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Posts tagged ‘Grace’

Jan 24

Marvelous Promise

“When I looked, I knew I might never again see so much of the earth so beautiful, the beautiful being something you know added to something you see, in a whole that is different from the sum of its parts. What I saw might have been just another winter scene, although an impressive one. But what I knew was that the earth underneath was alive and that by tomorrow, certainly by the day after, it would be all green again. So what I saw because of what I knew was a kind of death with the marvelous promise of less than a three-day resurrection.”― Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It and Other Stories

“We find that, all along, we had what we needed from the beginning and that in the end we have returned to its essence, an essence we could not understand until we had experienced the actual heartbreak of the journey.”― David Whyte, Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words

Pausing
Slowing
Looking
Listening
Quiet
Reflection
Time unfolding
Threads weaving together to tapestry
Discovery
Renewal
Pieces to pattern
Wholeness
Thresholds to cross
Transformation
Thin spaces of discernment and clarity
Grace unfolding and holding
Trust, unwavering
Rising up again and again
Knowing wherever, whatever, all is well
May lucidity, understanding, and peace come to you on your journey
To lighten the load, widen your view, and welcome you home.

“For it is not knowing much, but realising and relishing things interiorly, that contents and satisfies the soul.”― Ignatius of Loyola, The Spiritual Exercises

Nov 19

Eucharisteo

“Eucharisteo—thanksgiving—always precedes the miracle.”― Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are

“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

May thanksgiving be perennial rather than annual.
Rooted deeply, ever-present.
A perpetual harvest.
A framework, attitude, lens to living every day, not a mere day.
Recognizing what is already present.
Abundance over scarcity.
Multiplication over subtraction.
Praise over comparison.
Gratitude. Contentment. Peace.
May these be your daily companions.

“Do not indulge in dreams of having what you have not, but reckon up the chief of the blessings you do possess, and then thankfully remember how you would crave for them if they were not yours.”― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

Oct 13

Instrument of Grace

“This is another day, O Lord…
If I am to stand up, help me to stand bravely.
If I am to sit still, help me to sit quietly.
If I am to lie low, help me to do it patiently.
And if I am to do nothing, let me do it gallantly.”
― Kathleen Norris

“Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature, is a help. Gardening is an instrument of grace.”― May Sarton

Fruits of labor.
Harvest of effort and time.
Pause and praise.
We move to quickly on to the next thing.
Bypassing the depth and bounty of an ordinary days.
Slow down, sit, remain still.
Observe, notice, savor.
Grateful for abundance present and overflowing.
Emphasis on what is already present than what is missing.
What is already in our pocket.

“Treasure what you find
already in your pocket, friend.”― Ted Kooser, Braided Creek

Oct 12

Tenor

“six things make inner peace easier: not being afraid of change kindness toward others honesty with yourself intentional actions self-awareness gratitude”― yung pueblo, Clarity & Connection

“If grace is so wonderful, why do we have such difficulty recognizing and accepting it? Maybe it’s because grace is not gentle or made-to-order. It often comes disguised as loss, or failure, or unwelcome change.”― Kathleen Norris

Life lingers then twists and turns.
Slows and speeds up.
Rocky and smooth.
Steady state then sudden change.
Peace is borne within.
Separate from our circumstances and state.
A river, a root, an anchor.
Let grace, hope, joy and peace enter today.
To carry you through.
To lift you up.
To brighten, color, bloom.
To change the tenor of this day.

“None of us knows what the next change is going to be, what unexpected opportunity is just around the corner, waiting a few months or a few years to change all the tenor of our lives.”― Kathleen Norris

May 28

Keen Awareness

“Ordinary love, anonymous and unnoticed as it is, is the substance of peace on earth, the currency of God’s grace in our daily life.”― Tish Harrison Warren, Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life

In the economy of the day
Of a life which is made up of the accumulation of days
In what we choose to do and not to do
In plans, in detours, delays, and in what just happens
May each of us have a keen awareness of the details in the present as well as the 10,000 foot view to see the expanse
To be grateful, joyful, even in the struggles, especially then
Senses sharpened, awareness sharp, grace overflowing.

