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Posts tagged ‘Nature’

Apr 11

Fluidity of Being

“So let the world go, but hold fast to joy.”― May Sarton, Selected Poems

“There has been a yearning in me that I’m only just beginning to understand, a craving for transcendent experience, for depth, for meaning-making. It’s not just that the world needs to change – I need to change, too. I need to soften, to let go of the tight empirical boundaries, to find a greater fluidity in my being.”― Katherine May, Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age

Loosening of grip.
Fluidity of being.
Entering the flow.
Softening to unfolding.
Ordinary days
Extraordinary becoming.
Hold fast to joy.
Grace and peace.
Make way.

“Now I become myself. It’s taken time, many years and places.”― May Sarton

Mar 28

First Temples

“Forests were the first temples of God and in forests men grasped their first idea of architecture.”― James C. Snyder, Introduction to Architecture

“As we live and as we are, Simplicity – with a capital “S” – is difficult to comprehend nowadays. We are no longer truly simple. We no longer live in simple terms or places. Life is a more complex struggle now. It is now valiant to be simple: a courageous thing to even want to be simple. It is a spiritual thing to comprehend what simplicity means.”― Frank Lloyd Wright, The Natural House

Architecture
Convergence of science and art
Trees to forest
Bricks to buildings
Scaffolding to structure
Convergence, bridges, connectors
Cathedrals of beauty, nature, life
Simplicity, awe, wonder.

“the systems of mutual connections and influences of which we are generally unaware, but which we discover by chance, as surprising coincidences or convergences of fate, all those bridges, nuts, bolts, welded joints and connectors” – Olga Tokarczuk

Mar 23

Bringing to Life

“The natural world is built upon common motifs and patterns. Recognizing patterns in nature creates a map for locating yourself in change, and anticipation what is yet to come.”― Sharon Weil, ChangeAbility

“Tenderness is the art of personifying, of sharing feelings, and thus endlessly discovering similarities. Creating stories means constantly bringing things to life, giving an existence to all the tiny pieces of the world that are represented by human experiences, the situations people have endured and their memories. Tenderness personalizes everything to which it relates, making it possible to give it a voice, to give it the space and the time to come into existence, and to be expressed.” – Olga Tokarczuk

Easy to harden in this world.
To check out.
Autopilot.
Surface and skim.
Do not succumb.
Till the dry soil.
Let fresh air in.
Wander with wonder.
Anticipation, hope, joy, delight, tenderness, laughter, gentleness, enthusiasm.
Let beauty, light, grace in to awaken, abide, transform.
Easy threads weaving together the tapestry of this day.

“A gentle heart is tied with an easy thread.”― George Herbert

Mar 22

Wide Awake Presence

“At other times I wake up from the half sleep I’d fallen into, and hazy images with poetical and unpredictable colours play out their silent show to my inattention.”― Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet

“May today’s moments move you
to where love can reach you.
May a deep truth remind you
with each step.
May you grow where you are,
sending down roots into trusted truths,
to where love lives,
and beauty is wide awake.
Let your heart seek the one good step.
And then the next.
Movement.
That is the way.” – Kate Bowler

Pay attention.
Be tender.
Offer kindness.
Walk lightly.
Love well.
Small noticing, slivers of light, bold color.
Love well.

“We are light, sound, color, and form living a physical reality. Add the element of love and you have everything.”― Deborah Bravandt

Mar 15

Not Yet. Settle In.

“The pine stays green in winter… wisdom in hardship.” – Norman Douglas

“Winter is not a season, it’s an occupation.” – Sinclair Lewis

“Not yet.”
Said winter to spring.
“Soon.”
Said spring to winter.
The dance ensues.
Winter takes the lead back from spring.
Beauty and bounty in both.
Slow. Sunday. Settle in.
The call of Sabbath.
Making space, giving way, finding treasure.

“It is the life of the crystal, the architect of the flake, the fire of the frost, the soul of the sunbeam. This crisp winter air is full of it.” – John Burroughs

Mar 9

Anchor to the Sky

“Everything in life has a pattern and a coincidence is simply the moment when the pattern becomes briefly visible.”― Anthony Horowitz, Moonflower Murders

“Pay attention to the world around you. Stories are hiding, waiting everywhere. You just have to open your eyes and your heart.” – Kate DiCamillo

Comma, Period.
Hard stop.
Look up.
Steep in beauty.
Pause in wonder.
Anchor to the sky.
Root in awe.
Peace. Light. Love.

