Skip to content

Posts tagged ‘Mindfulness’

Sep 20

Tips and Dust

“The true harvest of my life is intangible – a little star dust caught, a portion of the rainbow I have clutched.”― Henry David Thoreau

“Direct your eye inward, and you’ll find / A thousand regions in your mind / Yet undiscovered. Travel them, and be / Expert in home-cosmography”― Henry David Thoreau

Busy, rushing, noise
Distractions, short cuts, avoidance
Clear clutter, in and out
Go off path
Make room, create margin, horizons
Pause, ask, listen
Partake and dive into wonder, awe, reverence
Hidden in moments
Harvest of life
Abundance in tips and dust.

“I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.”― Henry David Thoreau

Sep 19

Moments to Seasons

“These autumn days will shorten and grow cold. The leaves will shake loose from the trees and fall. Christmas will come, then the snows of winter. You will live to enjoy the beauty of the frozen world, for you mean a great deal to Zuckerman and he will not harm you, ever. Winter will pass, the days will lengthen, the ice will melt in the pasture pond. The song sparrow will return and sing, the frogs will awake, the warm wind will blow again. All these sights and sounds and smells will be yours to enjoy, Wilbur — this lovely world, these precious days…”― E.B. White, Charlotte’s Web

“Stolen moments” create a feeling of enjoyment in our “intensive time” awareness. The glow and the intensity of those instants can guide us throughout a whole lifetime. They can expose a second or a third dimension of the daily events and shed an expounding light on all the little details we encounter.”― Erik Pevernagie

Each day, stolen moments falling into months and seasons
Abundant with gifts and offerings
Woven in ordinary and perceived sameness
Transitions, transformations if we allow
Joy, delight, beauty, shedding, growth
Attention required, open hands too
Pause, look, listen.

“The world is full of talkers, but it is rare to find anyone who listens. And I assure you that you can pick up more information when you are listening than when you are talking.”― E.B. White, The Trumpet of the Swan

Sep 17

Appointment with Presence

“Your hand opens and closes, opens and closes. Your deepest presence is in every small contracting and expanding, the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated as birds’ wings.”― Jelaluddin Rumi , The Essential Rumi

“Our appointment with life is in the present moment. If we do not have peace and joy right now when will we have peace and joy–tomorrow, or after tomorrow? What is presenting us from being happy right now?”― Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life

No rushing
Anchored, perched, at ease
Front and center
Deep presence
Fresh curiosity
Inquiry and attention
Appointment with life
In this day.

“The quality of your consciousness at this moment is what shapes the future.”― Eckhart Tolle

Sep 16

Effervecence and Luminosity

“Life is not a series of gig lamps symmetrically arranged; life is a luminous halo, a semi-transparent envelope surrounding us from the beginning of consciousness to the end.” — Virginia Woolf

“There is a quiet light that shines in every heart. It draws no attention to itself, though it is always secretly there. It is what illuminates our minds to see beauty, our desire to seek possibility, and our hearts to love life.”— John O’Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

Flat rising to effervescence
Luminosity with renewed senses
A deep dive into presence
Holy ease, sacred ground
Soak in light, cast it back out.

“May you recognize in your life the presence, power, and light of your soul. May you realize that you are never alone, that your soul in its brightness and belonging connects you intimately with the rhythm of the universe.”— John O’Donohue, Benedictus

Sep 15

Consent to Presence

“To make bread or love, to dig in the earth, to feed an animal or cook for a stranger—these activities require no extensive commentary, no lucid theology. All they require is someone willing to bend, reach, chop, stir. Most of these tasks are so full of pleasure that there is no need to complicate things by calling them holy. And yet these are the same activities that change lives, sometimes all at once and sometimes more slowly, the way dripping water changes stone. In a world where faith is often construed as a way of thinking, bodily practices remind the willing that faith is a way of life.”― Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith

“The treasure we seek requires no lengthy expedition, no expensive equipment, no superior aptitude or special company. All we lack is the willingness to imagine that we already have everything we need. The only thing missing is our consent to be where we are.”― Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith

Slowing to attention
Falling into presence, reverence
Slow drip to rhythm of waves, beating of heart
Canopy of the sky
Treasure on the ground of this day.

