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Posts tagged ‘growth’

Replete with Meaning

“Part of doing something is listening. We are listening. To the sun. To the stars. To the wind.”― Madeleine L’Engle, Swiftly Tilting Planet

“Growing up is a process that never ends. It isn’t a point you attain so you can say, Hooray, I’m grown up. Some people never grow up. And nobody ever finishes growing. Or shouldn’t. If you stop you might as well quit. What I have to tell you is that it never gets any easier. It goes right on being rough forever. But nothing that’s easy is worth anything. You ought to have learned that by now. What happens as you keep on growing is that all of a sudden you realize that it’s more exciting and beautiful than scary and awful.”― Madeleine L’Engle

Eyes on the road ahead, not too far.
Feet anchored in path of this day.
Stop looking for a different ending in the rearview mirror.
Start where you are and carry on.
Time is moving.
Join the flow.
Transformation, ever unfolding.
Growing new, not old.
Stories yet to be written.
Canvas to paint.
Use all the colors.
Go outside the lines.
Bending, not breaking.
Stretching and reaching.
Stumble, trip, get up.
Laugh, alot.
Wander, wonder, delight.
Scattering, mattering, blooming.

“The everyday human gesture is always a heartbeat away from the miraculous — [remember] that ultimately we make things happen through our actions, way beyond our understanding or intention; that our seemingly small ordinary human acts have untold consequences; that what we do in this world means something; that we are not nothing; and that our most quotidian human actions by their nature burst the seams of our intent and spill meaningfully and radically through time and space, changing everything… Our deeds, no matter how insignificant they may feel, are replete with meaning, and of vast consequence, and… they constantly impact upon the unfolding story of the world, whether we know it or not.” – Nick Cave

Poets of Possibilities

“We are, always, poets, exploring possibilities of meaning in a world which is also all the time exploring possibilities.”― Margaret J. Wheatley, A Simpler Way

“Life offers us this great gift of self-organization, how we can be held in the basin of shared meaning and, within that, exercise individual freedom. It is such a shame to waste it on fear and doubt. Or to seek to contain and control it.”― Margaret J. Wheatley, Who Do We Choose to Be?

Perspective
Possibilities
Breadth
Nuance
Expanse
Meaning
Response
Exploration
Invitation
Entering
Opening
Take the long cut
The path to growth, bloom, transformation.

“In this way, dissipative structures demonstrate that disorder can be a source of new order, and that growth appears from disequilibrium, not balance.”― Margaret J. Wheatley, Leadership and the New Science

Roots and Shoots

“There lives the dearest freshness deep down things.”― Gerard Manley Hopkins

“Every morning has a unique story. There are always some seeds of possibilities waiting to sprout.”― Amit Ray, Peace Bliss Beauty and Truth

Deep rising to the surface
Time and timing
Breaking through
Roots and shoots
Small sprouts, big promise
Keep planting, tending, reaching.

“As long as thanks is possible, then joy is always possible.”― Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are

“No Mud. No Lotus”-Buddha

“Practice several minutes of centering prayer. Remember that meditation is a not-doing. It is just letting go of small mind and merging with the stream of Divine Mind.”― Joan Borysenko, Pocketful of Miracles

“To learn to see- to accustom the eye to calmness, to patience, and to allow things to come up to it; to defer judgment, and to acquire the habit of approaching and grasping an individual case from all sides. This is the first preparatory schooling of intellectuality. One must not respond immediately to a stimulus; one must acquire a command of the obstructing and isolating instincts.”― Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols

Stimulus and response
Creating space between, a gap, a pause
To contribute something meaningful rather than adding to the noise
Peace, grace, awe in this space
Cast light, kindness, joy
Narrow path, worth the trip.

“As the lotus rises on its stalk unsoiled by the mud and water, so the wise one speaks of peace and is unstained by the opinions of the world.” – Buddha

Just Bloom

“You do not just wake up and become the butterfly
Growth is a process.”― Rupi Kaur, The Sun and Her Flowers

“bloom beautifully
dangerously
loudly
bloom softly
however you need
just bloom”
― Rupi Kaur, Milk and honey

Unfold
Unfurl
Unravel
Break ground
Start again, repeat
Imperfectly
Brilliantly
Authentically
Blooming in all seasons
Joy in the little things, ordinary days
Catching and casting light
Just bloom, right where you are planted.

