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Posts tagged ‘Golden Retriever’

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

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

Mar 22

2 Comments

Sweet Smell of Dirt

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

“As the years pass, I am coming more and more to understand that it is the common, everyday blessings of our common everyday lives for which we should be particularly grateful. They are the things that fill our lives with comfort and our hearts with gladness — just the pure air to breathe and the strength to breath it; just warmth and shelter and home folks; just plain food that gives us strength; the bright sunshine on a cold day; and a cool breeze when the day is warm.”― Laura Ingalls Wilder, Writings to Young Women from Laura Ingalls Wilder: On Wisdom and Virtues

Winter to spring dance
Dirt softening to growth
Get out and put on some spring
A walk in the woods
Wrestle in the back yard
Mud on the forehead
Dirt embedded in your feet
Grounding in ordinary days
With extraordinary gratitude
To be right where you are
Delighting in this day
The unfolding of a thousand springs.

“For a day, just for one day,
Talk about that which disturbs no one
And bring some peace into your
Beautiful eyes.”
– Shams-al-Din Mohammad Hafez, The Subject Tonight Is Love: 60 Wild and Sweet Poems Inspired by Hafiz

“Spring work is going on with joyful enthusiasm.” – John Muir

Mar 19

Daily Work of Delighting

“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I’ll meet you there.” – Rumi

“We have to fight them daily, lake fleas, those many small worries about the morrow, for they sap our energies.”― Etty Hillesum

Care without carrying it all
Pause to root, reset, redirect
Laughter to lighten the load
Wander to enter awe and wonder again and again
Nature to awaken the senses
Reverence to till gratitude
Kindness to soften the heart
A coat of joy to wear on the journey
May you find delight today
And let it in

“A desire to kneel down sometimes pulses through my body, or rather it is as if my body has been meant and made for the act of kneeling. Sometimes, in moments of deep gratitude, kneeling down becomes an overwhelming urge, head deeply bowed, hands before my face.”― Etty Hillesum

“Despite everything, life is full of beauty and meaning.”― Etty Hillesum, Lettres de westerbork

Mar 3

Off Path to Wonder

“The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter” – Mark Twain

“Life appears to me too short to be spent in nursing animosity or registering wrongs.”― Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre

Less doing, busy, transactions
More making, building, creating
Color, oxygen, joy, light, music, art, nature, fun
To root, renew, restore
A sense of wonder and awe
Ease  and delight found in wandering off path, discovery
Gratitude in praise
For another day
And the sense and openness to breathe it all in
Walk lightly, with anticipation and delight.

“Forgiveness is a refusal to armor your own heart—a refusal to live in a constricted heart,” he said, seemingly as much to himself as to me. “Living with that openness means feeling pain. It’s not pretty, but the alternative is feeling nothing at all.”― Suleika Jaouad, Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted

Feb 27

Ordinary, Fresh Wonder

“We’re invited to pay attention to the enchanted world around us in a new way, to be open to the possibility of an encounter with God at every moment.”― Mike Cosper, Recapturing the Wonder

“Sometimes we get so hung up on doing something great, we forget the best thing is often the smallest.”― Shannan Martin, The Ministry of Ordinary Places

Open the windows
Hair in the wind
Clear the clutter
Create space
Slow, yield, pause
For joy, wonder, enchantment, awe
In small, ordinary, daily moments
Rhythms, signposts, practices
Spring woven in winter
Open the windows
Ordinary, fresh wonder

“To experience the richness of life in God’s kingdom, we must reorder our lives. We need to see through the shallow promises of our culture, and we need rhythms, signposts, and practices that reorient us to another world.”― Mike Cosper, Recapturing the Wonder

Feb 16

Joy Hunt

“It’s a rare gift, to know where you need to be, before you’ve been to all the places you don’t need to be.”― Ursula K. Le Guin, Tales from Earthsea

“To everyone out there
trying to keep going,
Don’t look too far ahead,
this day is all you need to
partake in, right now.
Take it one step at a time,
remembering to find the sunlight
and the beauty in each moment.
Cast out the darkness and
celebrate the light that is
always present when you
open your eyes and your heart.
Cherish this day as a gift
not given to everyone.” – C.E. Coombes

To remain in this day
Partake, receive, steep
To be here
Fully present in now
On the hunt for joy, ease, delight on the path
Gratitude, grief, grace
Woven together in the tapestry of this day

“It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.”― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness

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