“Busy? The word loses all meaning under the canopy of this sky.”― Barbara Brown Taylor, Learning to Walk in the Dark: A Study of Spiritual Growth Through Darkness

Sep 14

Rhythm of Bloom

“Hoping to live days of greater happiness, I forget that days of less happiness are passing by.”― Elizabeth Bishop

“There is a magic made by melody:
A spell of rest, and quiet breath, and cool
Heart, that sinks through fading colors deep
To the subaqueous stillness of the sea,
And floats forever in a moon-green pool,
Held in the arms of rhythm and of sleep. ”― Elizabeth Bishop

Letting go
Losing the unnecessary
Releasing into rest
Awakening anew
Crisp air
Colors brilliant
Fresh bloom in different stages
Some seed
Some dormant
Some bud
Some full bloom
Some potpourri
Rhythm of bloom.

“The art of losing isn’t hard to master;
so many things seemed filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster”
― Elizabeth Bishop, The Complete Poems 1927-1979

Sep 10

Blue Sky View, Pull Over

“Gratitude, not understanding, is the secret to joy and equanimity.” – Anne Lamott

“Rest and laughter are the most spiritual and subversive acts of all. Laugh, rest, slow down.” – Anne Lamott

Fresh start
Subtle shif
New approach
Play, laughter, rest
Gratitude, grace, love
Delight in ordinary days

“Love was life’s secret purpose.”― Martine Murray, How To Make A Bird

Sep 8

Streaming Wonder

“Take time to see the quiet miracles that
eek no attention”― John O’Donohue

“When our eyes are graced with wonder, the world reveals its wonders to us. There are people who see only dullness in the world and that is because their eyes have already been dulled. So much depends on how we look at things. The quality of our looking determines what we come to see.”― John O’Donohue, Beauty: A Study of Beauty in Celtic Spirituality and the Human Spirit

Quality of looking, glance to gaze
Streaming, weaving wonder
Revealing and unfolding
Angle of awe
Flowing, looking with fresh eyes.

“I would love to live like a river flows,
carried by the surprise of its own unfolding.”― John O’Donohue

 

Sep 2

Hidden, Front and Center

“Be still and listen to the voices that belong
to the stream banks and the trees and the open fields.
Find your hope, then, on the ground under your feet.”― Wendell Berry, The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry

“Sometimes hidden from me
in daily custom and in trust,
so that I live by you unaware
as by the beating of my heart,

Suddenly you flare in my sight,
a wild rose blooming at the edge
of thicket, grace and light
where yesterday was only shade,

and once again I am blessed, choosing
again what I chose before.”
― Wendell Berry, The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry

Not for more or different.
But for gratitude and grace, senses ablaze.
To recognize and partake in blessings, beauty, light.
Already present in abundance.
On the ground I stand.
Prayer, poetry, proclamation.

“For everything that comes
is a gift, the meaning always
carried out of sight
to renew our whereabouts,
always a starting place.
And every gift is perfect
in its beginning, for it
is “from above, and cometh down
from the Father of lights.”
― Wendell Berry, The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry

Aug 22

A Bit of Sky and Peppermint Wind

“It’s amazing the difference
A bit of sky can make.”― Shel Silverstein, Where the Sidewalk Ends

“There is a place where the sidewalk ends,
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.”
― Shel Silverstein

A bit of sky
Off road beyond the sidewalks
Of thoughts, worries, resistance
Wander, roam, saunter
Peppermint wind to awaken
Presence in this day

“How much good inside a day?
Depends how good you live ‘em.― Shel Silverstein, A Light in the Attic

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »