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Posts tagged ‘joy’

May 8

Found World

“Spring work is going on with joyful enthusiasm.”― John Muir, The Wilderness World of John Muir

“Spring is nature’s way of saying, ‘Let’s party!’” – Robin Williams

Flowers peaking, trees bursting, blue skies lingering
Spring trifecta
Fireworks of color, fragrance, freshness
Rebirth, creation, transformation
Accept the invitation
Join the party in delight, awe, wonder.

“Put on the mind of morning
To feel the rush of light
Spread slowly inside
The colour and stillness
Of a found world.” – John O’Donohue

May 7

Microscope, Telescope, Kaleidoscope

“Life is like an ever-shifting kaleidoscope – a slight change, and all patterns alter.”― Sharon Salzberg

“Life is a dance. Mindfulness is witnessing that dance.”― Amit Ray, Mindfulness Living in the Moment – Living in the Breath

Unhurrying
Undoing
Unwinding
Untangling
Untying
Unification
Resuscitation
Refreshment
Reimaging
Restoration
Recreating
Resurrection
In the stops and starts
Thresholds and bridges
Giving and receiving
Unknowing and knowing
Transitions to transformations
And the beautiful winding path inbetween, detours and delays
Life beating
Join the rhythm, dance and flow
Partake, witness, cherish the ride
Awake, anew, aware

“Mindfulness helps us get better at seeing the difference between what’s happening and the stories we tell ourselves about what’s happening, stories that get in the way of direct experience. Often such stories treat a fleeting state of mind as if it were our entire and permanent self.”― Sharon Salzberg, Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation

May 4

Dancing with Daffodils

“I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.” – William Wordsworth

May

May, and among the miles of leafing,
blossoms storm out of the darkness—
windflowers and moccasin flowers. The bees
dive into them and I too, to gather
their spiritual honey. Mute and meek, yet theirs
is the deepest certainty that this existence too—
this sense of well-being, the flourishing
of the physical body—rides
near the hub of the miracle that everything
is a part of, is as good
as a poem or a prayer, can also make
luminous any dark place on earth. – Mary Oliver

Vibrancy
Light
Unfolding and unfurling
Rhythm of spring
Unfolding and unfurling
Breathing in flowers
Pay attention
Enter the delight and bloom bursting
Dance with daffodils, spiritual honey.
Nectar of awe, wonder, grace, gratitude.

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

May 3

What a Ride!

“Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body. The goal is to skid in broadside; tires smoking, body all dented, leaking fluids, and your fuel gauge on empty; thoroughly used up and worn out, and loudly proclaiming, ‘Holy shit, what a ride!”― Steve Leder, The Beauty of What Remains: How Our Greatest Fear Becomes Our Greatest Gift

“the single most important thing in life is showing up.”― Steve Leder, More Beautiful Than Before: How Suffering Transforms Us

Show up.
To this day.
To others.
To self.
To the world beneath your feet.
Holy, sacred ground.
Of today, presence in it, full participation.
Give and receive.
Embrace and let go.
Wonder and believe.
Imagine and delight.
Imperfect, messy, detours and delays.
All of it.
This is it.
What a ride.
Do your part to make it an amazing one.
One beautiful day at a time.

“And this is it. This is the life we get here on earth. We get to give away what we receive. We get to believe in each other. We get to forgive and be forgiven. We get to love imperfectly. And we never know what effect it will have for years to come. And all of  it…all of  it is completely worth it.”― Nadia Bolz-Weber, Accidental Saints: Finding God in All the Wrong People

May 2

Till Soil, Root in Love

“I am in love with this world… I have tilled its soil, I have gathered its harvest, I have waited upon its seasons, and always have I reaped what I have sown. I have climbed its mountains, roamed its forests, sailed its waters, crossed its deserts, felt the sting of its frosts, the oppression of its heats, the drench of its rains, the fury of its winds, and always have beauty and joy waited upon my goings and comings.”― John Burroughs, The Summit of the Years

“Love is a great thing, yea, a great and thorough good.
By itself it makes that which is heavy light;
and it bears evenly all that is uneven.
It carries a burden which is no burden;
it will not be kept back by anything low and mean;
It desires to be free from all wordly affections,
and not to be entangled by any outward prosperity,
or by any adversity subdued.
Love feels no burden, thinks nothing of trouble,
attempts what is above its strength,
pleads no excuse of impossibility.
It is therefore able to undertake all things,
and it completes many things and warrants them to take effect,
where he who does not love would faint and lie down.
Though weary, it is not tired;
though pressed it is not straightened;
though alarmed, it is not confounded;
but as a living flame it forces itself upwards and securely passes through all.
Love is active and sincere, courageous, patient, faithful, prudent, and manly.”
― Thomas A Kempis

Love
Not the fluffy, surface, fleeting kind
Thoughts, words, actions
Weary yet not tired
Pressed yet not straightened
Alarmed yet not confounded
Gritty, tough, resilient
On the ground beneath your feet
Till soil
Root in love
Gather the harvest
Peace, kindness, love
Cast light.

