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Posts tagged ‘Reflection’

Jan 22

What to Leave Out

“In music, silence is more important than sound.” – Miles Davis

“Some day I’m gonna call me up on the phone, so when I answer, I can tell myself to shut up.”― Miles Davis

Our innate reaction to challenges is to figure out what to do.
Action is important to trigger change, shift behavior, make progress.
Often, the right action is not in doing and adding but in silence and subtracting.
Creating space to hear anew, see with fresh eyes.
To see what’s in right in front of us that we keep stepping over, going around, avoiding, bypassing.
In search of the “answer,” the “easy button,” that’s out there somewhere, in some day if and when this and that happens.
Many answers lie within, most require time and all require quiet to rise to the surface. Some never come at all, remaining a mystery, an unknowing.
Discerning what is in my control (me), what is not (others) and what just is.
We can then respond insightfully rather than react habitually.
Quiet your internal chatter, tune out external noise, inquire and observe, listen with an open heart and arms.
The sound of silence at work.

“I always listen to what I can leave out.”― Miles Davis

Jan 10

Continual Arriving

“Silence is a source of Great Strength.”― Lao Tzu

“To attain knowledge, add things everyday. To attain wisdom, remove things every day.”― Lao Tzu

When the water pools, find the passage to the river.
Flowing and free.
Static to dynamic.
Separate to connection, belonging.
Real time awareness.
Reflection for witnessing.
Intuition and experience.
Beginner and wanderer.
Mystery and meaning.
Hold patterns and landings.
Beginnings and endings. Repeat.
Before, after and the in between where we reside the most.
Create the space and grace for the mix of it all.
The cycle of continual arriving.

“A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.”― Lao Tzu

Jan 6

Seeing the Light

“I never made one of my discoveries through the process of rational thinking”― Albert Einstein

“Today the Magi gaze in deep wonder at what they see: heaven on earth, earth in heaven, man in God, God in man, one whom the whole universe cannot contain now enclosed in a tiny body.

As they look, they believe and do not question, as their symbolic gifts bear witness: incense for God, gold for a king, myrrh for one who is to die.” — Peter Chrysologus

On this day commemorating the Epiphany, may you open to wonder, discovery, and awe.
This world so easily hardens us but we are called to be softened, to love without measure, to be kind first.
May peace, joy and hope be stoked and awakened within so you can recognize your own epiphanies.
Followed by sharing your light with the world.

“Truth, by which the world is held together, has sprung from the earth, in order to be carried in a woman’s arms.” — St Augustine

Jan 4

Soft Stillness

“Be still. Stillness reveals the secrets of eternity”― Lao Tzu

“Oh, how swiftly the glory of the world passes away!” – Thomas a Kempis

Beauty woven into every season, each day.
A stillness that calls to awaken, to soften.
Sit here and take it in.
Observe, wait, reverence in the glory.
Calm, quiet, answers, and even more questions.

“You are not too old
and it is not too late
to dive into your increasing depths
where life calmly gives out
its own secret.”― Rilke

Dec 4

2 Comments

Fresh Meaning

“Two forces rule the universe: light and gravity.”― Simone Weil

“Bless the poets, the workers for justice, the dancers of ceremony, the singers of heartache, the visionaries, all makers and carriers of fresh meaning—We will all make it through, despite politics and wars, despite failures and misunderstandings. There is only love.”― Joy Harjo, Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings: Poems

May you be a poet, a worker, a dancer, a singer, a visionary, a maker of your world, spilling over into the whole.
Beyond circumstances, above the daily grind, to a higher plane, a broader place, a thin space.
Discover the same anew, a flame relit creating fresh meaning, thresholds into beginnings.
Listen deeper, look longer, let the quiet speak.
Roots and flight.
Grace and gravity.

