Jun 8
“hope inspires the good to reveal itself.” – Emly Dickinson
“The possible’s slow fuse is lit by the Imagination.”― Emily Dickinson
Yield to presence
Merge with wonder
Submit to joy
Succumb to beauty
Relent in ease
Seed to bloom
Wait with patience
Flow like honey
Comingle with delight
Waltz with peace
Yield to presence
“Write me of hope and love, and hearts that endured.”― Emily Dickinson
“Spring being a tough act to follow, God created June.” – Al Bernstein
“For love is not what we do after we get other things done, if we have any energy left over. Love is what we do, period. It is not how we work; it is the work.” – Eugene Peterson, The Hallelujah Banquet
Show up
To this day
Anew
Changing the world, self first
Weight of joy
Gravity of delight
Grounding of gratitude
Open heart
Small acts
Love is the work.
“When I make changes to me and the way I show up in the world, the world changes too.”― Genevieve Davis, Magic Words and How to Use Them
“Everything in the universe has a rhythm, everything dances. ”― Maya Angelou
“Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.”― Maya Angelou
Yield to joy
Make way for delight
Clear a path for laughter
Arrive full of hope
Shining bright
Lilacs are in full bloom
Slowly then suddenly
Senses ablaze
Transformation at work.
“Nothing can dim the light which shines from within.”― Maya Angelou
“Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love.” – Francis of Assisi
“We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves.” – Dalai Lama
Peace
Woven in pause, stillness, reflection, putting down, beauty, grace, generosity
A jolt out of complacency
Paddles to jumpstart your heart
To get out of your head
The figuring, counting, comparing, complaining, blaming, othering, assumptions
An inside job
Daily practice, consistency and commitment
A shift
In thoughts, words, actions
Kindness, thankfulness, gratitude, goodness, praise
Awe, wonder, love, reverence
Sow, tend, bloom
Cast light.
“Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence.” – Henry David Thoreau
“The whole life lies in the verb seeing.”― Teilhard de Chardin
“The world, this palpable world, which we were wont to treat with the boredom and disrespect with which we habitually regard places with no sacred association for us, is in truth a holy place, and we did not know it. Venite, adoremus.”― Teilhard de Chardin
Autopilot off
Trance interrupted
Emergence of presence
New day, new moment
Fresh eyes
Curious mind
Spirit led
Light heart
Holy ground
Sacred space
Discovering fire, again, within, moving out
Energies of love
Cast light, color, joy, beauty, delight, laughter, awe, spring
“Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.” – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
“do good, bestow kindness, strive for beauty, seek and find the river that leads to life everlasting, and draw from the fountain that never runs dry.”― Allen Levi, Theo of Golden
“I did not save the world today,
Or change the course of history,
I walked the small and quiet way,
The life that God has given me. I woke up with the morning sun,
I sat awhile to think and pray,
I did my work till the day was done,
But I did not save the world today. I tried to live with gratitude,
To do the good that I could do,
To love the people close to me,
My neighbors and my family,
To share the kindness I’ve been shown,
To trust the Love that is my home,
To celebrate the tiny part I play,
But I did not save the world today. I hear the politicians speak,
Such big ideas and lofty claims,
My life, to theirs, seems small and weak,
But in God’s big hand we weigh the same. The saints and poets seem to know,
The law behind the ocean tide,
The world gets changed and moved along,
By little gestures multiplied. So I try to live with gratitude,
To do the good that I can do,
To love the people close to me,
My neighbors and my family,
To share the kindness I’ve been shown,
To trust the Love that is my home,
To celebrate the tiny part I play,
But I did not save the world today.”
―
Small acts
Seeds planting
Drops to rolling waves
Smile, laughter, delight
Joy out loud
Encouragement, noticing, interest
Slowing to witness, partake, participate
Ordinary days rich with color, nuance, light
In small deliberate acts, love multiples, compounds
Changing the world
Kindness, generosity, enthusiasm
Love well, cast light.
“the best portion of a good person’s life is ‘the little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and love.”― Allen Levi, Theo of Golden
“By cultivating the beautiful we scatter the seeds of heavenly flowers, as by doing good we cultivate those that belong to humanity.”― Vernon Howard
Happy Mother’s Day
To all women present and gone, yet remain within our hearts
Strength, tough, beauty, resilience, tenderness, grit, home
Holding up the world
Love
“We do not grow absolutely, chronologically. We grow sometimes in one dimension, and not in another; unevenly. We grow partially. We are relative. We are mature in one realm, childish in another. The past, present, and future mingle and pull us backward, forward, or fix us in the present. We are made up of layers, cells, constellations.”― Anais Nin
“To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never to forget.” – Arundhati Roy
Layers
Nuance
Depth
Complexity
Simplicity
Unseen
Opposites
Sames
Ordinary
Extraordinary
A mix of contradictions
At the same time
Bridges
Beauty overflowing
Imagination
Inquiry
Joy
Curiosity
Patterns
Mystery
Light
So much light
Life in this day
Be present
Love well
Cast light.
“Our life is composed greatly from dreams, from the unconscious, and they must be brought into connection with action. They must be woven together. ”― Anais Nin
“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.
“Help me, O Lord, that my eyes may be merciful, so that I may never suspect or judge from appearances, but look for what is beautiful in my neighbors’ souls and come to their rescue.”― Maria Faustina Kowalska, Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska: Divine Mercy in My Soul
“The longer I live, the more deeply I learn that love — whether we call it friendship or family or romance — is the work of mirroring and magnifying each other’s light. Gentle work. Steadfast work. Life-saving work in those moments when life and shame and sorrow occlude our own light from our view, but there is still a clear-eyed loving person to beam it back. In our best moments, we are that person for another.” – Maria Popova
Gentle steadfast work of kindness, tending, accompanying
Mirror and magnify
Kindness and generosity
Compound and multiply
Love does that
Do love today
Cast light
“Somehow you have got to know more than what you experience individually.” – Lorraine Hansberry
