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Posts tagged ‘optimism’

May 1

May Day

“Every flower must grow through dirt” –Laurie Jean Sennott

“As full of spirit as the month of May, and as gorgeous as the sun in Midsummer.”― William Shakespeare

April is fickle.
May, there’s no turning back.
The threshold into spring, the cusp of summer days ahead, light and warm.
Soon full color, certain bloom.
Spring in full swing.
The faint scent of spring soon to be overwhelming.
Pay attention.
Do not miss the show.
A lift, an entering, a flow.
Cross the threshold.
Happy May Day.

“…I hear the sounds of melting snow outside my window every night and with the first faint scent of spring, I remember life exists…” – John Geddes

Apr 16

Muchness and More than Enough-ness

“A baby is as pure as an angel and as fresh as a blooming flower.” – Debasish Mridha

“Don’t wait for things to be simpler, easier, or better. Life will always be complicated. Learn to be happy now. And know that no matter the time or day, it will always be now.” – Kobi Yamada, Finding Muchness

The joy of a child.
Wonder and awe.
Full-hearted.
Bright eyes.
Overflowing with abundance.
Hope. Joy. Imagination.
Enter this day with the wonder of a child.
The fullness of time.
The weight of this very moment.
Available now, no waiting in line.
Muchness and more than enough-ness indeed.

Muchness is full-hearted abundance of hope, joy, and imagination that each of us has when we come into this world. It is there for us to love, to dare, to dream, to create, and to live our best life.” – Kobi Yamada, Finding Muchness

Apr 12

Keep Showing Up

“the secret that our poets and philosophers have been trying to tell us for centuries, is that our longing is the great gateway to belonging.”― Susan Cain, Bittersweet

“In a world where perfectionism, pleasing, and proving are used as armor to protect our egos and our feelings, it takes a lot of courage to show up and be all in when we can’t control the outcome. It also takes discipline and self-awareness to understand what to share and with whom. Vulnerability is not oversharing, it’s sharing with people who have earned the right to hear our stories and our experiences. Vulnerability is not weakness; it’s our greatest measure of courage.”― Brené Brown, Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience

Show up.
Imperfect and authentic.
Salt and light.
Brilliant color, soft hue.
With energy and enthusiasm.
No permission or approval required.
Be yourself always.
As certain and welcome as the sunrise.
Keep showing up.

“when I’m prioritizing being liked over being free, I was much sweeter but less authentic. Now I’m kinder and less judgmental. But also firmer and more solid. Occasionally salty.”― Brené Brown, Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience

Apr 11

Go Big

“Only the hand that erases can write the true thing.”― Meister Eckhart

“Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet
confinement of your aloneness
to learn anything or anyone
that does not bring you alive is too small for you.”
― David Whyte, The House of Belonging

May you imagine the flower bursting from the bulb breaking soft ground in spring.
Praise 70-degree days at least as much as lament about winter.
See the beauty in the world, held in hope and light.
Brilliant colors exploding.
Holding on to what matters.
Releasing the rest.
Open arms to pick up what’s next.
Unfolding one step at a time.
Come alive, reborn again and again.
Erase, edit, fresh canvas, clean slate.
Write your own story.
Life is big, don’t stop at small.
Awe awaits your arrival.

“Holding on is believing that there’s only a past; letting go is knowing that there’s a future.” – Daphne Rose Kingma

Apr 1

April Showers, Minnesota-Style

“April hath put a spirit of youth in everything. (Sonnet XCVIII)”― William Shakespeare, Shakespeare’s Sonnets

“Don’t wait for someone to bring you flowers. Plant your own garden and decorate your own soul.” – Luther Burbank

April showers, ala Minnesota.
There may be a bit of delay in the bloom.
But there are flowers underneath the fresh blanket of fluffy water.
Preparing, softening, readying for spring.
Never doubt spring will come.
Nor doubt winter will linger until ready to bid adieu.

“The deep roots never doubt spring will come.” – Marty Rubin

Mar 29

No More 3:00 am Purchases

“A day without laughter is a day wasted.” – Charlie Chaplin

“Humor is mankind’s greatest blessing.” – Mark Twain

It should be required that Amazon is closed between midnight and 6:00 am.
The past month of restless nights, I’ve made the mistake of going online at 3:00 am.
Most purchases made sense.
And all could have waited to sunlight to purchase as well.
The arrival of the poop bag carrier with the LED flashlight marked the end of my 3:00 am purchases.
Although I did consider the smallest and most powerful vacuum.
Then I promptly put my IPad down to go back to being awake without shopping.

It all provided a good laugh and lightness.
Lesson beyond this and for all.
Turn off media and get rest, allow silence and quiet in to think for yourself.
Trust your instinct and intuition.
Read, write, play, wander, get into nature, savor.

