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Posts tagged ‘Mindfulness’

Mar 20

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All That Returns

“That our lives are not defined by what we’ve lost but by all that returns, fresh and new.”― Christie Purifoy, Roots and Sky: A Journey Home in Four Seasons

“We must plant our dreams in real earth. We must dirty our hands. It’s the only way. Whether we dream of planting flower gardens or churches, every dream needs a place in which to take root and grow. Every dream needs a home.”― Christie Purifoy, Roots and Sky: A Journey Home in Four Seasons

Wherever you are today.
Whatever path you are on.
Pull over.
Rest stop.
Pause. Gaze. Imagine.
Longer than you think you should.
Then merge back in.
Carry on with a newness grounded in gratitude, imperfection, ease.
Do the work, followed by rest, reflection.
Farther than you think.
Not there yet.
Keep growing.
And dreaming.
Delight too.

“When we pause, we don’t know what will happen next. But by disrupting our habitual behaviors, we open to the possibility of new and creative ways of responding to our wants and fears.”― Tara Brach, Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life with the Heart of a Buddha

Mar 19

A Simple Yet Profound Pause

“There is something wonderfully bold and liberating about saying yes to our entire imperfect and messy life.”― Tara Brach, Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life with the Heart of a Buddha

“May I be filled with lovingkindness; may I be held in lovingkindness.
May I feel safe and at ease.
May I feel protected from inner and outer harm.
May I be happy.
May I accept myself just as I am.
May I touch deep, natural peace.
May I know the natural joy of being alive.
May I find true refuge within my own being.
May my heart and mind awaken; may I be free.”
― Tara Brach, True Refuge: Finding Peace and Freedom in Your Own Awakened Heart

A pause.
To open.
Observe.
Inquire.
Rest.
Reset.
Allow.
Shift attention.
Create intention.
Invite.
Lovingkindness.
Like the tide, moving in and out.
Breathing.
Nowhere to be than in this moment.
The joy of being alive.
The awareness of thin spaces.
The mountains meeting the sky.
Transcendent woven in ordinary time.
In a simple pause.
Profound.

“Mindfulness is the intentional process of paying attention, without judgment, to the unfolding”― Tara Brach, True Refuge: Finding Peace and Freedom in Your Own Awakened Heart

Mar 18

A Way of Being Here

“For it is not knowing much, but realising and relishing things interiorly, that contents and satisfies the soul.”― Ignatius of Loyola, The Spiritual Exercises

“I want to observe the ordinary things of earth—the moon, the stars, the rainbows, even the yellow leaves of the old cherry trees—and receive their messages. To hear them say what every weary traveler, every earnest seeker, longs to hear. Welcome home.”― Christie Purifoy, Roots and Sky: A Journey Home in Four Seasons

To remain in this day.
To be present and alert.
To senses sharp.
To glasses not empty or half full but overflowing.
To rest and ease.
To joy and delight.
To beauty woven in the ordinary.
To fullness and more than enough-ness.
To gratitude and expression.
To peace, awe and wonder.
May these all be yours today.
The home where you already reside.

“True restfulness, though, is a form of awareness, a way of being in life. It is living ordinary life with a sense of ease, gratitude, appreciation, peace and prayer. We are restful when ordinary life is enough.”― Ronald Rolheiser, The Shattered Lantern: Rediscovering a Felt Presence of God

Mar 17

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The Wholeness of this Day

“God does not erase our losses, those empty places in our lives, but he does something almost more miraculous. He fills the loss with a sign of his presence.”― Christie Purifoy, Roots and Sky: A Journey Home in Four Seasons

“If I want to abide in this day, to make my home in it, I must only tear my eyes from tomorrow and look around. For there is a wholeness to this day that I do not want to miss.”― Christie Purifoy, Roots and Sky: A Journey Home in Four Seasons

Root and reach.
Rest and flow.
Ease and effort.
Find the sacred holy ground of this day.
Remain here to notice, to pay attention.
In deep long gazes.
In the lift from laughter.
In the small adding up to a good life, moments at a time.
And for honed senses to witness and partake in the present.

“Our lives are stories built of small moments. Ordinary experiences. It is too easy to forget that our days are adding up to something astonishing. We do not often stop to notice the signs and wonders. The writing on the wall. But some days we do.”― Christie Purifoy, Roots and Sky: A Journey Home in Four Seasons

Mar 14

Lens of Attention

“Not what we have but what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance.” – Epicurus

“The dream of my life
Is to lie down by a slow river
And stare at the light in the trees
To learn something by being nothing
A little while
But the rich
Lens of attention.”
– Mary Oliver, Entering the Kingdom

Leave yourself behind.
Not your true self.
The layers that have built with time.
The dust of opinion.
The notion of knowing.
The residue of certainty.
The buildup of hesitation.
The folly of calculation.
The exhaustion of foreboding.
The futility of comparison.
The weathering of dragging extra.
The stagnancy of hibernating.
A reset, restart, reignition.
To see new again but not the same, yet softly familiar.
Focusing on what is most true, beautifully imperfect, filled with delicious wonder.
A crisp lens of attention.
To be made new again.

