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Posts tagged ‘Peace’

Jun 3

Highest of Arts

“Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of the earth.”― Henry David Thoreau, Walden or, Life in the Woods

“We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us even in our soundest sleep. I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavour. It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.”― Henry David Thoreau, Walden or, Life in the Woods

Deep breath
Soft shoulders
Long gaze
Rapt presence
Reawakening
Well of peace
Within
Grounded in this day
Choices
Before each to decide
To affect the quality of day
Highest of arts, indeed.

“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this.”― Henry David Thoreau

May 30

It

“Finding a sanctuary, a place apart from time, is not so different from finding a faith.”― Pico Iyer

“The movement of grace toward gratitude brings us from the package of self-obsessed madness to a spiritual awakening. Gratitude is peace.”― Anne Lamott, Help Thanks Wow: Three Essential Prayers

Let it be
Put it down
Busy
Production
Efficiency
Performance
Speed
Judgment
Comparison
To dos
Whatever your “it” is that distracts from grace, gratitude, peace.

“In spring, we expand and stretch in all directions. It’s green exuberance and giddiness, bright clown colors and Easter colors, too; the rebirth of the tender growing soul.”― Anne Lamott, Help Thanks Wow: Three Essential Prayers

May 29

Harvester of Presence

“If you go out for several hours into a place that is wild, your mind begins to slow down, down, down. What is happening is that the clay of your body is retrieving its own sense of sisterhood with the great clay of the landscape.”― John O’Donohue, Walking in Wonder: Eternal Wisdom for a Modern World

“The art of disappearing certainly has its own kind of value. In a strange way, in modern society we seem to be inhabiting the world of absence more than presence through the whole world of technology and virtual reality. Very often it seems that the driven nature of contemporary society is turning us into the ultimate harvesters of absence, that is, ghosts in our own lives.”― John O’Donohue, Walking in Wonder: Eternal Wisdom for a Modern World

Quiet miracles
In abundance
Clay of landscape
Pay attention
Harvester of presence in, on, through, with this day.

“Take time to celebrate the quiet miracles that seek no attention.”― John O’Donohue, Walking in Wonder: Eternal Wisdom for a Modern World

May 28

The Beauty of Things

“It seems that intuitive listening requires us to still our minds until the beauty of things older than our minds can find us.”― Mark Nepo, Seven Thousand Ways to Listen: Staying Close to What Is Sacred

“Let’s be in awe
which doesn’t mean
anything but the courage
to gape like fish at the surface
breaking around our mouths
as we meet the air.”― Mark Nepo

Do not let this day slip by unnoticed
Brake for wonder
Pull over for delight
Make a U-turn for peace
Poetry of ordinary days
Surface for fresh air
To the beauty of things.

“To walk quietly until the miracle in everything speaks is poetry, whether we write it down or not.”― Mark Nepo

May 24

Gifts and Fruits

“Spring is a youthful season coming forth in a rush of life and promise, hope and possibility. At the heart of spring, there is a great inner longing when desire and memory stir toward each other. Consequently, springtime in your soul is a wonderful time to undertake some new adventures, some new project, or to make some important changes in your life; there the rhythm, the energy, and the hidden light of your own clay work with you.”– John O’Donohue

“There is a quiet light that shines in every heart. . . . It is what illuminates our minds to see beauty, our desire to seek possibility, and our hearts to love life. Without this subtle quickening our days would be empty and wearisome, and no horizon would ever awaken our longing. Our passion for life is quietly sustained from somewhere in us that is wedded to the energy and excitement of life. This shy inner light is what enables us to recognize and receive our very presence here as blessing. We enter the world as strangers who all at once become heirs to a harvest of memory, spirit, and dream that has long preceded us and will now enfold, nourish, and sustain us. The gift of the world is our first blessing.” – John O’Donohue

Plant seeds, bear fruit
Love
Joy
Peace
Patience
Kindness
Goodness
Faithfulness
Gentleness
Self-Control
Gifts and fruits
Quiet, steady light of the Spirit
Ever present
Woven in each day to partake in
Attention, awareness, abiding the bridge

“The only little journey we have to make — the only little moment of transition — is the moment where we actually become aware of the dignity and beauty and light of the presence in which we already are. – John O’Donohue

May 22

Riches of Wonder

“encounter the mystery and wonder of unsuspected instants. Let us dip into the marvel of the budding and the blooming” ― Erik Pevernagie

“And the deer–
how beautiful they are,
as though their bodies did not impede them.
Slowly they drift into the open
though bronze panels of sunlight.”
― Louise Glück, The House on Marshland

Sometimes seeking and searching
Sometimes beauty finds you
Too many times, passing by without notice
To be awake
To see delight
In stillness
Wonder strolls in, an invitation
To be found and held
Embrace of mystery, awe, reverence
Partaker of joy

“If your daily life seems poor, do not blame it; blame yourself that you are not poet enough to call forth its riches; for the Creator, there is no poverty.” – Rainer Maria Rilke

“Live bold, without fear. This is life amongst the deer.”― Katelyn S. Bolds

May 21

Poetry of the Earth

“The poetry of the earth is never dead.” – John Keats

“Home has less to do with a piece of soil then a piece of soul.” – Pico Iyer

To hold dear, with delight
Extraordinary beauty
Bloom and life woven throughout
Abiding and embracing
Richness and density
Lightness and buoyancy
Poetry of the earth
Alive and well
Join the prose.

“To experience sublime natural beauty is to confront the total inadequacy of language to describe what you see. Words cannot convey the scale of a view that is so stunning it is felt.” – Eleanor Catton

May 20

Fidelity and Flow

“A person susceptible to “wanderlust” is not so much addicted to movement as committed to transformation.”― Pico Iyer

“In an age of speed, I began to think, nothing could be more invigorating than going slow. In an age of distraction, nothing can feel more luxurious than paying attention. And in an age of constant movement, nothing is more urgent than sitting still.”― Pico Iyer, The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere

Fidelity to this day
Presence sought, found
Held, steady
Yolk easy
Burden light
River of joy running through it, undeterred
Slow. Attention. Stillness.
Reverence. Wanderlust. Serendipity.
Fidelity to this day.

“Serendipity was my tour guide, assisted by caprice”― Pico Iyer

May 19

Poets of Possibilities

“We are, always, poets, exploring possibilities of meaning in a world which is also all the time exploring possibilities.”― Margaret J. Wheatley, A Simpler Way

“Life offers us this great gift of self-organization, how we can be held in the basin of shared meaning and, within that, exercise individual freedom. It is such a shame to waste it on fear and doubt. Or to seek to contain and control it.”― Margaret J. Wheatley, Who Do We Choose to Be?

Perspective
Possibilities
Breadth
Nuance
Expanse
Meaning
Response
Exploration
Invitation
Entering
Opening
Take the long cut
The path to growth, bloom, transformation.

“In this way, dissipative structures demonstrate that disorder can be a source of new order, and that growth appears from disequilibrium, not balance.”― Margaret J. Wheatley, Leadership and the New Science

May 17

Sow Love, Bloom Peace

“Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love.” – Francis of Assisi

“We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves.” – Dalai Lama

Peace
Woven in pause, stillness, reflection, putting down, beauty, grace, generosity
A jolt out of complacency
Paddles to jumpstart your heart
To get out of your head
The figuring, counting, comparing, complaining, blaming, othering, assumptions
An inside job
Daily practice, consistency and commitment
A shift
In thoughts, words, actions
Kindness, thankfulness, gratitude, goodness, praise
Awe, wonder, love, reverence
Sow, tend, bloom
Cast light.

“Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence.” – Henry David Thoreau

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