“The lesson which life constantly repeats is to ‘look under your feet.’
You are always nearer to the divine and the true sources of your power than you think.
The lure of the distant and the difficult is deceptive.
The great opportunity is where you are.
Do not despise your own place and hour.
Every place is under the stars.
Every place is the center of the world.”― John Burroughs, Studies in Nature and Literature

Apr 28

Tender Grace and Gratitude

“Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul.” – Henry Ward Beecher

“Gratitude changes the pangs of memory into a tranquil joy.” — Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Longer hugs
Glance to deep gaze
Hearty laughter
Rapt attention
Overwhelming gratitude
Imperfectly beautiful and messy ordinary days
Phone call, text, check in for no reason
Connection and communion
Daily abiding, tending, holding
Slowing down to see the details
Kneeling in praise, awe, reverence
Sweet memories past and under under construction today, double blessing
Dark nights of the soul, the middle, the other side
Going through, getting through, striving to thriving
Faith, grace, trust, kindness, generosity, more laughter, yielding, listening
God woven through all of it, especially the small
Corners and crevices
Creator, companion, comedian, gardener, light bearer, weight carrier, friend
Notice your life today, each day anew
The stupid, frustrating, distractions, delays, delights, joys, gifts, pains in the ass, funny, poignant
It’s the road, not a detour
Love all of it while in it

10 years ago today, my Dad – best friend, leader of the pack, good man, really good, died unexpectedly
Yet, none of it should be unexpected
You never know how or when
Anticipatory grief steals time and joy
Do not miss this day and the people in it with you
Those gone ahead
Still ever present in different ways, shapes, forms
That’s what love does
Transcends time and space
Anchors and unbinds
Roots and flies
Transforms and travels
Twists and turns
Holds, carries and remains
Look behind and forward, but do not live there
Love well today – thoughts, words, deeds
Cast light.

“You see, love and grief are two sides of the same precious coin. One does not—and cannot—exist without the other. They are the yin and yang of our lives… Grief is predicated on our capacity to give and receive love. Some people choose not to love and so never grieve. If we allow ourselves the grace that comes with love, however, we must allow ourselves the grace that is required to mourn.” – Alan D. Wolfelt, Ph. D.

Apr 27

Spring’s Paintbrush

“Daffodils, blossom and tulips jostle to the front of the stage in April. I love these early perennials: they may be more modest but they nearly all have that one special quality that a plant needs to transform your affections from admiration to affection – charm.” – Monty Don

“There is no glory in star or blossom till looked upon by a loving eye; There is no fragrance in April breezes till breathed with joy as they wander by.” – William Cullen Bryant

Join the rhythm, unfolding of the earth awakening
Greening and rooting
Colors pushing through, seeking the light
Renewal, refreshment, rejoicing
Put down winter
Pick up spring
Tiptoe through the tulips.

“April is a promise that May is bound to keep.” – Hal Borland

Apr 26

Sudden Lift

“Shall we do without hope? Some days
there will be none. But now
to the dry and dead woods floor
they come again, the first
flowers of the year, the assembly
of the faithful, the beautiful,
wholly given to being.”
― Wendell Berry, Leavings

“Bless the moment that catches you off guard—
a laugh, a moment of levity,
a sudden lift.

Bless the laughter that feels almost wrong,
and the delight that doesn’t match the circumstances.

May you notice all that is unnecessary and beautiful—
the ridiculous, the fleeting, the most-alive.

And when joy feels impossible,
may it find you (or you find it) anyway.” – Kate Bowler

Softly and tenderly
Brisk and bold
Light and easy
Solo to choir of flowers bursting in color and harmony
Ferocious love, feisty hope, sudden lifts of delight.
To find and be found.

“May we be…the ones who hold our opinions loosely and yet love ferociously.”― Sarah Bessey, Out of Sorts: Making Peace with an Evolving Faith

Apr 21

Uprising to Light

“Like light, we can’t be broken, even when we bend.”― Amanda Gorman, Call Us What We Carry

“The new dawn blooms as we free it,
For there is always light,
If only we’re brave enough to see it,
If only we’re brave enough to be it.”
― Amanda Gorman, The Hill We Climb

Spring calls us to join in
To green up, bud
To shed the old, make room for new
To take hold of fresh bloom
Join in the uprising
Let some string out
Take flight
See it
Be it
Cast light.

“The first bud of spring sings the other seeds into joining her uprising.”― Amanda Gorman

Apr 17

Spring Pregame

“…small bits of our day are profoundly meaningful
because they are the site of our worship. The crucible of our formation is in the monotony of our daily routines.”
― Tish Harrison Warren, Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life

“Seek out each day as many as possible of the small joys, and thriftily save up the larger, more demanding pleasures for holidays and appropriate hours. It is the small joys first of all that are granted us for recreation, for daily relief and disburdenment, not the great ones.” – Hermann Hesse

Soak in spring pregame.
Starting line.
Lilacs shedding the old, budding the new.
Pregame for the Super Bowl of bloom.
Blue skies.
Soft breeze.
Warm sun.
Greening and colors ready to burst on the scene.
Ordinary love, crucible, liturgy of ordinary transforming.
Gather small bits, crevices, cracks, slivers of joy.
Cast them back out.

“Ordinary love, anonymous and unnoticed as it is, is the substance of peace on earth, the currency of God’s grace in our daily life.”― Tish Harrison Warren, Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life

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