“Be thine own palace, or the world’s thy jail.”― John Donne, The Poems of John Donne

Mar 12

Stay Awake

“Wherever you are, and whatever you do, be in love.”― Rumi

“The breezes at dawn have secrets to tell you
Don’t go back to sleep!
You must ask for what you really want.
Don’t go back to sleep!
People are going back and forth
across the doorsill where the two worlds touch,
The door is round and open
Don’t go back to sleep!”
– Rumi

Crack the window.
Then some more.
Fresh air.
Soft breeze.
Wind in your hair.
Awake and in wonder.
Invite and welcome in.
The light too.
Engage in life.
Which is this day.
Stay awake. Stay awake.
Blessings all around.

“But listen to me. For one moment
quit being sad. Hear blessings
dropping their blossoms
around you.”― Mawlana Jalal-al-Din Rumi

Mar 11

Be Like…You

“Be melting snow.
Wash yourself of yourself.”
― Rumi, The Essential Rumi

“Be like the sun for grace and mercy. Be like the night to cover others’ faults. Be like running water for generosity. Be like death for rage and anger. Be like the Earth for modesty. Appear as you are. Be as you appear.”― Rumi

Unfolding.
Unfurling.
Growing.
Savoring.
Belonging.
Delighting.
Joying.
Slowly, then suddenly.
Melting, softening to water, flowing.
Daily becoming you.

“Let go of your mind and then be mindful. Close your ears and listen!” – Rumi

Mar 8

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Foreground

“If there is ever a magical beauty that can be watched hours with great admiration, and that is the beauty of a strong light falling from the everlasting skies into the heart of the dimness!”
― Mehmet Murat ildan

“The present is the closest that you will ever get to the future.”― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

What do you see in front of you?
Where is your focus?
Where do you put your energy?
To what do you give your attention and care?
Broad, narrow, sharp, scattered.
Transactions, relationships, judgement, acceptance.
What we see, let in, put in the foreground shapes and defines our days.
Makes choosing important.
Love is always the right choice.
May you reorient, shift your focus.
Foregrounding your day in beauty, light, joy, laughter, nature, music, connection, generosity, kindness.
In a word, love.

“Love is a matter of proximity.”― M.F. Moonzajer

Mar 6

Beautiful Silence

“True solitude is found in the wild places, where one is without human obligation. One’s inner voices become audible… In consequence, one responds more clearly to other lives.”― Wendell Berry, What Are People For?

This World by Mary Oliver, Why I Wake Early

“I would like to write a poem about the world that has in it
nothing fancy.
But it seems impossible.
Whatever the subject, the morning sun
glimmers it.
The tulip feels the heat and flaps its petals open and becomes a star.
The ants bore into the peony bud and there is a dark
pinprick well of sweetness.
As for the stones on the beach, forget it.
Each one could be set in gold.
So I tried with my eyes shut, but of course the birds
were singing.
And the aspen trees were shaking the sweetest music
out of their leaves.
And that was followed by, guess what, a momentous and
beautiful silence
as comes to all of us, in little earfuls, if we’re not too
hurried to hear it.
As for spiders, how the dew hangs in their webs
even if they say nothing, or seem to say nothing.
So fancy is the world, who knows, maybe they sing.
So fancy is the world, who knows, maybe the stars sing too,
and the ants, and the peonies, and the warm stones,
so happy to be where they are, on the beach, instead of being
locked up in gold.”

To see the world as it is rather than as I am or was.
To return to self to redefine, deepen, expand.
Pushing boundaries.
Doors into walls.
Thresholds to cross.
Rooms to leave behind to enter wide open spaces.
Of beauty, light, joy, peace.
The world without and within.
May I never think I know everything.
Rooting in curiosity.
Steeping in unknowing.
Ever opening to possibilities.
Able to be moved, caught up in awe.
By the petal of a flower.
The laughter of a child.
The snuggle of a dog, or two.
The waves on a beach.
The sky painted anew each day.
Fancy and better than gold.
May amazement capture you this day.
Found in the pause, in beautiful silence.

“Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig.” – Marcus Aurelius

Mar 4

Wings and Wind

“When there is silence,
Give your voice.
When there is darkness,
Shine your light.
When there is desperation,
Offer hope.”
― Tim Fargo

“Who told you adulthood couldn’t feel like childhood? Long days of forgetting what day it is. Wanting to be wherever your wings or the wind dropped you. Filled with secrets and chances and whimsy.”― Darnell Lamont Walker

To be light.
To see new colors.
To breath deeply.
To delight in the hunt.
To dance on the path.
To grow wings and fly.
To whimsy.
From the ordinary to delight.
A child’s view and stance on the world, available to all.
Wind beneath your wings.
Fly a bit today.
Fresh view, new heights.
All that you carry will be there when you return.
Perhaps a bit less heavy.

“Learn to appreciate the caterpillar and the whole process of metamorphosis! The beauty and lightness of the butterfly only exist after going through these phases.”― Karina Fonseca Azevedo

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