Live life while you are in it, see it.
Find the joy of it, daily.
Broaden your view, do your own investigating, think for yourself.
Stop watching Fox News or CNN.
The world is not that narrow, scary or evil.
They are making money off fear.
This is not journalism. It’s a business built on instilling fear, hatred, and othering.
It’s irresponsible.

Get off autopilot and question what you are hearing and seeing.
It is a beautiful, big world, filled with wonderful people trying to live their life as best as they can.
Lecture done.
No more 3 am purchases.
No more fear.

“Fear keeps us focused on the past or worried about the future. If we can acknowledge our fear, we can realize that right now we are okay. Right now, today, we are still alive, and our bodies are working marvelously. Our eyes can still see the beautiful sky. Our ears can still hear the voices of our loved ones.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

Mar 24

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Too Full to Put into Words

“May I create plain fields by collecting clouds and bedeck them with arching rainbows.”― Suman Pokhrel

“Patience is power.
Patience is not an absence of action;
rather it is “timing”
it waits on the right time to act,
for the right principles
and in the right way.”― Fulton J. Sheen

When I let go of their leashes, the girls running full speed into the open, unbound and free.
Not too far out, they stop, turning back to see where I am at.
Never out of sight but out of reach.
Waiting for me to catch up to join them in frolic and play, ball throwing, field pouncing.
Moving on ahead when I catch up, but not too far again.
Just enough and still close.
Wide open fields.
Big horizons.
Deep blue sky.
Waiting, wandering, joy-seeking and finding.
All available to us each day.
I’ll meet you in the field.
And wait.

“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

Mar 7

Look Up, Blue Sky Breaking

“If a branch is too rigid, it will break. Resist, and you will perish. Know how to yield, and you will survive.”― Liezi, Lieh-tzu: A Taoist Guide to Practical Living

“Awareness is not a state you force. There is little effort involved, though persistence is key. It’s something you actively allow to happen. It is a presence with, and acceptance of, what is happening in the eternal now.”― Rick Rubin, The Creative Act: A Way of Being

Day begins with heavy snow.
Shoveling wet cement.
Cloudy skies as winter lingers.
Days end, the clouds part for a moment.
Sun beams through.
Blue sky shows off like she always does.
In the autopilot, the daily “to dos,” transactions and tasks, pause, yield, stop, look up.
Blue sky breaking.
Take it in.
Sponge in water.
Thirst quenched.
Beauty woven in the ordinary.
Wonder in the unknowing.
Look up.

“The magic is not in the analyzing or the understanding. The magic lives in the wonder of what we do not know.”― Rick Rubin, The Creative Act: A Way of Being

Mar 6

Last Snows

“Yes, I deserve a spring – I owe nobody nothing.”― Virginia Woolf, A Writer’s Diary

“Think of the universe as an eternal creative unfolding.
Trees blossom.
Cells replicate.
Rivers forge new tributaries.
The world pulses with productive energy, and everything that exists on this planet is driven by that energy.
Every manifestation of this unfolding is doing its own work on behalf of the universe, each in its own way, true to its own creative impulse.”― Rick Rubin, The Creative Act: A Way of Being

A heavy white coat clings to the trees and shrubs.
March snow.
Different that November snow.
Last snows.
The finale to winter.
Prelude to spring.
Nourishing, softening the earth.
Alarm goes off to awaken the seeds and bulbs.
Snooze button a few more times.
Then spring will get up, rise. ensue.
Bursting with color, resurrection, joy.
The anticipation of last snows.
Of new life arriving soon.

“Zoom in and obsess. Zoom out and observe. We get to choose.”― Rick Rubin, The Creative Act: A Way of Being

Mar 4

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Exclamation Points Abound!!!

“And the Spring arose on the garden fair,
Like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere;
And each flower and herb on Earth’s dark breast
Rose from the dreams of its wintry rest.”
― Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Complete Poems

“The poet lives and writes at the frontier between deep internal experience and the revelations of the outer world. There is no going back for the poet once this frontier has been reached; a new territory is visible and what has been said cannot be unsaid. The discipline of poetry is in overhearing yourself say difficult truths from which it is impossible to retreat. Poetry is a break for freedom. In a sense all poems are good; all poems are an emblem of courage and the attempt to say the unsayable; but only a few are able to speak to something universal yet personal and distinct at the same time; to create a door through which others can walk into what previously seemed unobtainable realms, in the passage of a few short lines.”― David Whyte

A poem.
A prayer.
A song.
A dance.
An exclamation point!
Pause to praise, to delight, to kneel at the altars of ordinary days.
Allow and invite awe to do its work in you.
Pass it on.
Embody the elements and essence of spring.
May you find many exclamation points woven through this day.
And respond accordingly.
!!!

“That is one good thing about this world…there are always sure to be more springs.”― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Avonlea

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