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Posts tagged ‘joy’

Eyes of the Heart

“We do not see nature with our eyes, but with our understandings and our hearts.”― William Hazlitt

“Poetry is a life-cherishing force. For poems are not words, after all, but fires for the cold, ropes let down to the lost, something as necessary as bread in the pockets of the hungry.”― Mary Oliver, A Poetry Handbook

May wonder, beauty and joy be on your path today.
As it always is.
And may each of us have the heart to see it, stop and dance.
Poetry and prose of this day.
Awaiting to be written.

“The journey of each life is a pilgrimage through unforeseen sacred places that enlarge and enrich the soul.” – John O’Donohue

Waiting for You, Everything

“There is a calmness to a life lived in Gratitude, a quiet joy.”: — Melody Beattie

Everything is Waiting for You
by David Whyte

“Your great mistake is to act the drama
as if you were alone. As if life
were a progressive and cunning crime
with no witness to the tiny hidden
transgressions. To feel abandoned is to deny
the intimacy of your surroundings. Surely,
even you, at times, have felt the grand array;
the swelling presence, and the chorus, crowding
out your solo voice. You must note
the way the soap dish enables you,
or the window latch grants you freedom.
Alertness is the hidden discipline of familiarity.
The stairs are your mentor of things
to come, the doors have always been there
to frighten you and invite you,
and the tiny speaker in the phone
is your dream-ladder to divinity.

Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into the
conversation. The kettle is singing
even as it pours you a drink, the cooking pots
have left their arrogant aloofness and
seen the good in you at last. All the birds
and creatures of the world are unutterably
themselves. Everything is waiting for you.”

Alertness
Attention
Awakening
Fresh eyes
New day
Brimming with possibilities
Woven in the ordinary
At our feet, in arms reach
Waiting for our participation
To not be lulled into complacency, counting, comparison
Grateful for this day
With things unfinished, cracked, imperfect
And so many good things too
Swelling presence
Easing into conversation with this day.

“The real gift of gratitude is that the more grateful you are, the more present you become.”: — Melody Beattie

Temperature of Thine Own

“Mindfulness is not chasing the moment but sipping the nectar of the moment.”― Amit Ray, Mindfulness Living in the Moment – Living in the Breath

“It does seem to me, that herein we see the rare virtue of a strong individual vitality, and the rare virtue of thick walls, and the rare virtue of interior spaciousness. Oh, man! admire and model thyself after the whale! Do thou, too, remain warm among ice. Do thou, too, live in this world without being of it. Be cool at the equator; keep thy blood fluid at the Pole. Like the great dome of St. Peter’s, and like the great whale, retain, O man! in all seasons a temperature of thine own.”― Herman Melville, Moby-Dick or, The Whale

Steadiness in all seasons, circumstances
Contentment beneath waves
Ease amidst chaos
Silence below noise
Clarity above distractions
Wandering and curiosity, no map
Hope and resilience
Nectar of presence in today
Joy on the whole journey
To keep going, taking the long cut
A temperature of thine own

“It is not down on any map; true places never are.”― Herman Melville, Moby-Dick or, The Whale

Unhurrying

“Simplicity is ultimately a matter of focus.”― Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are

“Being in a hurry. Getting to the next thing without fully entering the thing in front of me. I cannot think of a single advantage I’ve ever gained from being in a hurry. But a thousand broken and missed things, tens of thousands, lie in the wake of all the rushing…. Through all that haste I thought I was making up time. It turns out I was throwing it away.”― Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are

In slowing
Fullness of moments, days
In attention
Beauty in the backdrop comes to the forefront
In unknowing
Space opens to learn, relearn, grow
In reflection
Gratitude expands
In awe
Wonder and joy show up
In presence
Abundance overflowing

“Life is so urgent it necessitates living slow.”― Ann Voskamp

The Sky or Just the Weather?

