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Posts tagged ‘Mindfulness’

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 6

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Breathing in Beauty of Presence, Rapt Attention

“What would it be like if I could accept life–accept this moment–exactly as it is?”― Tara Brach, Radical Acceptance

“Perhaps the biggest tragedy of our lives is that freedom is possible, yet we can pass our years trapped in the same old patterns…We may want to love other people without holding back, to feel authentic, to breathe in the beauty around us, to dance and sing. Yet each day we listen to inner voices that keep our life small.”― Tara Brach, Radical Acceptance

Slow entrance
Autopilot disengaged
To do list put aside
Looking up, in, around
Soaking in fullness, depth, dimension of surroundings
Places, people, self
Foregoing rearview mirror replays
Not rushing ahead, arriving before getting there
Feet planted on the ground of this day
Open door for gratitude to enter
Reflection, inquiry, attention
Take the long cut
Wander, fritter, abide
Joy, beauty, peace in anchored presence
Receive and cast light.

“Clearly recognizing what is happening inside us, and regarding what we see with an open, kind and loving heart, is what I call Radical Acceptance. If we are holding back from any part of our experience, if our heart shuts out any part of who we are and what we feel, we are fueling the fears and feelings of separation that sustain the trance of unworthiness. Radical Acceptance directly dismantles the very foundations of this trance.”― Tara Brach, Radical Acceptance

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

Apr 23

Look Around and Up

“The only place to begin is where I am, and whether by desire or disaster, I am here. My being here is not dependent on my recognition of the fact. I am here anyway. But it might help if I could learn to look around.”― Pádraig Ó Tuama, In the Shelter: Finding a Home in the World

“And the body is holding its losses like a fist. And a fleshy hope
is opening to an unprecedented vastness. And whatever we think
we are leaving behind will keep insisting. And the things we desire
will elude us. And our efforts will pose as failure. And we will not recognize
how far we’ve come. And we will solve one problem and create another.
And we will feel broken. And we will not be broken. And the silence
will be deafening. And we will love destructively. And no one
will appear to be listening. And there will be too many doors
to choose from. And we will keep saying, “I don’t know how to do this.”
And we will be more capable than we ever imagined.” – Maya Stein

Ebb and flow
In and outBoth and
Yes no
All of the above
In the wrestling and reckoning
Peace and ease
Vastness and awe
Wholeness woven of pieces
Gracious and spacious
Capable and mighty
Poetry of presence
Foundation of love.

“May we find our foundation in the work of Love; demanding, tiring, true and human and holy.”― Pádraig Ó Tuama, Daily Prayer with the Corrymeela Community

Apr 22

Thick with Beauty, Possibility

“Earth is so thick with divine possibility that it is a wonder we can walk anywhere without cracking our shins on altars.”― Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith

“Lost as we feel, there is no better
Compass than compassion.
We find ourselves not by being
The most seen, but the most seeing.”
― Amanda Gorman, Call Us What We Carry

It’s right there
Front and center
At our feet
Holding our hand
In teaspoons and buckets
Slivers and slices
Glances and stares
Woven in and through each ordinary day
Beauty, grace, joy
Not the way we expect
Or command, demand
If we put down our rules, ways, shoulds and whens
Release our tight grip, open hands
The view widens, presence deepens
Colors are brighter
Hues and nuance sharpen
Steps are lighter, skip and hop
Reverence and awe
It’s right there
Thick with divine possibility, indeed.

“Human beings are works in progress that mistakenly think they are finished.” – Daniel Gilbert

Apr 18

Frame of Vision

“The way we experience the world around us is a direct reflection of the world within us.” – Gabrielle Bernstein

“There is a beautiful complexity of growth within the human soul.
In order to glimpse this, it is helpful to visualize the mind as a tower of windows.
Sadly, many people remain trapped at the one window, looking out every day at the same scene in the same way.
Real growth is experienced when you draw back from that one window, turn, and walk around the inner tower of the soul and see all the different windows that await your gaze.
Through these different windows, you can see new vistas of possibility, presence, and creativity.
Complacency, habit, and blindness often prevent you from feeling your life.
So much depends on the frame of vision — the window through which you look.” – John O’Donohue, Anam Cara

May your gaze wander.
Daily trance interrupted.
Auto-pilot disengaged.
New windows, fresh eyes.
Possibility. Presence. Creativity.
Where you stand, right now.
Look again.

Apr 16

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Little Joys, Big Life Woven

“I would simply like to reclaim an old and, alas, quite unfashionable private formula: Moderate enjoyment is double enjoyment. And: Do not overlook the little joys!” – Hermann Hesse

“In a world pocked by cynicism and pummeled by devastating news, to find joy for oneself and spark it in others, to find hope for oneself and spark it in others, is nothing less than a countercultural act of courage and resistance. This is not a matter of denying reality — it is a matter of discovering a parallel reality where joy and hope are equally valid ways of being. To live there is to live enchanted with the underlying wonder of reality, beneath the frightful stories we tell ourselves and are told about it.” – Maria Popova

Whisper of a breeze
Warmth of sun
Delight of flowers
Play of children
River flow
Trees in praise
Blue sky brilliance
Movement of song, dance
Embrace of presence spilling into amazement
In the knitting of small joys, big life woven
For the sense and senses to partake.

“[There are] many other small joys, perhaps the especially delightful one of smelling a flower or a piece of fruit, of listening to one’s own or others’ voices, of hearkening to the prattle of children. And a tune being hummed or whistled in the distance, and a thousand other tiny things from which one can weave a bright necklace of little pleasures for one’s life.” – Hermann Hesse

Apr 14

Witness and Participate

“If the path be beautiful, let us not ask where it leads.” – Anatole France

“At the center of our lives, in the midst of the busyness and the forgetting, is a story that makes sense when everything extraneous has been taken away.” – David Whyte

To going nowhere slowly
To pause and praise
To light and easy
To appreciation and enough-ness
Full measure
Participation and witness
May you see the beauty on your path today
And remain in the journey, with rapt attention
Peace, wonder, generosity of presence.

“Thankfulness finds its full measure in generosity of presence, both through participation and witness.” – David Whyte

Apr 12

Small Joys Stacking

“It is a great thing to know how to make use of the present moment.”― Maria Faustina Kowalska, Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska: Divine Mercy in My Soul

“Act in such a way that all those who come in contact with you will go away joyful. Sow happiness about you because you have received much from God; give, then, generously to others. They should take leave of you with their hearts filled with joy, even if they have no more than touched the hem of your garment.”― Maria Faustina Kowalska

We forego small joys in search of big demands and conditions.
Anchoring on others changing, the world changing, us remaining the same.
“Someday when” thinking.
Yield to this day alone.
All that is present and available.
Filled and flowing.
Seek moments of joy, delight through rapt attention.
Capture and give them away.
Compound interest of love in action.
Scatter seeds, sow happiness, cast light.

“The past does not belong to me; the future is not mine; with all my soul I try to make use of the present moment.”― Maria Faustina Kowalska, Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska: Divine Mercy in My Soul

Mar 29

Perpetual Revival

“Each of us experiences the perpetual revival of the self. We constantly recast our connate emotional index by perceiving each encounter in life as a marvel, impedance, problem, disaster, or nothing at all. Living in the moment allows us to escape the lonely landscape of self-interest and be part of a larger world filled with beauty, reverence, and adoration.”― Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls

Volume low.
Brilliant color.
Light bright.
Anchor and attune.
In the ordinary and small.
Transformed by attention and reverence.

“Mind the little things.
Appreciate them.
Revere them, too.”― Shellen Lubin

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