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Posts tagged ‘joy’

Best, Simple, Things

“You’ll miss the best things if you keep your eyes shut.”― Dr. Seuss, I Can Read with My Eyes Shut!

“Oh the places you’ll go! There is fun to be done! There are points to be scored. There are games to be won. And the magical things you can do with that ball will make you the winning-est winner of all.”― Dr. Seuss, Oh, The Places You’ll Go!

Eyes open
Heart light
Spirit alive
Joy woven in the ordinary, silly, simple, fun
Smile spilling into laughter
Carbonate, anticipate, participate
Holy ground

“Laughter is carbonated holiness.”― Anne Lamott

Off We Go, On to This Day

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”― Theodore Roosevelt

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”― Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of “A Course in Miracles”

In the daily ordinary
In showing up
In listening
In kindness, laughter, play
In ups and downs
In plenty and scarcity
In the middle, mix, mess
Potholes, detours, delays
Celebrations, milestones, progress
Create, recreate, unlearn, learn
Ease up, slow down, look around
Lighten up
Be present where you are
May you offer and find joy, delight, hope
Wherever the path leads today.

“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”― George Bernard Shaw

Streaming Light, Love, Kindness

“There is the music of Heaven in all things.”― Saint Hildegard of Bingen

“May today there be peace within. May you trust that you are exactly where you are meant to be. May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith in yourself and others. May you use the gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you. May you be content with yourself just the way you are. Let this knowledge settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love. It is there for each and every one of us.” …”― Saint Terese of Liseaux

Thoughts, words, actions.
May love be the intention and outcome.
Peace, light, sabbath.
Dance and delight in this day.

“Preach the Gospel, use words when necessary.”― Saint Francis of Assisi

Gifts of Moments, Presence

“one of those things about getting older was knowing that so many moments weren’t just moments, they were gifts.”― Elizabeth Strout, Olive Kitteridge

“Had they known at these moments to be quietly joyful? Most likely not. People mostly did not know enough when they were living life that they were living it.”― Elizabeth Strout, Olive Kitteridge

It’s easy to mistake “doing” with living
Busy and hurry
Dopamine hit of checking thing off the bottomless “to do“ list
Comparison, counting for worthiness
To those thin spaces, detours, delays
Simple moments
That redirect attention to the present moment
To quiet joy
Live and love well this day
The only place to tend to
Walk lightly
Skip in step
Hopscotch and swings

“When my vision is numbed by apathy and narrowed by mediocrity, I can stand in the presence of great things and fail to see even the smallest of things.”― Craig D. Lounsbrough

Rooted and Reaching

“To be rooted is perhaps the most important and least recognized need of the human soul.”― Alister McGrath, Mere Apologetics: How to Help Seekers and Skeptics Find Faith

“Silent listening is a particular way of being active, not passive, in the world.” – Thomas Moore

Re-enchantment and delight.
Wide and deep.
Wonder, wander, awe
Engagement and immersion.
Root and reach.

“The human quest for beauty is thus really a quest for the source of that beauty, which is mediated through the things of this world, not contained within them.”― Alister McGrath, Mere Apologetics: How to Help Seekers and Skeptics Find Faith

Magnificent Blooming

“We need beauty because it makes us ache to be worthy of it.”― Mary Oliver

“Allow the beauty of creation to soak deep within our souls with eye candy such as mountain or lake or ocean or countryside or forest. It reminds us how small we are and how utterly magnificent God is, and that makes His love for us all the more breathtaking.”― Laura Thomas

Captured by beauty.
Held by grace.
Flowing with love.
May this be the path I take each day.

“I believe in the me God made and in the me God can make. I believe he made me on purpose and didn’t make any mistakes when it came to my creation. I believe he is doing a good work in me, and in you. And that though I am flawed, God is loving me and refining me and reminding me that God in me is where I can place my trust. And that is the place where I find my courage.”― Annie F. Downs, Let’s All Be Brave: Living Life with Everything You Have

Long Smiles and Hammocks

“Breathe Deep – Smile Long.”― Anthony T. Hincks

“Sit now very quietly in some lovely wild place, and listen to the silence. And I say that this, too, is a poem.” – Mary Oliver

Long smiles
Deep breath
Extended exhale
In the slowing
Respite
In play
Restoration
In the silence
Poetry

“Just breathing can be such a luxury sometimes.”― Walter Kirn, Up in the Air

Heavenly Oils

“A flower will always grow in the direction of the sun because beauty recognises beauty.”― Matshona Dhliwayo

The Sun by Mary Oliver

“Have you ever seen
anything
in your life
more wonderful

than the way the sun,
every evening,
relaxed and easy,
floats toward the horizon

and into the clouds or the hills,
or the rumpled sea,
and is gone–
and how it slides again

out of the blackness,
every morning,
on the other side of the world,
like a red flower

streaming upward on its heavenly oils,
say, on a morning in early summer,
at its perfect imperial distance–
and have you ever felt for anything
such wild love–
do you think there is anywhere, in any language,
a word billowing enough
for the pleasure

that fills you,
as the sun
reaches out,
as it warms you

as you stand there,
empty-handed–
or have you too
turned from this world–

or have you too
gone crazy
for power,
for things?”

to never grow weary
take for granted
bypass without noticing
restoration in awe and wonder
found in a sunset, flower, a poem
billowing, reaching, streaming
joy, peace, love

“The attempt to develop a sense of humor and to see things in a humorous light is some kind of a trick learned while mastering the art of living.”― Viktor Emil Frankl

Go to the Field

“Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted.”― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

“When loneliness comes stalking, go into the fields, consider
the orderliness of the world. Notice
something you have never noticed before,

like the tambourine sound of the snow-cricket
whose pale green body is no longer than your thumb.

Stare hard at the hummingbird, in the summer rain,
shaking the water-sparks from its wings.” – Mary Oliver

To noticing what’s been in the forefront all along
Pulling over often to praise and ponder
Sitting with gratitude in imperfect days

Present and eager
Grateful and gentle
Go to the fields, look, notice.

“The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say”― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Secret Gate

“Still round the corner there may wait
A new road or a secret gate
And though I oft have passed them by
A day will come at last when I
Shall take the hidden paths that run
West of the Moon, East of the Sun.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien

“Go back?” he thought. “No good at all! Go sideways? Impossible! Go forward? Only thing to do! On we go!” So up he got, and trotted along with his little sword held in front of him and one hand feeling the wall, and his heart all of a patter and a pitter.”― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again

Onward
Enter this day
Anew
Blank canvas
Fresh start
Awe, wonder, beauty
Secret gate
Love, the journey
To be given
To be received
Cast light

“Love is the beauty of the soul”― Saint Augustine of Hippo