Skip to content

Posts tagged ‘Hope’

Oct 17

1 Comment

Reflecting Hope, Color, Light

“Reflection is noblest wisdom.” – Confucius

“So throw away your baggage and go forward.
There are quicksands all about you, sucking at your feet,
trying to suck you down into fear and self-pity and despair.
That’s why you must walk so lightly.
Lightly my darling,
on tiptoes and no luggage,
not even a sponge bag,
completely unencumbered.”― Aldous Huxley, Island

Walk lightly
As if on water
Move forward
With ease
Rest in hope
Rise in love
Letting the seeds break open, unfold, unfurl, breakthrough
Unencumbered.

“The seed is in the ground. Now may we rest in hope. While darkness does its work.” Wendell Berry

Oct 14

Crumb Trails

“Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. That is not our business and, in fact, it is nobody’s business. What we are asked to do is to love, and this love itself will render both ourselves and our neighbors worthy.”― Thomas Merton

“Hope has holes
in its pockets.
It leaves little
crumb trails
so that we,
when anxious,
can follow it.
Hope’s secret:
it doesn’t know
the destination–
it knows only
that all roads
begin with one
foot in front
of the other.” – Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

Seeds of hope
Joy and encouragement too
Scatter generously|
Gather frivolously
One foot in front of another

“Prayer and love are learned in the hour when prayer becomes impossible and the heart has turned to stone.”― Thomas Merton

Oct 11

Transparent and Divine

“Life is this simple: we are living in a world that is absolutely transparent and the divine is shining through it all the time.”― Thomas Merton

“You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith and hope.”― Thomas Merton

Possibilities over lack
Mystery and unknowing
Curiosity and inquiry
Divinity beaming, flooding
Imagination and abundance
Joy in the present moment
To be harvested and held.

“The least of learning is done in the classrooms. ”― Thomas Merton

Oct 5

Beauty of Faith Everblooming

“Since love grows within you, so beauty grows. For love is the beauty of the soul.”- Saint Augustine

“I will have nothing to do with a God who cares only occasionally. I need a God who is with us always, everywhere, in the deepest depths as well as the highest heights. It is when things go wrong, when good things do not happen, when our prayers seem to have been lost, that God is most present. We do not need the sheltering wings when things go smoothly. We are closest to God in the darkness, stumbling along blindly.”― Madeleine L’Engle

Heights and depths
Smooth and stumbling
God always present
Close as breath
Unexpected, showing up in so many ways
In others, encounters, a blooming flower
Bigger and more creative than our thoughts and imagination
Knowing in the unknowing
Loved beyond measure
Beauty of faith everblooming.

“Just because we don’t understand doesn’t mean that the explanation doesn’t exist.”― Madeleine L’Engle

Oct 4

Seek and Listen

“if you will go where you’ve never gone before, you will see God like you’ve never seen him before.”― Annie F. Downs, Let’s All Be Brave: Living Life with Everything You Have

“When you take the time to draw on your listening-imagination, you will begin to hear this gentle voice at the heart of your life. It is deeper and surer than all the other voices of disappointment, unease, self-criticism and bleakness. All holiness is about learning to hear the voice of your own soul. It is always there and the more deeply you learn to listen, the greater surprises and discoveries that will unfold. To enter into the gentleness of your own soul changes the tone and quality of your life. Your life is no longer consumed by hunger for the next event, experience or achievement. You learn to come down from the treadmill and walk on the earth. You gain a new respect for yourself and others and you learn to see how wonderfully precious this one life is. You begin to see through the enchanting veils of illusion that you had taken for reality. You no longer squander yourself on things and situations that deplete your essence. You know now that your true source is not outside you. Your soul is your true source and a new energy and passion awakens in you. John O’Dononhue, Beauty: The Invisible Embrace

Seek
Inquire
Listen
Respond
Cathedrals of the soul.

“But for us the road unfurls itself, we don’t stop walking, we know there is far to go. ”― Denise Levertov

Oct 2

Sowing, Tending, Reaping

“Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.” – Simone Weil

“I will complain, yet praise;
I will bewail, approve;
And all my sowre-sweet dayes
I will lament, and love.” – George Herbert

Praise
Approve
Sowing
Love
To do these first, second, third
In the wilderness or plenty
Manna for this day.

