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Posts tagged ‘joy’

Jan 2

Bask and Steep

“Happiness consists more in small conveniences or pleasures that occur every day, than in great pieces of good fortune that happen but seldom.”― Meik Wiking, The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well

“Comparison is the thief of joy” – Theodore Roosevelt

Something else
Somewhere else
Someone else
Someday when
The grass is greener on the other side of the fence

Look longer
In the eyes of what you have right now
All of it
Imperfect, irritating, incomplete, becoming, unfolding, blooming, beautiful
Not merely at what’s missing, changed, different
Be present and awake

Bask and steep in this day
Find the good, it’s there
Give good away, it compounds
Deep abiding hope, optimism, gratitude
Joy – guard it, receive it, offer it.

“He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.”― Socrates

Dec 31

New Year’s Path, One Step at a Time

“Let the wild rumpus start!”― Maurice Sendak, Where the Wild Things Are

“What the New Year brings to you will depend a great deal on what you bring to the New Year.” – Vern McLellan

Intentions spilling into action, inaction too
What to do and what not to do
Daily steps
Consistency
Walking it out
Gentleness
Kindness
Connection
Co-creation
Collaboration
Engaging with forethought
Joy, an act of resistance
Offering peace first
Wandering and rest stops
Deep work
Light play
Unknowing
Learning
Growing
Twists and turns
Acceptance
Generosity
Awe and wonder
Reflection then motion
From divergence to convergence to emergence
Narrowing
Deepening
Laughter, lots of it
Dancing, art, music, nature
Slowing and inviting
Abiding faith, trust, love
Gratitude in, through, with all of it
All of these and more for the new year
Not resolutions as much as ways of living daily

“I think in terms of the day’s resolutions, not the years’.” – Henry Moore

Dec 30

Stunning

“The poetry of the earth is never dead.” – John Keats

“The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper” – W.B. Yeats

Stunning
Gorgeous
Magical
Jaw dropping
Breath taking
Spectacular
May each day be filled with these encounters
Places
Spaces
Outside your door
Front and center
Joy, delight, awe, wonder, gratitude
Ordinary days, senses ablaze
Get out and play.

“In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.” – Aristotle

Dec 29

Fresh Coat, Bright Color

“Believe in a love that is being stored up for you like an inheritance, and have faith that in this love there is a strength and a blessing so large that you can travel as far as you wish without having to step outside it.”― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

“And now let us believe in a long year that is given to us, new, untouched, full of things that have never been, full of work that has never been done, full of tasks, claims, and demands; and let us see that we learn to take it without letting fall too much of what it has to bestow upon those who demand of it necessary, serious, and great things.”― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters of Rainer Maria Rilke, 1892-1910

Fresh coat
Bright color
Refresh
Reset
New beginnings
Each moment, day, week, year
Perspectives, approaches, frameworks
Widening the lens when too small
Narrowing the lens when too big
Inquiry, curiosity, exploration, discovery
Beauty, joy, delight woven in ordinary
For eyes to see anew.

“Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.”― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

Dec 28

Roam Unfettered

“Let us be certain of who we want to be. Let us choose for ourselves our path in life, and let us try to strew that path with flowers.”― Émilie Du Châtelet

“If just looking could be so satisfying, why was I always striving to have things or to get things done? Certainly I had never suspected that the key to my private reality might lie in so apparently simple a skill as the ability to let the senses roam unfettered by purposes. I began to wonder whether eyes and ears might not have a wisdom of their own.”― Marion Milner, A Life of One’s Own

Enter with anticipation, not defined expectation
Cross with curiosity, not certainty
Traverse with enthusiasm, not guarded steps
Roam unfettered
Let your senses drive
Strew the path with flowers
Enjoy the journey, wherever it leads.

“The secret door to peace is to discard all the busyness.”― Hiral Nagda

Dec 27

The Work of Christmas

“The Sabbath is the day on which we learn the art of surpassing civilization.”― Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Sabbath

“When the song of the angels is stilled, when the star in the sky is gone,
when the kings and princes are home,
when the shepherds are back with their flocks, the work of Christmas begins: to find the lost,
to heal the broken,
to feed the hungry,
to release the prisoner,
to rebuild the nations,
to bring peace among the people, to make music in the heart.”
― Howard Thurman

The work of Christmas.
To heal.
To feed.
To release.
To rebuild.
To bring peace.
To make music.
To be kind.
To be grateful.
To be generous.
To cast light.
To love.