“the birds … own nothing–the reason they can fly”― Mary Oliver, Felicity

Mar 8

Melting into Spring

“We sat in silence, letting the green in the air heal what it could.”― Erica Bauermeister, The Scent Keeper

“May you be capable of absurd joy,
ridiculous love,
audacious risk,
and even fear,
as your heart stretches to hold
this gloriously messy yes…and today.” – Kate Bowler

Melting into spring.
Slow and bumpy.
Sunday well.
Time out and off.
Hard stop.
Sit. Stay.
Up. Out.
Wander and wonder.
Absurd joy.
Love woven through it all.
Fresh meaning.

“Bless the poets, the workers for justice,
the dancers of ceremony, the singers of heartache,
the visionaries, all makers and carriers of fresh
meaning—We will all make it through,
despite politics and wars, despite failures
and misunderstandings. There is only love.”
― Joy Harjo, Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings: Poems

Feb 28

Little Pocket of Quiet

“Suppose you meet me in the woods.”― Eudora Welty

“May rest open itself to you,
a little pocket of quiet,
because your strength is running on empty.
May you be sheltered from every fear,
whether it’s creeping up behind you
or what your imagination keeps inventing.
May your hummingbird heart slow—
just enough to catch its breath.
May any storm be turned aside,
leaving this quiet place untouched—
In a quiet so impossibly soft,
may you feel held—
not by perfection,
not by productivity,
but simply that you are enough,
just as you are.” – Kate Bowler

Pocket of quiet
Corner of beauty
Deep time, wandering, without a checklist
Recess for play and wonder, peace
In your being, not your doing, treasure
More than enough, overflowing and abundant
Just as you are
Becoming, unfolding, flourishing
Seeds root and bloom in the pause.

“What’s your best discovery?” asked the mole.

“That I’m enough as I am,” said the boy.”
― Charlie Mackesy, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse

Feb 17

Crammed with Heaven

“Earth’s crammed with heaven…
But only he who sees, takes off his shoes.”
― Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh

“O Life,
How oft we throw it off and think, — ‘Enough,
Enough of life in so much! — here’s a cause
For rupture; — herein we must break with Life,
Or be ourselves unworthy; here we are wronged,
Maimed, spoiled for aspiration: farewell Life!’
— And so, as froward babes, we hide our eyes
And think all ended. — Then, Life calls to us
In some transformed, apocryphal, new voice,
Above us, or below us, or around . .
Perhaps we name it Nature’s voice, or Love’s,
Tricking ourselves, because we are more ashamed
To own our compensations than our griefs:
Still, Life’s voice! — still, we make our peace with Life.”
― Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh and Other Poems

Make room, create margin, yield to…
Joy
Beauty
Poetry
Music
Movement
Gratitude
Grace
Light
Astonishment
Awe
Wonder
It’s there
In seemingly small things, places, people
Right in the mess
In the striving
Not to diminish or deny struggles
But to be a companion and friend
Anchor and foundation
Someday when…
False horizon
Find goodness in this day, crammed with heaven
In cracks and crevices
On the ground you stand
Life’s voice calling, heed.

“Light tomorrow with today.” – Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Feb 16

Hope and Shimmer

“And stay, my dear
stay…
forever, as my quiet song,
in my lilac dawn.”― Sanober Khan, A Thousand Flamingos

“Beginnings are fragile things. They’re made of gossamer threads of hope and shimmer with the faint light of potential grace. It’s in the human heart that we begin weaving our designs and dreams of experience yet to come. We live our entire lives within chrysalises. As soon as we emerge from one, life sculpts another around us. Within manifest reality, everything is in a constant state of becoming, even God.”― Dana Hutton, The Art of Becoming

Spring under construction
The dance between winter and spring
Winter very much in the lead
First to bloom
Lilac roots begin to rustle, awaken
Preparing beneath the slow softening of earth
Thresholds and in betweens, new beginnings
Time and timing
In the waiting, anticipation, hope, delight.

“Paying attention is the doorway from mind to spirit. Presence is the threshold. And mindfulness that leads to meditation is the room we seek to enter.”― Becky Vollmer, You Are Not Stuck

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