Aug 16
“Some beautiful paths can’t be discovered without getting lost.”― Erol Ozan
“Walking . . . is how the body measures itself against the earth.”― Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust: A History of Walking
Walking and wandering
The path, the destination
Beauty the gift
Lost to be found.
“The magic of the street is the mingling of the errand and the epiphany.”― Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust: A History of Walking
“We do not think ourselves into new ways of living, we live ourselves into new ways of thinking.”— Father Richard Rohr
“we think that accomplishing things will complete us, when it is experiencing life that will.”― Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening
Step by step
Tripping, getting back up
Day by day
Fidelity and grace
The middle
In between
Ordinary days
Transformed into extraordinary
Thoughts, words, actions
Hope, joy, work, play, rest, reflection, grit, gratitude, grace
May we recognize beauty, glory, color, nuance, depth, height, simple
Woven, carved, knit, abundant in this day
Disguised in laughter, a flower, a call, holding open a door, a smile and hello
Walking each step of the journey
Awake, aware, with intent and attention.
“May you experience each day as a sacred gift of wonder.” – John O’Donohue
“Let us dance in the sun, wearing wild flowers in our hair…”― susan polis schutz
“Bless you who are discovering that
summer was never something to
conquer, but something to notice –
the peaches, the porch light, the
smell of rain before dinner.
May you leave a few things undone
on purpose, trusting that not every
empty hour is asking to be filled.
Bless you who return to the same
small practices until they become
their own kind of gratitude.
May you remember that a good life
is rarely made of extraordinary days,
but ordinary ones that were fully
received.” – Kate Bowler
In the noticing, delight
In the undoing, creation
In the in-betweens, joy
In the ordinary days, communion.
Fully received.
“Water is fluid, soft & yielding but water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield … what is soft is strong.”― Lao-tzu
“The magic of story. The wonder of words. The fertility of imagination.”― Allen Levi, Theo of Golden
“Sabbath is the time set aside to do nothing so that we can receive everything, to set aside our anxious attempts to make ourselves useful, to set aside our tense restlessness, to set aside our media-satiated boredom. Sabbath is the time to receive silence and let it deepen into gratitude, to receive quiet into which forgotten faces and voices unobtrusively make themselves present, to receive the days of the just completed week and absorb the wonder and miracle still reverberating from each one, to receive our Lord’s amazing grace.”― Eugene H. Peterson, Tell It Slant: A Conversation on the Language of Jesus in His Stories and Prayers
Anticipation, hope, enthusiasm
Thoughts, words, actions
Forgiveness, releasing, open heart
Reflection, rest, restoration
Letting the past be done
Allowing the future to unfold
Fertile ground of this day
Planting seeds of attention, gratitude, encouragement, presense, praise.
Amazing amazing grace.
Joy chosen and given in real time.
“We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them.”― Kahlil Gibran
“Peace is always beautiful.” ― Walt Whitman
“Happiness, not in another place but this place…not for another hour, but this hour.”― Walt Whitman
Gaze long
Gratitude deep
Joy flowing
Peace beautiful
Calm rooted
Delight overflowing
For this hour, for this day.
“May I live this day
Compassionate of heart,
Clear in word,
Gracious in awareness
Courageous in thought,
Generous in love.” – John O’Donohue
“The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don’t go back to sleep.”― Rumi
“Only from the heart can you touch the sky.”― Mawlana Jalal-al-Din Rumi
Curiosity, inquiry, observation.
Reverence, reverie, reflection.
Open hands, heart, eyes.
Breeze, sky, beauty.
Notice and partake.
“On a day
when the wind is perfect,
the sail just needs to open and the world is full of beauty.
Today is such a day.”― Mawlana Jalal-al-Din Rumi
“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… Draw alongside the silence of stone until its calmness can claim you.”― John O’Donohue
“Take time to celebrate the quiet miracles that seek no attention.
Be consoled in the secret symmetry of your soul.
May you experience each day as a sacred gift woven around the heart of wonder.” – John O’Donohue
Small quiet miracles
Silence of stones
Claimed by calm
Sacred gift of this day
Wrapped in wonder
“Hurry is the great enemy of spiritual life in our day. You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.”― John Ortberg, Soul Keeping
“The poetry of the earth is never dead.”― John Keats
“Earth’s crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
But only he who sees, takes off his shoes—The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries,” – Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Alive and brimming
Blooming and breathing
Afire and abundance
Not in the hurrying or hankering
But in full presence, steeping, reverence
Poetry, prose, song, dance, delight, beauty
Woven in this day
To seek, find, offer, receive
Crammed with heaven
Take off your shoes.
“Life is not hurrying on to a receding future, nor hankering after an imagined past. It is the turning aside like Moses to the miracle of the lit bush, to a brightness that seemed as transitory as your youth once, but is the eternity that awaits you.” – R.S. Thomas
Jul 29
“I want a brighter word than bright”― John Keats
“In the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.” – Kahlil Gibran
Refreshment of morning
Cast onto all things
Renewal, restoration, reclamation
Rejoicing rising from lament
Transformed and transfigured
In the dew of little things
Words brighter than bright
Fertile fields abloom
Glory ablaze.
“So I have taken up the tale
to tell it full and free.
The tale that makes the heart rejoice,
I tell it, for I have no choice—
I tell it till another voice
takes up the tale from me.”
― Malcolm Guite, Galahad and the Grail
“the best portion of a good person’s life is ‘the little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and love.”― Allen Levi, Theo of Golden
“To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life.”― Robert Louis Stevenson, Familiar Studies of Men and Books
Participate in this day
Tending, steeping, rooting
See the brilliance, abundance, delight
Woven in moments
Through simple acts
Attention
Kindness
Laughter
Noticing and embracing
What is already here
Tender and gentle
In the unfolding and becoming
Bloom under construction
Seed, bud, burst
One petal at a time.
“simply help people sit still long enough to see what is already there.”― Allen Levi, Theo of Golden
