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Posts tagged ‘Hope’

Mar 27

Gathering Counterweights

“When we take ourselves too seriously, we are at the risk of taking other things, including God, too lightly,”― James J. Martin, Between Heaven and Mirth

“This is not a ‘silver lining’ situation, where pain and injustice are minimized for the sake of flimsy optimism or playing nice. It’s not even about hoarding our favorite things. We are not guaranteed to have those things within our reach. The practice of gathering counterweights is about creating moments of sustenance from the raw materials of what we’re given. It is about holding everything in honest tension. Both/and. Our counterweights help us move forward and breathe through the heaviness.” – Shannan Martin

Goodness
Kindness
Generosity
Delight
Laughter
Flowers
A smile
Asking
Listening
Art
Music
Movement
Joy
Frolic
Counterweights
To gather and hold
A sense of imperfect yet palpable balance, ease
Atune, awake, off autopilot
Run the race, marathon not sprint
To fight the good fight
Of love, gratitude, peace
Precisely and on purpose
In the middle of the mess, chaos, noise, uncertainty
Long game, resilience, grit, grace
Make the world a little softer today for yourself and others
Cast light.

“What on earth can we do to make this sad and beautiful world a little softer for everyone?”― Shannan Martin, The Ministry of Ordinary Places: Waking Up to God’s Goodness Around You

Mar 24

Further Shore

“Strange, it is a huge nothing that we fear.”― Seamus Heaney, Death of a Naturalist

“So hope for a great sea-change
On the far side of revenge.
Believe that further shore
Is reachable from here.
Believe in miracles
And cures and healing wells.”
― Seamus Heaney

Poetry of this day.
What will you read?
What will you write?
The pen is in your hands.
Signatures of your own frequency.
Cures and healing wells, deep and wide.
Shores to reach.

“You lose more of yourself than you redeem
doing the decent thing. Keep at a tangent
When they make the circle wide, it’s time to swim
Out on your own and fill the element
with signatures on your own frequency.”
― Seamus Heaney, Station Island

Mar 23

Bringing to Life

“The natural world is built upon common motifs and patterns. Recognizing patterns in nature creates a map for locating yourself in change, and anticipation what is yet to come.”― Sharon Weil, ChangeAbility

“Tenderness is the art of personifying, of sharing feelings, and thus endlessly discovering similarities. Creating stories means constantly bringing things to life, giving an existence to all the tiny pieces of the world that are represented by human experiences, the situations people have endured and their memories. Tenderness personalizes everything to which it relates, making it possible to give it a voice, to give it the space and the time to come into existence, and to be expressed.” – Olga Tokarczuk

Easy to harden in this world.
To check out.
Autopilot.
Surface and skim.
Do not succumb.
Till the dry soil.
Let fresh air in.
Wander with wonder.
Anticipation, hope, joy, delight, tenderness, laughter, gentleness, enthusiasm.
Let beauty, light, grace in to awaken, abide, transform.
Easy threads weaving together the tapestry of this day.

“A gentle heart is tied with an easy thread.”― George Herbert

Mar 20

Divine Economy

“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

“Most of us are under pressure, external and internal, to do everything, be good at everything, be accountable to everyone for everything! It is not so. In the divine economy each of us has a particular grace, gift and devotion. Finding out what that is, and learning how to be guilt-free about not doing everything else, may be part of what our Lenten journey is for.”― Malcolm Guite, The Word in the Wilderness

Lent, rooted in lengthening of days, springtime, renewal
Christian tradition, 40 days before Easter
Don’t let religion, the religious and righteous, old wounds, rules keep you from God
Who’s already there waiting and knows
Relationship, companionship, inquiry, anger, loneliness, disappointment, ego, exhaustion, delight, gratitude, joy, peace
God can hold it all and you at the very same time
Held, always loved
Take the journey

“a mature and balanced faith is not one that has refused the agony and the wrestling but one that has been through them and grown from the experience.”― Malcolm Guite, The Word in the Wilderness

Mar 16

Bright Spark of Resurrection

“Nothing is yet in its true form.”― C.S. Lewis

Let There Always Be Light (Searching for Dark Matter)
by Rebecca Elson

“For this we go out dark nights, searching
For the dimmest stars,
For signs of unseen things:

To weigh us down.
To stop the universe
From rushing on and on
Into its own beyond
Till it exhausts itself and lies down cold,
Its last star going out.

