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Posts tagged ‘joy’

Dec 24

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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

Dec 22

Gentle Break

“Birds chirping around you is a beautiful realisation that life in incredibly good. Let this sound be a gentle break in your routine.”― Hiral Nagda

“There’s nothing like
the fecund beauty of calmness.”
― Bhuwan Thapaliya, Our Nepal, Our Pride

Carve space into this day
Step away
Break the busy routine
Field trip
Conservatory, art museum, park
30 minutes will do
Reset, retreat, refocus
In the pause, awareness
In the noticing, gratitude
In the slowing, peace
Beauty of calmness
Spilling into the world.

“As you slow down, you instantly enter into a brand new world.”― Hiral Nagda

Dec 20

Making Clearances

“One who has hope lives differently.”– Pope Benedict XVI

“It is the beautiful task of Advent to awaken in all of us memories of goodness and thus to open doors of hope.”– Pope Benedict XVI

Advent to Christmas doorstep.
Threshold to cross.
New space to create.
Slowing to presence.
Making clearances for soul breathing.
Hope, joy, peace.
Cross the threshold.
Open all of the gifts.

“At Christmas, time deepens. The Celtic imagination knew that time is eternity in disguise. They embraced the day as a sacred space. Christmas reminds us to glory in the simplicity and wonder of one day; it unveils the extraordinary that our hurried lives conceal and neglect. We have been given such immense possibilities. We desperately need to make clearances in our entangled lives to let our souls breathe.” – John O’Donohue

Dec 16

Illuminate and Animate

“It is not over,
this birthing.
There are always newer skies
into which
God can throw stars.”
― Ann Weems, Kneeling in Bethlehem

“Joy doesn’t demand we silence our grief. It asks us to make just enough room for God to slip in beside it. And sometimes, that tiny crack of space is all joy needs to return.

Blessed are we who cannot fake cheer,
who sing soft instead of loud,
who light blue candles in December
and still hope joy might come.” – Kate Bowler

Hope, light, joy
Even, perhaps especially, on the ground of grief
Thin places and spaces
Cracks for light to enter
Hem of heaven
A particular grace
Throwing stars
Newer skies to illuminate and animate
Once again
Be kind, generous, a warm embrace
You are one of the stars to another’s dark sky
Blessing of a smile, a call, an invitation, place of belonging
A room at the Inn
Cast light.

“Like a thin place, a blessing can help us perceive how heaven infuses earth, inextricable from daily life, even when that life is marked by pain. In the midst of grief, when our loss can make the boundary between worlds feel horribly solid, insurmountable, and permanent, this comes as a particular grace.”― Jan Richardson, The Cure for Sorrow: A Book of Blessings for Times of Grief

Dec 15

Threads to Fabric, Weave

“Art is the funnel, as it were, through which spirit is poured into life.”― Thomas Mann

“Laughter is a sunbeam of the soul.”― Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain

Art
Laughter
Solitude
Connection
Reflection
Celebration
Reverence
Color
Hue
Light
Awe
Wonder
Weave these threads throughout each day
Fabric of ordinary to extraordinary
Giving birth to beauty, joy, peace.

“Solitude gives birth to the original in us.” – Thomas Mann

Dec 14

Rooted, Bright, Joy

“Indeed, frequent positive emotions—feelings of joy, delight, contentment, serenity, curiosity, interest, vitality, enthusiasm, vigor, thrill, and pride—are the very hallmark of happiness.”― Sonja Lyubomirsky, The How of Happiness

“we habitually fail to enjoy, savor, and live in the present, as our minds are often someplace else. However, when you think about it, the present moment is all we are really guaranteed.”― Sonja Lyubomirsky, The How of Happiness

Tilling, seeding, tending
Grounding, rooting, anchoring
Gratitude, beauty, joy
Smack in the middle of imperfection, incompleteness
Slowing to notice
Harnessing thoughts, moving to intentions, spilling into small actions
Daily process
Deliberate practice
Savoring the simple in the ordinary
Rapt presence in this day

“Gratitude is an antidote to negative emotions, a neutralizer of envy, hostility, worry, and irritation. It is savoring; it is not taking things for granted; it is present oriented.”― Sonja Lyubomirsky, The How of Happiness

Dec 13

Lurking Close at Hand

“In the stillness of quiet, if we listen, we can hear the whisper of the heart giving strength to weakness, courage to fear, hope to despair.”― Howard Thurman

“There must be always remaining in every life, some place for the singing of angels, some place for that which in itself is breathless and beautiful.”― Howard Thurman

Slow time.
Blank canvas.
Stillness.
Close at hand.
Joy and Peace.
Remembered in real time.

“Whatever may be the tensions and the stresses of a particular day, there is always lurking close at hand the trailing beauty of forgotten joy or unremembered peace.”― Howard Thurman, Meditations of the Heart

Dec 9

Carpentry of Exquisite Beauty

“In our own lives the voice of God speaks slowly, a syllable at a time. Reaching the peak of years, dispelling some of our intimate illusions and learning how to spell the meaning of life-experiences backwards, some of us discover how the scattered syllables form a single phrase.”― Abraham Joshua Heschel

“Remember that there is meaning beyond absurdity. Know that every deed counts, that every word is power…Above all, remember that you must build your life as if it were a work of art.”― Abraham Heschel

What pen shall you write with today?
What brush and colors will you swirl on the canvas?
What song to sing loudly and proudly?
What dance will bring you gliding across the floor?

We create our days and our days become our life, one at a time.
Plant seeds of kindness, laughter, joy, compassion, attention, inquiry.
String syllables of poetry and prose.
Weave gratitude, grace, goodness.
Bloom love, peace, light.
Exquisite carpentry.

“As a carpenter can make a gibbet as well as an altar, a writer can describe the world as trivial or exquisite, as material or as idea, as senseless or as purposeful. Words are wood.”― Mary Oliver, Winter Hours: Prose, Prose Poems, and Poem

Dec 5

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Power of Beauty, Out and In

“A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.”― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“The power of finding beauty in the humblest things makes home happy and life lovely.”― Louisa May Alcott

Put beauty in your path every day.
It’s not hard to be found.
Pause, look up and around.
Buy yourself flowers.
Take a walk in the woods.
Drive a different way.
Read poetry.
Turn off auto-pilot.
Turn up the music and sing.
Look within and find it too.
Kindness, compassion, humor.
Celebrate this day.
On the very ground you stand.
Imperfection and all.
This day shall not pass again.
Do not pass it by.

“The greatest illusion is that life should be perfect”― Charlie Mackesy

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