“It cannot be denied that too often the weight of the Christian movement has been on the side of the strong and the powerful and against the weak and oppressed—this, despite the gospel.”― Howard Thurman, Jesus and the Disinherited

Dec 26

Divine Graciousness

“Love is holy because it is like grace–the worthiness of its object is never really what matters.”― Marilynne Robinson, Gilead

“This is the homely heart of Incarnation, this meeting of God in man with men and women, this simple face of divine graciousness in ordinary life rather than in the hymns of church fathers or in the dry elaborations of theologians.”― Eugene Kennedy, The Joy of Being Human: Reflections for Every Day of the Year

Don’t rush off
Christmas is not over
It’s just begun
Linger and savor
Slow and absorb
Pause and praise
Sit, stay here
Open the gifts of grace, presence, reflection
A day becomes a season becomes an outlook becomes a way of life
Tides of Christmas
Love rushes in, remains, transforms.

“When we focus on our gratitude, the tide of disappointment goes out and the tide of love rushes in.” – Kirstin Armstrong

Dec 25

Hope, Peace, Joy, Love Birthday

“God does not come to the curated, but to the crowded, the tired, the not-ready. God comes to us.” – Kate Bowler

“This is the culmination of everything Advent has taught us to hold.

Hope—that even in the world’s unfinishedness, God is not done yet.
Peace—not the absence of chaos but God’s presence in it.
Joy—not glittery optimism, but the stubborn delight that arrives anyway.
Love—not sentimental, but embodied in the form of a baby, dependent and vulnerable.

Christmas is God’s declaration that God will not remain distant. Love does not hover above the fray. Love is born into it: among animals and straw, political oppression and family scandal, the ordinary ache of human life. It is the good news that changes everything.” – Kate Bowler

Hope
Peace
Joy
Love

The real kind, not curated, fluffy, Instagram-able
In the heart, bones, mind, spirit
Right in the middle of unfinished, imperfection, messy, chaos, ordinary, beautiful days

Accept the invitation
In and for us.

“Blessed are we on this Christmas morning,
astonished again at Love made flesh.
Blessed are we who dare to believe:
God is here—
in the dark, in the ordinary,
in us, and for us.”

Dec 24

1 Comment

World Tilting

“I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“Advent was never about perfection. It was about preparation for Love to arrive in whatever space you have left. And here’s the good news: Love does not check your to-do list before showing up. Love comes to the unfinished, the unwrapped, the undone.” – Kate Bowler

Love
Entering in a stable
Good news
Love has arrived, still arrives, remains
Alive, near as breath, ever-present
Palpable, transformational, for all
Weary world rejoices
Lean forward in awe and wonder
Enter the mystery
Oh, Holy Night
Peace. Joy. Love.

“The whole world tilts tonight. Love has come down, not as power, but as weakness. Not as judgment, but as mercy. Not as a king on a throne, but as a baby in a feeding trough. And that means there is no place too small, too dark, too ordinary for Christ to enter.

So we lean forward with the shepherds, trembling with anticipation. The night sky splits open. Heaven invades earth. And the announcement is not for the powerful but for “all the people.” Love has come, and nothing will ever be the same.

Blessed are we, standing on tiptoe at the manger,
awed that God would stoop so low.
Blessed are we who dare to believe
that Love Himself has come down,
not just for the world,
but for us.” – Kate Bowler

Dec 23

Deep Peace, Profound Wholeness

“You have the most beautiful things surrounding you. Give your mind the breather it deserves.”― Hiral Nagda

“When there is nothing to prove to anyone in the world, there is a deep peace and a profound wholeness which cannot be touched or pierced.”― Hiral Nagda

Expectations, assumptions, demands, control, ego, proving, counting, comparing, performance
Blinders to the beauty, abundance, blessings, contentment, joy, peace
Let go
Of all of it
Put it down
Drink in this day
Full presence
Sips and sprinkles
Drops and waves
Invite, allow, welcome
Newness poured into you
Nothing to do
But open, accept, receive
Mystery, serendipity, grace
Blinders off
Get out of your own way
Yield
Awe and wonder await your arrival, your participation
Deep peace, profound wholeness.

“Drink life one sip at a time. This moment is brand new. Let it pour its newness into you.”― Hiral Nagda

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