Whatever they turn out to be,
Let there be swarms of them,
Enough for immortality,
Always a star where we can warm ourselves.

Let there be enough to bring it back
From its own edges,
To bring us all so close we ignite
The bright spark of resurrection.”

Sun in all seasons.
To warm, melt, guide.
Lighthouse to shore.
Gentle anchoring.
Wonder, awe, delight in unseen things.
Pay attention.
Ignite.
Seek light.
Cast light.

“Each second we live is a new and unique moment of the universe a moment that never was before and never will be again”― Pablo Casals

Mar 11

Try on Joy, You Look Good in that Color

“Blessed are we who are learning to hope.
And how to let go.
When to act.
And when to stop.
Holding together two irreconcilable truths:
that our lives are so valuable
precisely because we have much to fear
with much to love.” – Kate Bowler

“Blessed are we needing help waking up
to the music, the movement,
and the color of living,
who need help trying on joy instead.
The wonder of the daffodil,
the power of the tiniest seed,
cracked open and sprouting new life,
reaching, at its own pace, toward light.
Blooming.
Blessed are we who long to awake.
May we find the places where
beauty and love can reach us.
We’re ready for something new.” – Kate Bowler

Double blessings.
Grateful in real time and in memory.
To be exactly where we are and present on this day.
Whether mess or bliss.
Usually, a blender of both and mostly in between.
To let go of the illusion of someday when.
Entering now with vigor, delight, anticipation.
From muted, black and white to the brilliant color of living.
A day at a time.
Planting seeds, sprouting new life, spring in bloom.
Try on joy.
You look good in that color.

“The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings.”― Eric Hoffer

Mar 10

Circles of Nature

“The universe is transformation: life is opinion.” – Marcus Aurelius

“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

Tilling soil
Planting seeds
Wait and weight
Time and timing
Anticipating and abiding
The work of seasons
Transitions
Transformation
Spring.

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

Mar 8

Melting into Spring

“We sat in silence, letting the green in the air heal what it could.”― Erica Bauermeister, The Scent Keeper

“May you be capable of absurd joy,
ridiculous love,
audacious risk,
and even fear,
as your heart stretches to hold
this gloriously messy yes…and today.” – Kate Bowler

Melting into spring.
Slow and bumpy.
Sunday well.
Time out and off.
Hard stop.
Sit. Stay.
Up. Out.
Wander and wonder.
Absurd joy.
Love woven through it all.
Fresh meaning.

“Bless the poets, the workers for justice,
the dancers of ceremony, the singers of heartache,
the visionaries, all makers and carriers of fresh
meaning—We will all make it through,
despite politics and wars, despite failures
and misunderstandings. There is only love.”
― Joy Harjo, Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings: Poems

Mar 3

Spring Unfolding Slow and Sure

“March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.” – Charles Dickens

“Within the grip of winter, it is almost impossible to imagine the spring. The gray perished landscape is shorn of color. Only bleakness meets the eye; everything seems severe and edged. 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

Slow softening of ground
Seeds opening beneath
Snow turning to steady streams
Warm sun, crisp cool air lingers
Mud, earth opening up for business
Of bloom, renewal, awakening
Join the slow waltz into spring.
Attune. Open. Awake.

“Keep everything open and live from openness to openness.”― Francis Lucille, The Perfume of Silence

Mar 2

Fresh Heart, Filled with Hope

“As the seasons shift, remember that just as winter surrenders to spring, so too can your heart transform in time.”― An Marke

“We live in cycles. Cycles, how simple is that? It’s just like the tug and pull of the tides, the inhale and exhale of the wind, the ease of the trees letting loose their leaves, knowing full well they’ll regrow next spring.”― Kassandra Dick

Summer brisk then light shortens
Fall colors blaze in harvest abundance
Giving way to wintering, rest if we allow
The place where spring prepares, plans, plots
To burst and break out in brilliant color, fragrance, confetti
Seasons, cycles, rhythms
The poetry of ordinary days, thresholds to cross, and transformation unfolding.
Join the dance of bloom and fresh hope.

“As the seasons change, so do the rhythms of our lives; may we learn to flow with grace through every cycle.”― An Marke

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