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Posts tagged ‘growth’

Aug 25

The Stuff of Butterflies

“How does one become a butterfly? They have to want to learn to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar.”― Trina Paulus, Hope for the Flowers

“‎”Tell me, sir, what is a butterfly?”

“It’s what you are meant to become. It flies with beautiful wings and joins the earth to heaven. It drinks only nectar from the flowers and carries the seeds of love from one flower to another. Without butterflies, the world would soon have few flowers.”― Trina Paulus, Hope for the Flowers

In the cocoon, on the threshold, butterfly in flight.
The stages of becoming, unfolding, refolding.
From start to finish.
Starts, stops, detours.
No shortcuts.
Do the work.
Let the work be done in you.
Be present where you are, knowing change is certain.
About the only thing that is certain, along with grace and love.
Stuff to make cocoons and butterflies.
Start and keep spinning your own.
On the right track, even if feelings haven’t caught up.
Stick with it.
Be willing to give up being a caterpillar.
The beautiful stuff of butterflies.

“Yellow decided to risk for a butterfly.

For courage she hung right beside the other cocoon and began to spin her own.

‘Imagine, I didn’t even know I could do this. That’s some encouragement that i’mon the right track. If I have the stuff inside me to make cocoons—maybe the stuff of butterflies is there too.”― Trina Paulus, Hope for the Flowers

Aug 10

Flowers Bloom, When Ready

“Regardless of when the flower blooms, the flower blooms… and completes its cycle. Enjoy every inch of your ride when you begin.”― Adaora O., Waves Aligning

“So called ‘late-bloomers’ get a bad rap. Sometimes the people with the greatest potential often take the longest to find their path because their sensitivity is a double edged sword- it lives at the heart of their brilliance, but it also makes them more susceptible to life’s pains. Good thing we aren’t being penalized for handing in our purpose late. The soul doesn’t know a thing about deadlines.”― Jeff Brown, Love It Forward

Bloom, whether May or August.
Do not be concerned whether early or late.
Just bloom.
Yearning, the whisper of the call.
The ache of stasis.
Change, transformation, blooming.
This is the journey and circle of life.
Do not settle.
Keep growing.
Soul work.
Keep blooming.

“The most beautiful thing is that despite the shallow life we sometimes succumb to – the soul has no timeline and it knows what it wants and will yearn within until it seeks the journey.”― Malebo Sephodi

Jul 25

Aperture

“You are an aperture through which the universe is looking at and exploring itself.” – Alan Watts

“The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.” – Alan Watts

Wide lens to microscope.
Details to whole.
In and out.
Focus then blur.
Clarity and questioning.
In the waiting, the middle.
Slow then fast, mostly slow.
Bud to bloom.
Cocoon to butterfly.
Plunge into the waiting and the change it births.
In due time.
Join the dance.
Invite joy into the chaos and boredom.
Relax and float.
No place to be but here.
Being finished in moments, slivers and slices.
The gift of grace, growth, transformation.

“To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don’t grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax, and float.” – Alan Watts

Jul 23

Disturb the Universe

“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”
― T. S. Eliot, Four Quartet

“Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.”― T.S. Eliot

Bridges crossed.
Bridges bypassed.
Transition to transformation.
Waiting in between.
Exploration and avoidance.
Lost and found.
Floundering and flourishing.
Slow yet still moving.
Disturb the universe.
In a minute.
In a change of heart and mind.
In an instance.
See the same differently.
Invite new, embrace change.
The visible and invisible light.
Before, around and within

“Light
Light
The visible reminder of Invisible Light.”― T.S. Eliot

Jul 21

Sacred Intent

“The imagination should be allowed a certain amount of time to browse around.”― Sue Monk Kidd, When the Heart Waits: Spiritual Direction for Life’s Sacred Questions

“That’s the sacred intent of life, of God–to move us continuously toward growth, toward recovering all that is lost and orphaned within us and restoring the divine image imprinted on our soul.”― Sue Monk Kidd, When the Heart Waits: Spiritual Direction for Life’s Sacred Questions

The path often unclear.
Revealed in the taking of steps.
Into the fog, the brush, the unknowing.
Going off path to wander.
Into the wilderness to find clarity.
Waiting and moving, the dance.
Sacred ground.
Browse, linger, look, listen.