“You are the sky. Everything else – it’s just the weather.”― Pema Chödrön

“Take refuge in your senses, open up
To all the small miracles you rushed through.
Become inclined to watch the way of rain
When it falls slow and free.
Imitate the habit of twilight,
Taking time to open the well of color
That fostered the brightness of day.
Draw alongside the silence of stone
Until its calmness can claim you.
Be excessively gentle with yourself.
Stay clear of those vexed in spirit.
Learn to linger around someone of ease
Who feels they have all the time in the world.
Gradually, you will return to yourself,
Having learned a new respect for your heart
And the joy that dwells far within slow time.”
– John O’Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us

Be claimed by calmness
Gentle spirit
Generous heart
Open hands
Rooted in the sky rather than the chaos of the weather
Color, beauty, light, peace to you this day
And may it flood the world

“Peace is not the absence of chaos — it’s learning what deserves your reaction.”― Runarok Hrafn

Undoing and Singularity

“Hold still. Be quiet. Listen.”― Margaret Renkl, Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss

“What if resting, all by itself, is the real act of holiness? What if honoring the gift of our only life in this gorgeous world means taking time every week to slow down? To sleep? To breathe? The natural world has never needed us more than it needs us  now, but we can’t be of much use to it if we remain in a perpetual state of exhaustion and despair.”― Margaret Renkl, The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year

From fast and furious
To slow and savor
Stop, reset the pace
Cadence and ease
Undoing, mere being
Singularity, simple delight
Overthinking to senses ablaze
Curiosity and wandering
Awe and wonder
Woven in this very day
Put it down

“There are worse things, I think, than leaving a task undone. The oak forests of the world would not exist if squirrels did not lose track of acorns.”― Margaret Renkl, The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year

How to Live Well

“When earth and sky collide, it’s a dance older than time.”― Heidi Barr, Collisions of Earth and Sky

“Practicing presence is remembering how to live.”― Heidi Barr, 12 Tiny Things

Silence
Within
Reflection
Presence
Kindness
Contemplation
Empathy
Gentleness
Prayer
Gratitude
Generosity
Beauty
Awe
Joy
Curiosity
Wonder
Hope
Daily prescription
To live well in this world
Catch and cast light.

“life, you will fill me with joy in your presence.” – Thomas Keating, The Daily Reader for Contemplative Living

Astonishment and Delight

“Every dew wet apple blossom, every garden plot filled with creeping flowers and weeds, each crimson leaf, each sparkle in a newly white morning – each nuance of creation offers up a sense of place and rhythm.”― Heidi Barr, Woodland Manitou: To Be on Earth

“We applaud in silent awe
at how something as simple
as the alignment of
water
trees
light
creates a masterpiece
every single day,
just by existing.”
― Heidi Barr, Cold Spring Hallelujah

Color, light, nuance
Astonishment, delight, awe
Patiently waiting to be found, held
Already here and now
Woven in the ordinary present
Awaiting our awakening
Backdrop to forefront
Attention, noticing, proximity
Clean your glasses
Look again.

“What i want in life
is an aptitude for astonishment
room for unanticipated delight.”
― Heidi Barr, Cold Spring Hallelujah

No Scarcity of Delight

“Delight is all around us you know, from the food we eat, to the night sky, to the dreams we have. It surrounds us with every moment, you just have to stop and take it in whenever you can.”― Jonathan Maas, Horsemen

The Patience of Ordinary Things
by Pat Schneider

“It is a kind of love, is it not?
How the cup holds the tea,
How the chair stands sturdy and foursquare,
How the floor receives the bottoms of shoes
Or toes. How soles of feet know
Where they’re supposed to be.
I’ve been thinking about the patience
Of ordinary things, how clothes
Wait respectfully in closets
And soap dries quietly in the dish,
And towels drink the wet
From the skin of the back.
And the lovely repetition of stairs.
And what is more generous than a window?”

In abundance.
Simple things.
Ordinary days.
New eyes required, attention too..
On the ground of now.
Windows open wide.
Fresh air of joy.
No scarcity of delight.

“So today I’m recalling the utility, the need, of my own essayettes to emerge from such dailiness, and in that way to be a practice of witnessing one’s delight, of being in and with one’s delight, daily, which actually requires vigilance. It also requires faith that delight will be with you daily, that you needn’t hoard it. No scarcity of delight.”― Ross Gay, The Book of Delights: Essays

Time will Come Good Again

“There are always flowers for those who want to see them.” – Henri Matisse

“This is the time to be slow,
Lie low to the wall
Until the bitter weather passes.

Try, as best you can, not to let
The wire brush of doubt
Scrape from your heart
All sense of yourself
And your hesitant light.

If you remain generous,
Time will come good;
And you will find your feet
Again on fresh pastures of promise,
Where the air will be kind
And blushed with beginning.”
― John O’Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

Away from the noise and chaos
Respite and quiet
Slow and low
Soft and light
Pause and reflect
Hope and joy
Generous and kind
Steadfast and resilient
Anchor and root
Fresh pastures of promise
Blushed with beginning

“It’s a hard time to be human. We know too much
and too little.”― Ellen Bass, Like a Beggar