“This entire planet is about wilderness, but God is about manna. The journey of life is not a matter of finding our way out of the wilderness but finding the manna inside the wilderness.”― Annie F. Downs, Remember God

Oct 1

Ablaze in Song

“Light burdens, long borne, grow heavy.”― George Herbert

“Loving earth, more of love flows out of me,
for in the leaves is music, in the flowers, a poem,
In the trees is a story of centuries of storms,
endured and stayed as secrets of ages.”
― Jayita Bhattacharjee

Leaves ablaze in song
Celebration of work well-done
Beauty, hope, joy given
Transition to transformation
Soon to releasing, letting go, soft float to the earth
For rest to restoration
Making space for new growth
The gift of seasons.

“In every change, in every falling leaf there is some pain, some beauty. And that’s the way new leaves grow.”― Amit Ray

Sep 23

Bright Morning Invitation

“Here, root yourselves beside me.
I am the tree planted by the river,
Which will not be moved.
I, the rock, I the river, I the tree
I am yours—your passages have been paid.
Lift up your faces, you have a piercing need
For this bright morning dawning for you.
History, despite its wrenching pain,
Cannot be unlived, and if faced with courage,
Need not be lived again.
Lift up your eyes upon
The day breaking for you.
Give birth againTo the dream.” – Maya Angelou, On the Pulse of the Morning

“Come, clad in peace and I will sing the songs
The Creator gave to me when I
And the tree and stone were one.
Before cynicism was a bloody sear across your brow
And when you yet knew you still knew nothing.
The river sings and sings on.” – Maya Angelou, On the Pulse of the Morning

Pulse of a new day.
The rhythm and rhyme.
Poetry woven throughout, rising up, overflowing.
Birthing, renewing, restoring.
Flowing like a river.
Deep roots.
Rock solid.
Good morning, good day, good life.
Accept the invitation.
Grace, hope, joy.

“Here on the pulse of this new day
You may have the grace to look up and out
And into your sister’s eyes,
Into your brother’s face, your country
And say simply
Very simply
With hope
Good morning.” – Maya Angelou, On the Pulse of the Morning

Sep 14

Rhythm of Bloom

“Hoping to live days of greater happiness, I forget that days of less happiness are passing by.”― Elizabeth Bishop

“There is a magic made by melody:
A spell of rest, and quiet breath, and cool
Heart, that sinks through fading colors deep
To the subaqueous stillness of the sea,
And floats forever in a moon-green pool,
Held in the arms of rhythm and of sleep. ”― Elizabeth Bishop

Letting go
Losing the unnecessary
Releasing into rest
Awakening anew
Crisp air
Colors brilliant
Fresh bloom in different stages
Some seed
Some dormant
Some bud
Some full bloom
Some potpourri
Rhythm of bloom.

“The art of losing isn’t hard to master;
so many things seemed filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster”
― Elizabeth Bishop, The Complete Poems 1927-1979

Sep 3

Holding Flowers

“In English we say ‘I’m tired.’ But in poetry we say I’ve been holding up entire skies with hands that were only ever meant to hold flowers.” – Sophia Bray

“Rest:
as beautiful and necessary a task as any.
How else can we remember to breathe?
to think?
to shut out the world?
to not think?
to regain the strength
to take on the world?
to take in the world
with all our senses?
to dream?”― Shellen Lubin

Endings and beginnings.
Holding hands.
Walking each other home.
Until one takes the lead.
As the other fades, falls behind, rests from work well done.
Sure to come again.
In due time and timing.
Entering familiar spaces with fresh eyes, new hope.
Holding flowers in all seasons.
Skies meant for gazing, not holding.

“Lord: it is time. The summer was immense.
Lay your shadow on the sundials
and let loose the wind in the fields.
Bid the last fruits to be full;
give them another two more southerly days,
press them to ripeness, and chase
the last sweetness into the heavy wine.” – Rainer Maria Rilke

« Older Entries