“O God, is there anything you’ve made that can’t pour life and healing into me? When I think of the simplicity and extravagance of creation, I want to bend down and write the word yes across the earth so that you can see it.”― Sue Monk Kidd, When the Heart Waits: Spiritual Direction for Life’s Sacred Questions

Jul 12

Ever-Blooming

“All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own.”― Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

“Perennials are ever-blooming, relevant people of all ages who know what’s happening in the world, stay current with technology and have friends of all ages. We get involved, stay curious, mentor others, and are passionate, compassionate, creative, confident, collaborative, global-minded risk takers.”― Chip Conley, Wisdom at Work: The Making of a Modern Elder

Be a perennial.
Ever-blooming.
Expanding, creating, contributing, participating.
Stay in the game, in tune, engaged, curious.
Not defined by age or others.
Learning and growing.
Heart full, spilling into joy.
Becoming new each day.

“Fear dims when you learn things.”― Lois Lowry, Son

Apr 20

To Begin Again, and Again…

“You can learn new things at any time in your life if you’re willing to be a beginner. If you actually learn to like being a beginner, the whole world opens up to you.” – Barbara Sher

Today marks the one-year anniversary of starting a new job, changing after 17 years in the same place and a plan of retiring there. A big move later in my career when most would say stay, coast, and settle. You’re too old. Your time is up. Quiet quit.

Not me. I’m not done yet. We settle and stay in places that are stale, over and where we don’t fit and aren’t welcome anymore to avoid change at all costs. Working with a career coach got me out of my own way, challenged old narratives and limiting beliefs. She helped me do the work to uncover what was next and possible. So grateful a friend sent me her way!

This past year I became a beginner again. Exhilarating, daunting and transformational. It has been the best thing that I have done for myself in years. Don’t settle and acquiesce! Take time to reflect and plan, but don’t wait to have everything figured out. Have a direction and move, the road unfolds with action, a step at a time. If and when you make a mistake, then pivot, shift, try something else. Often it is merely a tweak or a shift in attitude. We learn from trying new things and beginning again and again. Life is too short to circle dead-ends. Break trail!

“Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” – Dylan Thomas

Feb 12

The Lens of the Heart

“We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. So medicine, law, business, engineering… these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love… these are what we stay alive for.”― Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

“A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.”― William James

We are clear on what we are against, murky on what we are for.
It’s easier to criticize than create.
To “other” and “them,” to disregard, disconnect, dismiss.
The world is flat.
God is small.
Being “right” is enough.

May we have the fortitude to question, reframe, rethink and reshape our perspective.
To go beneath the surface of self to the root, to the core.
To see shapes, shadows, nuance, complexity, commonality, diversity, patterns, connection.
Weeding out the old, dry and stale.
Tilling the soil, planting newness, color and hue.
Unknowing, unlearning to expand, invite and open to depth and dimension.
Growth, change, transition, transformation.
Nurturing beauty, understanding, goodness, awe and wonder.
Widen the aperture to let in more light.
See through the lens of your heart.

“Seek out that particular mental attribute which makes you feel most deeply and vitally alive, along with which comes the inner voice which says, ‘This is the real me,’ and when you have found that attitude, follow it.”― William James

Sep 7

The Changed, the Changing

“I hope I can be the autumn leaf, who looked at the sky and lived. And when it was time to leave, gracefully it knew life was a gift.”– Dodinsky

“Blessed are you dear one, when the world around you has changed. Everything is different now. Your body, your age, your relationships, your job, your faith. The things that once brought you joy. The way you existed in the world. The people you love and trust and rely on. Things have changed and it would be silly to imagine you haven’t changed with them. You are not who you once were. Bless that old self. They did such a good job with what they knew. They made you who you were. All the mistakes and heartbreak and naivety and courage and blessed are who you are now. You who aren’t pretending that things are the same and who continue to grow and stretch and show up to your life as it really is. Wholehearted, vulnerable, maybe a little afraid. So blessed are we the changed.” – Kate Bowler

Follow the seasons for cues and clues, directions.
Everchanging, wandering, transforming.
Dirt to bud to bloom, to dormancy, back to life again and again.
Cycles and circles.
Rarely linear.
Made new in the delays and detours.
Shaped and stretched in the struggle.
Resilient, soft and strong.
The work of transition, the fruit of transformation.
Blessed are we the changed, the changing.

“There is something so special in the early leaves drifting from the trees–as if we are all to be allowed a chance to peel, to refresh, to start again.”– Ruth Ahmed

Aug 19

Not Done Yet

“To have courage for whatever comes in life – everything lies in that.” – Saint Teresa of Avila

When others say it’s over and you still have more to do, to give
You are not done yet
When you begin to doubt yourself and think it may be true
You are not done yet
When you are bypassed, discarded, dismissed
You are not done yet
When the call gets softer and the noise gets louder
You are not done yet
When you are too old, too young, too this, too that
You are not done yet
Keep believing and doing the work to become who you were created to be
You are not done yet
Run your race, cross the finish line
You are not done yet

“Be who you were created to be, and you will set the world on fire.”― St. Catherine of Siena

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