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Posts tagged ‘Nature’

Oct 3

October Blooming

“October, baptize me with leaves! Swaddle me in corduroy and nurse me with split pea soup. October, tuck tiny candy bars in my pockets and carve my smile into a thousand pumpkins. O autumn! O teakettle! O grace!” ― Rainbow Rowell , Attachments

“October, baptize me with leaves! Swaddle me in corduroy and nurse me with split pea soup. October, tuck tiny candy bars in my pockets and carve my smile into a thousand pumpkins. O autumn! O teakettle! O grace!”
― Rainbow Rowell , Attachments

October
by Robert Frost

“O hushed October morning mild,
Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;
Tomorrow’s wind, if it be wild,
Should waste them all.
The crows above the forest call;
Tomorrow they may form and go.
O hushed October morning mild,
Begin the hours of this day slow.
Make the day seem to us less brief.
Hearts not averse to being beguiled,
Beguile us in the way you know.
Release one leaf at break of day;
At noon release another leaf;
One from our trees, one far away.
Retard the sun with gentle mist;
Enchant the land with amethyst.
Slow, slow!
For the grapes’ sake, if they were all,
Whose leaves already are burnt with frost,
Whose clustered fruit must else be lost—
For the grapes’ sake along the wall.”

New month
Ushering in a new season
Summer lingers a bit longer
Soon to fall into fall
To begin again and again
Unfolding and unfurling
Mostly slow
Sometimes swift
Always blooming
Oh for eyes and heart to trust, wait, hope
For the gift of ordinary days
Extraordinary grace and joy
October blooming, planting seeds too.

“Real strength never impairs beauty or harmony, but it often bestows it, and in everything imposingly beautiful, strength has much to do with the magic.”― Melville Herman

Sep 27

Window of This Day

“For us, too, change is almost always a source of dislocation, but if nature teaches us anything, it’s that nothing prevents the passage of time, the turning of the seasons.”― Margaret Renkl, The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year

“May I live this day
Compassionate of heart,
Clear in word,
Gracious in awareness,
Courageous in thought,
Generous in love.”
John O’Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us

To remain in this day, fully
Not looking back, but a glance in gratitude
Not looking forward, but a glance in hope
Generous and overflowing in love
Window of this day

“I stand at the window looking out, trying to remember the truths that nature always brings home. That what lies before me is not all there is. That time is ever passing, and not only when I notice. That strife and pain are no more unexpected than pleasure and joy. That merely by breathing I belong to the eternal.”― Margaret Renkl, The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year

Sep 24

Undoing and Singularity

“Hold still. Be quiet. Listen.”― Margaret Renkl, Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss

“What if resting, all by itself, is the real act of holiness? What if honoring the gift of our only life in this gorgeous world means taking time every week to slow down? To sleep? To breathe? The natural world has never needed us more than it needs us  now, but we can’t be of much use to it if we remain in a perpetual state of exhaustion and despair.”― Margaret Renkl, The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year

From fast and furious
To slow and savor
Stop, reset the pace
Cadence and ease
Undoing, mere being
Singularity, simple delight
Overthinking to senses ablaze
Curiosity and wandering
Awe and wonder
Woven in this very day
Put it down

“There are worse things, I think, than leaving a task undone. The oak forests of the world would not exist if squirrels did not lose track of acorns.”― Margaret Renkl, The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year

Sep 9

Grand Spectacles

“Call for the grandest of all earthly spectacles, what is that? It is the sun going to his rest.”― Thomas de Quincey

The Sun by Mary Oliver

“Have you ever seen
anything
in your life
more wonderful
than the way the sun,
every evening,
relaxed and easy,
floats toward the horizon
and into the clouds or the hills,
or the rumpled sea,
and is gone–
and how it slides again
out of the blackness,
every morning,
on the other side of the world,
like a red flower
streaming upward on its heavenly oils,
say, on a morning in early summer,
at its perfect imperial distance–
and have you ever felt for anything
such wild love–
do you think there is anywhere, in any
language,
a word billowing enough
for the pleasure
that fills you,
as the sun
reaches out,
as it warms you
as you stand there,
empty-handed–
or have you too
turned from this world–
or have you too
gone crazy
for power,
for things?”

