seek, daring to dive where most fear to tread—will uncover it.”― Blade Seventh

May 27

Enjoyment, Try It

“You have gained a new source of enjoyment, and it is well to have as many holds upon happiness as possible.”― Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

“We must risk delight. We can do without pleasure,
but not delight. Not enjoyment. We must have
the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless
furnace of this world. To make injustice the only
measure of our attention is to praise the Devil.”
― Jack Gilbert, Refusing Heaven

Risk delight
Play, lighten up, laugh
Have fun
Not platitudes or naïve
Daily practices
Ways to walk in the world
A skip in your step
To not succumb to chaos
Gloom and doom
A counterbalance
Resilience and resistance
Simple, doable, plentiful
Joy spilling into action
Action spilling into joy
Stubbornness to accept gladness
Cast light

“We classify too much and enjoy too little.”― Okakura Kakuzō, The Book of Tea

 

Apr 13

Joy Seeking and Finding

“Today, seek out one small moment of joy. Just one. Maybe it’s a raindrop on your window, a flower blooming against all odds, an unexpected smile, a hot mug warming your hands.” – Diane Shiffer

“Play is the complete absorption in something that doesn’t matter to the external world, but which matters completely to you. It’s an immersion in your own interests that becomes a feeling in itself, a potent emotion. Play is a disappearance into a space of our choosing, invisible to those outside the game. It is the pursuit of pure flow, a sandbox mind in which we can test new thoughts, new selves. It’s a form of symbolic living, a way to transpose one reality onto another and mine it for meaning. Play is a form of enchantment.”― Katherine May, Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age

One small moment of joy
Perhaps two too
Play, laughter, exploration
Full presence in this day
In the details
A tea bag steeping, full flavor
Mining for meaning
In slivers and slices
Windows open
Fresh air, soft breeze
Enchantment, grace, light
Paint the blank canvas of this day
One slow stroke at a time.

“I don’t want to sit like a brooding hen on the nest of my past achievements. I want to keep on going deep into the uncertain act of making, to see the unknown world stretch out before me and to devote myself to exploring it.”― Katherine May, Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age

Apr 8

Breathing Resurrection Air

“Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.” ― Wendell Berry

“True restfulness, though, is a form of awareness, a way of being in life. It is living ordinary life with a sense of ease, gratitude, appreciation, peace and prayer. We are restful when ordinary life is enough.”― Ronald Rolheiser, The Shattered Lantern

We’re good at “lent”-ing, lamenting, foreboding.
Not short on reasons.
And yet.
Easter, spring, bloom arrive.
Never skipping their turn.
Renewal, refreshment, restoration.
Showing up.
Right in the middle of the mess.
Where it will always be.
Calling us to breath resurrection air.
To succumb to joy.
In our ordinary, imperfect, abundant, overflowing, limited days.
Fresh eyes, light heart, trusting soul required.
Make tracks, practice resurrection.

“The resurrection tells us it is never too late. Every so often we will be surprised. We must believe that the stone will be rolled back, and we must be ready to poke out our timid heads, take off the linen bindings of death, and walk free for a time, breathing resurrection air.”― Ronald Rolheiser, Prayer: Our Deepest Longing

Feb 25

Hello Sunshine

“Hello, sun in my face. Hello you who made the morning and spread it over the fields…Watch, now, how I start the day in happiness, in kindness.”― Mary Oliver

“If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it.” – Mary Oliver

Loosen your grip.
Put it down.
Lighten up.
Make way.
Give into joy.
Smile spilling into laughter.
Song to dance.
Gratitude, grace, goodness.
May you bask here awhile.
Be made new.

“I want to think again of dangerous and noble things.
I want to be light and frolicsome.
I want to be improbable beautiful and afraid of nothing,
as though I had wings.”
― Mary Oliver, Owls and Other Fantasies: Poems and Essays

Jan 22

Altars in the Ordinary

“Walk on air against your better judgement.”― Seamus Heaney

“Isn’t that a kind of prayer? The care and maintenance of the web of our noticing, the paying heed?”― Kathleen Jamie, Findings

Walking on air
Better yet, running with abandon, delight, ease
Attention, witnessing, partaking
Overflowing, abundant, intricate
Altars in the ordinary
Found in pause, quiet, noticing
Invitation and homecoming
To kneel in reverence, awe, wonder
With gratitude, gravity, grace
Woven in the beautiful mess, imperfected, unfinished, unfolding
Awaiting our care and maintenance
Reciprocating the same and so very much more.

“It’s poetry’s job, isn’t it, to keep making sense of the world in language, to keep the negotiation going? We can’t relinquish that.”― Kathleen Jamie, Findings

Nov 24

A Way, Not a Day

“We would worry less if we praised more. Thanksgiving is the enemy of discontent and dissatisfaction.”― Harry A. Ironside

“I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual. It is surprising how contented one can be with nothing definite – only a sense of existence. Well, anything for variety. I am ready to try this for the next ten thousand years, and exhaust it. How sweet to think of! my extremities well charred, and my intellectual part too, so that there is no danger of worm or rot for a long while. My breath is sweet to me. O how I laugh when I think of my vague indefinite riches. No run on my bank can drain it, for my wealth is not possession but enjoyment.”― Henry David Thoreau

Not a day
A long weekend
The start of holiday flurry and hurry
An approach
Foundation
Perspective
Attitude
Commitment
Deliberate practice
Daily habit
Noticing and simple joys
Toys and fresh dug holes
May thanksgiving be a way, not a day.

“Eucharisteo—thanksgiving—always precedes the miracle.”― Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts


“A has one aim in life… to bestow his heart.”― J. R. Ackerley

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