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Posts tagged ‘Peace’

Nov 5

Dwelling Spaces

“Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.”― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“Do not indulge in dreams of having what you have not, but reckon up the chief of the blessings you do possess, and then thankfully remember how you would crave for them if they were not yours.”― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

Run with the stars
Dance with delight
Letting up and go
Making space for the mystery and unkown
Releasing the familiar and worn
To be present and in conversation with life
Dwell and root
Gratitude, grace, joy
Find your strength and power here.

“You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

Nov 2

Open Road, Wandering Trails

“The work of minding your mind is a skill most people aren’t taught. It takes awareness and attunement. It takes spaciousness and curiosity. It takes tenacity and intentionality. It takes prayer and rationality. But as you get good at it, the process of minding your own mind—of noticing and reflecting on your inner dialogue, thoughts, and emotions—becomes one of the most rewarding parts of being an image-of-God-bearing human.”― Alison Cook

Song of the Open Road, 1 by Walt Whitman

“Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before me,
The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose.

Henceforth I ask not good-fortune, I myself am good-fortune,
Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing,
Done with indoor complaints, libraries, querulous criticisms,
Strong and content I travel the open road.

The earth, that is sufficient,
I do not want the constellations any nearer,
I know they are very well where they are,
I know they suffice for those who belong to them.

(Still here I carry my old delicious burdens,
I carry them, men and women, I carry them with me wherever I go,
I swear it is impossible for me to get rid of them,
I am fill’d with them, and I will fill them in return.)”

Open road
Wandering trails
Abundant light
Color ablaze
Go off path today
Luggage of worries, burdens put down for a bit
Minding and mining your mind
A few minutes off and away
Deep breath
Fresh eyes
Cup of hope
Bucket of joy
Permission to laugh, sing, dance
To be made new, filled up, restored
Afoot and light-hearted
Re-enchantment under construction.

“The fate of our times is characterized by rationalization and intellectualization and, above all, by the disenchantment of the world.”― Max Weber

Nov 1

Streaming Light, Love, Kindness

“There is the music of Heaven in all things.”― Saint Hildegard of Bingen

“May today there be peace within. May you trust that you are exactly where you are meant to be. May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith in yourself and others. May you use the gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you. May you be content with yourself just the way you are. Let this knowledge settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love. It is there for each and every one of us.” …”― Saint Terese of Liseaux

Thoughts, words, actions.
May love be the intention and outcome.
Peace, light, sabbath.
Dance and delight in this day.

“Preach the Gospel, use words when necessary.”― Saint Francis of Assisi

Oct 30

Rooted and Reaching

“To be rooted is perhaps the most important and least recognized need of the human soul.”― Alister McGrath, Mere Apologetics: How to Help Seekers and Skeptics Find Faith

“Silent listening is a particular way of being active, not passive, in the world.” – Thomas Moore

Re-enchantment and delight.
Wide and deep.
Wonder, wander, awe
Engagement and immersion.
Root and reach.

“The human quest for beauty is thus really a quest for the source of that beauty, which is mediated through the things of this world, not contained within them.”― Alister McGrath, Mere Apologetics: How to Help Seekers and Skeptics Find Faith

Oct 29

To Touch the Sky

“Only from the heart can you touch the sky.” – Rumi

“Away, away, from men and towns,To the wild wood and the downs—
To the silent wilderness
Where the soul need not repress
Its music lest it should not find
An echo in another’s mind,
While the touch of Nature’s art
Harmonizes heart to heart.”
― Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Complete Poems

Glorious, luminous, brilliance
Pull over, look up
Wander without aim
For a bit, drift
Let peace in
Touch the sky

“The clouds don’t overthink; they just drift.”― Avijeet Das

Oct 24

Long Smiles and Hammocks

“Breathe Deep – Smile Long.”― Anthony T. Hincks

“Sit now very quietly in some lovely wild place, and listen to the silence. And I say that this, too, is a poem.” – Mary Oliver

Long smiles
Deep breath
Extended exhale
In the slowing
Respite
In play
Restoration
In the silence
Poetry

“Just breathing can be such a luxury sometimes.”― Walter Kirn, Up in the Air

Oct 23

Moon Blossom

“The moon in her chariot of pearl”― Oscar Wilde, The Nightingale and the Rose

“For the Earth itself is a blossom, she says,
on the star tree,
pale with luminous
ocean leaves.”
― Rolf Jacobsen

Sunrise to sunset.
Pearls, diamonds, gold.
Behold.

“It is a beautiful and delightful sight to behold the body of the Moon.”― Galileo Galilei, The Starry Messenger

 

 

Oct 22

Heavenly Oils

“A flower will always grow in the direction of the sun because beauty recognises beauty.”― Matshona Dhliwayo

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?”

to never grow weary
take for granted
bypass without noticing
restoration in awe and wonder
found in a sunset, flower, a poem
billowing, reaching, streaming
joy, peace, love

“The attempt to develop a sense of humor and to see things in a humorous light is some kind of a trick learned while mastering the art of living.”― Viktor Emil Frankl

Oct 21

Color and Rhythm of Slow Time

“You have traveled too fast over false ground;
Now your soul has come to take you back.
Take refuge in your senses, open up
To all the small miracles you rushed through.
Become inclined to watch the way of rain
When it falls slow and free.
Imitate the habit of twilight,
Taking time to open the well of color
That fostered the brightness of day.” – John O’Donohue

“When the rhythm of the heart becomes hectic,
Time takes on the strain until it breaks;
Then all the unattended stress falls in
On the mind like an endless, increasing weight.

The light in the mind becomes dim.
Things you could take in your stride before
Now become laborsome events of will.” – John O’Donohue

Restoration in slowing down, pulling over
Reckoning that more speed, doing, busyness are futile, false ground
Breaking open to awakened senses
Where colors dance
Partake in the small miracles woven in each day
Claimed by calm
Be held in joy
Linger in slow time.

“Draw alongside the silence of stone
Until its calmness can claim you.
Be excessively gentle with yourself.

Stay clear of those vexed in spirit.
Learn to linger around someone of ease
Who feels they have all the time in the world.

Gradually, you will return to yourself,
Having learned a new respect for your heart
And the joy that dwells far within slow time.” – John O’Donohue

Oct 20

Compass and Gravity

“The meaning of life is to give life meaning.”― Viktor E. Frankl

“Man does not simply exist but always decides what his existence will be, what he will become the next moment. By the same token, every human being has the freedom to change at any instant.”― Viktor Emil Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning

When I enter where I already am, fully
Temporal becomes transcendent
Beauty refreshes and restores
Presence deepens and delights
Partaking and embracing
Rooting and rising
In reflection, meaning takes shape
Compass and gravity
Yesterday bridge to today
No need to circle back to repeat
New path, fresh legs, freedom to choose
Grace and gratitude
Abase and abound

“Our greatest freedom is the freedom to choose our attitude.”― Victor Frankl

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