“May you always be the one
who notices the little things
that make the light pour
through, and may they always
remind you: There is more to
life and there is more to you.”
― Morgan Harper Nichols

The Cusp of Spring

“…new life starts in the dark. Whether it is a seed in the ground, a baby in the womb, or Jesus in the tomb, it starts in the dark.”― Barbara Brown Taylor, Learning to Walk in the Dark

“To be human is to live by sunlight and moonlight, with anxiety and delight, admitting limits and transcending them, falling down and rising up.”― Barbara Brown Taylor, Learning to Walk in the Dark: Because Sometimes God Shows Up at Night

To beautiful imperfection
To joy in struggle
To falling, shaking it off and popping back up
To fresh air of spring with lingering winter breeze
To the dark where seeds wait, ruminate then break ground to seek and bask in light
To resistance then sweet surrender to change, growth, full bloom
Signs of life in unexpected places, thin spaces and wide-open fields
Rooted in winter, spring is springing, ready to bust at the seams.

“Time will explain” – Jane Austen

Spring Under Construction

“Snow creates that quality of awe in the face of a power greater than ours. It epitomises the aesthetic notion of the sublime, in which greatness and beauty couple to overcome you—a small, frail human—entirely.”― Katherine May, Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times

“Winter is the oldest season; it has some quality of the absolute. Yet beneath the surface of winter, the miracle of spring is already in preparation; the cold is relenting; seeds are wakening up. Colors are beginning to imagine how they will return. Then, imperceptibly, somewhere one bug opens and the symphony of renewal is no longer reversible. From the black heart of winter a miraculous, breathing plenitude of color emerges.

The beauty of nature insists on taking its time. Everything is prepared. Nothing is rushed. The rhythm of emergence is a gradual slow beat always inching its way forward; change remains faithful to itself until the new unfolds in the full confidence of true arrival. Because nothing is abrupt, the beginning of spring nearly always catches us unawares. It is there before we see it; and then we can look nowhere without seeing it.”― John O’Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

To enter winter.
Without resistance.
A welcoming.
Curiosity.
Quieting and preparation.
Softening and slowing.
The place, space, foothold of transformation.
Time and timing.
Spring under construction.

“Winter is not the death of the life cycle, but its crucible.”― Katherine May, Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times

The Work of Blooming

“Flowers don’t open and close according to who is walking by. They open and show their beauty regardless.”― Rebecca Campbell, Light is the New Black

“Balance is not a passive resting place—it takes work, balancing the giving and the taking, the raking out and the putting in.”― Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass

Our yes or no.
Action or inaction.
Response or reaction.
Daily choosing.
To listen.
To ask questions.
To go deeper.
Than assumptions, judgments, easy answers.
At ease in the knowing and unknowing.
Trusting time and timing.
Slowing and savoring.
Paying attention.
Giving and receiving.
Opening and softening.
The work of becoming, of blooming.

“Paying attention is a form of reciprocity with the living world, receiving the gifts with open eyes and open heart.”― Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass

Supple Heart

“Suffering breaks our hearts, but the heart can break in two different ways. There’s the brittle heart that breaks into shards, shattering the one who suffers as it explodes, and sometimes taking others down when it’s thrown like a grenade at the ostensible source of its pain.
Then there’s the supple heart, the one that breaks open, not apart, the one that can grow into greater capacity for the many forms of love. Only the supple heart can hold suffering in a way that opens to new life.”― Parker J. Palmer, On the Brink of Everything: Grace, Gravity, and Getting Old

“I have never been especially impressed by the heroics of people convinced they are about to change the world. I am more awed by those who struggle to make one small difference.”― Ellen Goodman

To remain soft in a hard world
To be kind without expectation of return
To walk beside another
To do your part to make a difference
To grow, bloom, break open
Supple heart, porous and strong.

“To grow in love and service, you must value ignorance as much as knowledge and failure as much as success.”― Parker J. Palmer, On the Brink of Everything: Grace, Gravity, and Getting Old

Caterpillar Journey

“There is no greater journey than the one that you must take to discover all of the mysteries that lie within you.” – Michelle Sandlin

“Be willing to be a beginner every single morning.”― Meister Eckhart

In unknowing.
In mystery.
In seeking.
In trying.
In paying attention.
In observation.
In inquiry.
In exploration.
In one step followed by the next.
Begin again and again.
Unfolding and unfurling.
Delight, surprise, discovery.
Transformation under construction.
Caterpillar to butterfly journey.

“Paths are made by walking.”― Franz Kafka