“God is not found in the soul by adding anything but by subtracting” — Meister Eckhart

Mar 22

An Anchor Dropped

“Darkness deserves gratitude. It is the alleluia point at which we learn to understand that all growth does not take place in the sunlight.”― Joan Chittister

“Hope is an anchor dropped into the future. We feel you pulling us toward it once again.” – Kate Bowler, Jessica Richie, The Lives We Actually Have

I saw the sun yesterday.
I noticed it, pausing a moment.
An altar.
An upward anchor, a kite, a grounding.
The little things are enough, overflowing actually.
At our feet, surrounding us, holding us.
In words, but mostly in silence, in sheer presence.
In waiting, watching, witnessing.
Winter rain through the night.
Hastening the melting of deep snow, softening of earth, precursor to green.
Notice. Awe. Wonder.
Grace enters and sits right beside you on one side, hope on the other.
Love remains.
Holy. Sacred. Steady.

“Love is holy because it is like grace–the worthiness of its object is never really what matters.”― Marilynne Robinson, Gilead

Mar 21

The Second Day of Spring

“Life changes in the instant. The ordinary instant.” – Joan Didion

“When people want to know more about God, the son of God tells them to pay attention to the lilies of the field and the birds of the air, to women kneading bread and workers lining up for their pay. Whoever wrote this stuff believed that people could learn as much about the ways of God from paying attention to the world as they could from paying attention to scripture.” – Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith

We put a lot of hope, focus and energy into firsts, into lasts, into nexts, into moving on.
But the whole and entirety of life is in the second, third, fourth, middle days between firsts and lasts.
We remember too little, the highlights, the lowlights, the trips, the falls.
Forgetting the ordinary days of grace, laughter, joy.
Not a mere snapshot but the entire story, the narrative, the love, the staying.
A lot of small steps to our finish lines and start lines.
Slow down and feel each step in the journey.
Today is the second day of spring.
Spring awaits patiently to be revealed under the snow, witness the melt.
One day at a time to green grass, brilliant color of bloom, precursor to summer.
Stay awake, aware and steeped in the waters of today, the second day of spring.

“One day we will remember how lucky we were to have known their love, with wonder, not grief.” – Elizabeth Postle

Jan 13

If You Knew All

“To understand is to forgive.”― Pascal

“Forgetfulness is a form of freedom.”― Kahlil Gibran

Release the old.
The conversations.
Had and the ones you wish you had.
The hurts.
Received and given.
The disappointments.
Received and given.
The harsh words.
Received and given.
The judgment, assumptions, opinions.
Received and given.
The resentments that linger, bind, blind.
Forgive. Forget. Move on transformed.
A gift to other, mostly self.
An act of love.

“Be assured that if you knew all, you would pardon all.” – Thomas a Kempis

Aug 17

Space and Grace

“Grow in the root of all grace, which is faith. Believe God’s promises more firmly than ever. Allow your faith to increase in its fullness, firmness, and simplicity.” – Charles Spurgeon

“Faith is a living, daring confidence in God’s grace, so sure and certain that a man could stake his life on it a thousand times.” – Martin Luther

Carve moments throughout the day to create space to listen, ponder and be at ease. Open up to the newness of the day, becoming aware of grace that is present, a free gift if we choose to open it. Go boldly with trust into the simplicity of living that we are called to enter.

Assumptions, old wounds and judgment cloud the path forward. The past, the way we choose to see it, need not define the future. We can write a new story. Empathy is kindness outward that comes back in as well. We realize that we are all on this journey together trying to find the right path forward.

By creating space, we create distance between stimulus and response, between the past and the future. We allow the clouds to part for the rainbow to weave through the cracks casting brilliant colorful light, reminding us of the possibility and abundance abound.

Create space so you can see grace, the rainbow that is behind the clouds.

“When you are spiritually connected, you are not looking for occasions to be offended, and you are not judging and labeling others. You are in a state of grace in which you know you are connected to God and thus free from the effects of anyone or anything external to yourself.” – Wayne Dyer