Between sunrise and sunset
May peace, joy, delight visit
Be interrupted, delayed, held up
For a long conversation
Beauty abound
Do not pass it by.

Sep 8

Layers of Wonder and Beauty

 

“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing
and rightdoing there is a field.
I’ll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass
the world is too full to talk about.”― 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

Awe and delight
Slow and ease
Layers of beauty and wonder
On this very ground
In the world too full to talk about
Diamonds around your neck
Fields of gold

“You wander from room to room
Hunting for the diamond necklace
That is already around your neck!”― Rumi

Sep 6

Force Field of Transformation

“Ultimately, your theme will find you. You don’t have to go looking for it.”― Richard Russo

“The spirit of a time is an incredibly subtle, yet hugely powerful force.
And it is comprised of the mentality and spirit of all individuals together.
Therefore, the way you look at things is not simply a private matter.
Your outlook actually and concretely affects what goes on.
When you give in to helplessness, you collude with despair and add to it.
When you take back your power and choose to see the possibilities for healing and transformation, your creativity awakens and flows to become an active force of renewal and encouragement in the world.
In this way, even in your own hidden life, you can become a powerful agent of transformation in a broken, darkened world.
There is a huge force field that opens when intention focuses and directs itself toward transformation.”
– John O’Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us

Gratitude more than platitude
Observer rather absorber
Outlook shaping and shifting
Patterns from pieces
Wholeness woven from parts
Up and all around, at our feet
Contentment, steady flow
Force field opening to possibilities, light
The work of transformation
Seen and unseen.

“The quest for certainty blocks the search for meaning. Uncertainty is the very condition to impel man to unfold his powers.”― Erich Fromm

Aug 31

For the Beauty of the Earth

“Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.”― Alan Watts

“For the beauty of the earth
For the beauty of the skies
For the love which from our birth
Over and around us lies.” – Folliott S. Pierpoint

Earth, skies, all around us that lies
For the beauty of it
Calm the waters
Pause, look, reflect
Move softly and lightly, with reverence
Sacred ground of the present, of full presence in it
Drink in every ounce of beauty, wonder and awe
Abundant and overflowing.

“For the wonder of each hour
of the day and of the night,
hill and vale and tree and flower,
sun and moon and stars of light.”– Folliott S. Pierpoint

Aug 30

Seasons in Harmony

“This is the real secret of life — to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play.”― Alan Watts

“Is not this a true autumn day? Just the still melancholy that I love – that makes life and nature harmonise. The birds are consulting about their migrations, the trees are putting on the hectic or the pallid hues of decay, and begin to strew the ground, that one’s very footsteps may not disturb the repose of earth and air, while they give us a scent that is a perfect anodyne to the restless spirit. Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.” ― George Eliot

Autumn at the door
Let her in
Harvest
Deep colors of celebration
Of brilliant bloom, growth
Whether we see it yet or not
New life, different forms, shapes, sizes
Sunrises and sunsets remain
Grounding us in present beauty
In all seasons.

“The more a thing tends to be permanent, the more it tends to be lifeless.”― Alan Watts

Aug 29

Bloom Recklessly

“Colors are the smiles of nature.” – Leigh Hunt

“Everything is blooming most recklessly; if it were voices instead of colors, there would be an unbelievable shrieking into the heart of the night.” – Rainer Maria Rilke

Bloom
Recklessly
All seasons
Colorful palette
Paint
Hues
Bright
Brilliant
Beautiful
Enter nature and let it enter you.

“Nature always wears the colors of the spirit.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Aug 24

Soil and Sky

“This is the real secret of life — to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play.”― Alan Watts

“In the name of the air,
The breeze,
And the wind,
May our souls
Stay in rhythm
With eternal
Breath.” – John O’Donohue

Blue skies
Clouds hue
Fields of flowers
Kites soaring
Fresh air
Rich soil
Stay in rhythm
Breathe in beauty

“Your heart is the soil of your life.”― Anita Phillips, The Garden Within

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