Skip to content

Posts tagged ‘Nature’

May 6

2 Comments

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 4

Dancing with Daffodils

“I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.” – William Wordsworth

May

May, and among the miles of leafing,
blossoms storm out of the darkness—
windflowers and moccasin flowers. The bees
dive into them and I too, to gather
their spiritual honey. Mute and meek, yet theirs
is the deepest certainty that this existence too—
this sense of well-being, the flourishing
of the physical body—rides
near the hub of the miracle that everything
is a part of, is as good
as a poem or a prayer, can also make
luminous any dark place on earth. – Mary Oliver

Vibrancy
Light
Unfolding and unfurling
Rhythm of spring
Unfolding and unfurling
Breathing in flowers
Pay attention
Enter the delight and bloom bursting
Dance with daffodils, spiritual honey.
Nectar of awe, wonder, grace, gratitude.

“Keep everything open and live from openness to openness.”― Francis Lucille, The Perfume of Silence

May 1

Light and Lightly, Sail

“Light, be it particle or wave, has force: you rig a giant sail and go. The secret of seeing is to sail on solar wind. Hone and spread your spirit till you yourself are a sail, whetted, translucent, broadside to the merest puff.” – Annie Dillard

“I don’t want to live a small life. Open your eyes,
open your hands. I have just come
from the berry fields, the sun

kissing me with its golden mouth all the way
(open your hands) and the wind-winged clouds
following along thinking perhaps I might

feed them, but no I carry these heart-shapes
only to you. Look how many how small
but so sweet and maybe the last gift

I will ever bring to anyone in this
world of hope and risk, so do.
Look at me. Open your life, open your hands.”

— Mary Oliver, from Red Bird

The path of today
Full presence, fresh eyes, new hope
Look again, once more, longer
Poetry of attention
Prose of wonder
Song of delight
Open your hands
Open your life
Walking lightly in the light.

“To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter… to be thrilled by the stars at night; to be elated over a bird’s nest or a wildflower in spring — these are some of the rewards of the simple life.”― John Burroughs, Leaf and Tendril

Apr 30

Spirit of Infancy and Awe

“In the presence of nature, a wild delight runs through the man, in spite of real sorrows. Nature says, — he is my creature, and maugre all his impertinent griefs, he shall be glad with me”― Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature

“The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other; who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood.”― Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature

Radiance of the world.
Power of nature.
To transform, transmit, transcend.
Winter melting to spring.
Wild delights, simple pleasures.
Slow down, pull over, look around.
Let peace enter and beauty flow.

“The poet, the painter, the sculptor, the musician, the architect, seek each to concentrate this radiance of the world on one point, and each in his several work to satisfy the love of beauty which stimulates him to produce.”― Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature

Apr 29

May Knocking

“The garden teaches patience.” – Alfred Austin

“Yes, I will spend the livelong day
With Nature in this month of May;
And sit beneath the trees, and share
My bread with birds whose homes are there;
While cows lie down to eat, and sheep
Stand to their necks in grass so deep;
While birds do sing with all their might,
As though they felt the earth in flight.
This is the hour I dreamed of, when
I sat surrounded by poor men;
And thought of how the Arab sat
Alone at evening, gazing at
The stars that bubbled in clear skies;

And of young dreamers, when their eyes
Enjoyed methought a precious boon
In the adventures of the Moon
Whose light, behind the Clouds’ dark bars,
Searched for her stolen flocks of stars.
When I, hemmed in by wrecks of men,
Thought of some lonely cottage then
Full of sweet books; and miles of sea,
With passing ships, in front of me;
And having, on the other hand,
A flowery, green, bird-singing land.” – William Henry Davies

Poetry, pause, praise, prose of spring
May approaches, cusp
Invitation to slowly walk, noticing
The bridge to summer song
Saunter, witness, partake
The unfolding to fullness
May knocking, open the door.

“Among the changing months, May stands confest the sweetest, and in fairest colors dressed.” — James Thomson

Apr 27

Spring’s Paintbrush

“Daffodils, blossom and tulips jostle to the front of the stage in April. I love these early perennials: they may be more modest but they nearly all have that one special quality that a plant needs to transform your affections from admiration to affection – charm.” – Monty Don

“There is no glory in star or blossom till looked upon by a loving eye; There is no fragrance in April breezes till breathed with joy as they wander by.” – William Cullen Bryant

Join the rhythm, unfolding of the earth awakening
Greening and rooting
Colors pushing through, seeking the light
Renewal, refreshment, rejoicing
Put down winter
Pick up spring
Tiptoe through the tulips.

“April is a promise that May is bound to keep.” – Hal Borland

Apr 25

1 Comment

For the Beauty of the Earth Springing

“One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.” — William Shakespeare

“For the beauty of the earth,
for the glory of the skies,
for the love which from our birth
over and around us lies;
Lord of all, to thee we raise
this our hymn of grateful praise.

For the beauty of each hour
of the day and of the night,
hill and vale, and tree and flower,
sun and moon, and stars of light;
Lord of all, to thee we raise
this our hymn of grateful praise.

“For the joy of ear and eye,
for the heart and mind’s delight,
for the mystic harmony,
linking sense to sound and sight;
Lord of all, to thee we raise
this our hymn of grateful praise.” – Folliot S. Pierpoint

Awestruck
Beauty
Silenced to reverence
To moments where heaven meets earth
Nature showing how to be fully alive
Spring, Easter, Resurrection
Unfolding and unfurling
For the sense to sing hymns of grateful praise.

“I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put together.” — John Burroughs

Apr 19

Grand Show

“This grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never all dried at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor is ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal sunset, eternal dawn and gloaming, on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls.”― John Muir, John of the Mountains: The Unpublished Journals of John Muir

“Everybody needs beauty…places to play in and pray in where nature may heal and cheer and give strength to the body and soul alike.”― John Muir

Drink in blue sky
Hold brilliant sun
Pull over
Wander off road
The work of not working
Of abiding, tending, praising, pause
To notice, to be awestruck, to delight
Ocean of exultation
Grand show
Beauty
Deep breath, releasing sigh
Suddenly, you are alive
May you meet beauty today
And sit with her.

“Close your eyes and turn your face into the wind.
Feel it sweep along your skin in an invisible ocean of exultation.
Suddenly, you know you are alive.”― Vera Nazarian, The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration

Apr 16

2 Comments

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

« Older Entries