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Posts tagged ‘Gratitude’

Fully Received

“Let us dance in the sun, wearing wild flowers in our hair…”― susan polis schutz

“Bless you who are discovering that
summer was never something to
conquer, but something to notice –
the peaches, the porch light, the
smell of rain before dinner.

May you leave a few things undone
on purpose, trusting that not every
empty hour is asking to be filled.

Bless you who return to the same
small practices until they become
their own kind of gratitude.

May you remember that a good life
is rarely made of extraordinary days,
but ordinary ones that were fully
received.” – Kate Bowler

In the noticing, delight
In the undoing, creation
In the in-betweens, joy
In the ordinary days, communion.
Fully received.

“Water is fluid, soft & yielding but water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield … what is soft is strong.”― Lao-tzu

Gracious in Awareness, This Hour

“Peace is always beautiful.” ― Walt Whitman

“Happiness, not in another place but this place…not for another hour, but this hour.”― Walt Whitman

Gaze long
Gratitude deep
Joy flowing
Peace beautiful
Calm rooted
Delight overflowing
For this hour, for this day.

“May I live this day
Compassionate of heart,
Clear in word,
Gracious in awareness
Courageous in thought,
Generous in love.” – John O’Donohue

Today Such a Day

“The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don’t go back to sleep.”― Rumi

“Only from the heart can you touch the sky.”― Mawlana Jalal-al-Din Rumi

Curiosity, inquiry, observation.
Reverence, reverie, reflection.
Open hands, heart, eyes.
Breeze, sky, beauty.
Notice and partake.

“On a day
when the wind is perfect,
the sail just needs to open and the world is full of beauty.
Today is such a day.”― Mawlana Jalal-al-Din Rumi

Sweet Nectar of Tending

“My experience is what I agree to attend to.”― William James

“Everyone knows what attention is. It is taking possession of the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one out of what seems several simultaneously possible objects or trains of thought. Focalization, concentration of consciousness are of its essence. It implies a withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others.”― William James

Attendance, full participation in this day.
Autopilot off.
To do list aside.
Rapt attention, reverence.
Expansion of presence
Exploration, wandering, sensing.
Sweet nectar of tending.

“Genius, in truth, means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way.”― William James, The Writings of William James

Secret Symmetry

“Take refuge in your senses, open up to all the small miracles you rushed through. Become inclined to watch the way of rain when it falls slow and free… Draw alongside the silence of stone until its calmness can claim you.”― John O’Donohue

“Take time to celebrate the quiet miracles that seek no attention.
Be consoled in the secret symmetry of your soul.
May you experience each day as a sacred gift woven around the heart of wonder.” – John O’Donohue

Small quiet miracles
Silence of stones
Claimed by calm
Sacred gift of this day
Wrapped in wonder

“Hurry is the great enemy of spiritual life in our day. You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.”― John Ortberg, Soul Keeping

Loving Us into Light

“In vain we search the heavens high above, The God of love is kneeling at our feet. Though we betray him, though it is the night, He meets us here and loves us into light.”― Malcolm Guite, Sounding the Seasons

“I have often noticed how interesting footpaths and bridleways start just beyond the brambles at the end of tarmacked roads marked ‘dead end’. And it seems to me that this is very often where prayer starts too.”― Malcolm Guite, The Word in the Wilderness

In, on, through the journey
Detours, delays, distractions
Arrivals, departures, middles
In the busy, rushing, performing
Vain searching, disappointments, celebrations
Kneeling at our feet
Always there. always
Loving us into light.

“Our God beyond, beside us, and within.”― Malcolm Guite, Sounding the Seasons

Brimming and Blooming

“The poetry of the earth is never dead.”― John Keats

“Earth’s crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
But only he who sees, takes off his shoes—The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries,” – Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Alive and brimming
Blooming and breathing
Afire and abundance
Not in the hurrying or hankering
But in full presence, steeping, reverence
Poetry, prose, song, dance, delight, beauty
Woven in this day
To seek, find, offer, receive
Crammed with heaven
Take off your shoes.

“Life is not hurrying on to a receding future, nor hankering after an imagined past. It is the turning aside like Moses to the miracle of the lit bush, to a brightness that seemed as transitory as your youth once, but is the eternity that awaits you.” – R.S. Thomas

Dew of Little Things

“I want a brighter word than bright”― John Keats

“In the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.” – Kahlil Gibran

Refreshment of morning
Cast onto all things
Renewal, restoration, reclamation
Rejoicing rising from lament
Transformed and transfigured
In the dew of little things
Words brighter than bright
Fertile fields abloom
Glory ablaze.

“So I have taken up the tale
to tell it full and free.
The tale that makes the heart rejoice,
I tell it, for I have no choice—
I tell it till another voice
takes up the tale from me.”
― Malcolm Guite, Galahad and the Grail

Best Portion, Daily Tending

“the best portion of a good person’s life is ‘the little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and love.”― Allen Levi, Theo of Golden

“To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life.”― Robert Louis Stevenson, Familiar Studies of Men and Books

Participate in this day
Tending, steeping, rooting
See the brilliance, abundance, delight
Woven in moments
Through simple acts
Attention
Kindness
Laughter
Noticing and embracing
What is already here
Tender and gentle
In the unfolding and becoming
Bloom under construction
Seed, bud, burst
One petal at a time.

“simply help people sit still long enough to see what is already there.”― Allen Levi, Theo of Golden

Casting Seeds, Blooming Joy

“The best things are nearest: breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of God just before you. Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life’s plain common work as it comes certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things of life.”― Robert Louis Stevenson

“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.”― Robert Louis Stevenson

Daily duties.
Delight.
Kindness.
Laughter.
Beauty.
Enthusiasm.
Encouragement.
Listening.
Curiosity.
Harvest only comes from planting seeds.
Tending, watering, waiting.
Joy on the path.
Cast seeds, light too.

“There is no duty we so much underrate as the duty of being happy. By being happy, we sow anonymous benefits upon the world.” – Robert Louis Stevenson