“All the natural movements of the soul are controlled by laws analogous to those of physical gravity. Grace is the only exception. Grace fills empty spaces, but it can only enter where there is a void to receive it, and it is grace itself which makes this void. The imagination is continually at work filling up all the fissures through which grace might pass.”― Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace

Nov 14

Stirred Up, Settled Down

“As a result, nature has endowed the human brain with a malleability and flexibility that lets it adapt to the demands of the world it finds itself in. The brain is neither immutable nor static but continuously remodeled by the lives we lead.”― Richard J. Davidson, The Emotional Life of Your Brain

“A short practice that you do every day is better than a long practice you keep putting off to tomorrow.”― Kelly McGonigal, The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do To Get More of It

Meditation isn’t complicated and the payback is worth the small investment.
I have been using the free Insight Timer app for three years.
10 to 20 minutes in the morning to set the stage for the day as well as at the end of the day to close it out.
Some guided, nature sounds, mostly music.
Give yourself the gift of reflection, quiet and discernment.
You are worth it.
Continuously remodeling, learning, unlearning, unfolding, becoming.
Stir up by settling down.

“Neuroscientists have discovered that when you ask the brain to meditate, it gets better not just at meditating, but at a wide range of self-control skills, including attention, focus, stress management, impulse control, and self-awareness.”― Kelly McGonigal, The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do to Get More of It

Oct 13

Malleable

“Whatever it is you’re seeking won’t come in the form you’re expecting.”― Haruki Marukami

“What might we learn if we listen, if we wade in—unafraid, untethered, and uninhibited—ready to become the ones we were created to become.”― Kaitlin B. Curtice, Native: Identity, Belonging, and Rediscovering God

Pushed
Pulled
Stretched
Reshaped
Flipped upside down
Shaken
Stirred
Resistance, friction, flow
Different yet familiar
Connected, present, complete
Untether, malleable, made new
The journey is one of becoming
Transitions, thresholds, transformation

“If you’re willing to pay attention to and dialogue with what’s happening inside of you, you’ll find that your body already knows the answers about how to live a full, present, connected, and healthy life.”― Hillary L. McBride, The Wisdom of Your Body: Finding Healing, Wholeness, and Connection through Embodied Living

Oct 6

Interrupted by Beauty

“Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the autumn tree.” – Emily Brontë

“Go, sit upon the lofty hill, And turn your eyes around, Where waving woods and waters wild Do hymn an autumn sound. The summer sun is faint on them— The summer flowers depart— Sit still— as all transform’d to stone, Except your musing heart.” – Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Hit the brakes
Swerve to the side
Stop in your tracks
Interrupted by beauty
Ablaze with joy
Frozen in awe
Awaken to the beauty abound and around
At your feet
In abundance, all for the taking, holding, embracing
Seize moments within the day
Transformed to your musing heart
Harvest time.

“Autumn that year painted the countryside in vivid shades of scarlet, saffron, and russet, and the days were clear and crisp under the harvest skies.” – Sharon Kay Penman

Sep 11

Peace and Light

“Who knows why God allows heartbreak, but the answer must be important enough because God allows His heart to break too.”― Ann Voskamp, The Broken Way: A Daring Path into the Abundant Life

“May we all receive blessing upon blessing. And may we realize our power to bless, heal, and renew one another.”― John O’Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Invocations and Blessings

On this 21st anniversary of 9/11, may we seek and strive for peace in our own heart so we can achieve peace in the world.

Abundance over scarcity.
Enough over more.
Empathy over self-centeredness.
Love over hate.
Blessing, healing, renewing.

“What you encounter, recognize or discover depends to a large degree on the quality of your approach. Many of the ancient cultures practiced careful rituals of approach. An encounter of depth and spirit was preceded by careful preparation.

When we approach with reverence, great things decide to approach us. Our real life comes to the surface and its light awakens the concealed beauty in things. When we walk on the earth with reverence, beauty will decide to trust us. The rushed heart and arrogant mind lack the gentleness and patience to enter that embrace.”― John O’Donohue, Beauty: The Invisible Embrace

Sep 9

Slowly Born

“No single event can awaken within us a stranger totally unknown to us. To live is to be slowly born. It would be a bit too easy if we could go about borrowing ready-made souls.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery

“There is meaning in every journey that is unknown to the traveler.”― Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Pause, gaze, witness.
Below the surface.
At your feet.
Within reach.
Observe the details, the layers.
Patterns, themes, threads.
Known, unknown.
Understood, misunderstood
The story of your life.
Sentences, chapters, the arc of the story.
Unfolding, opening, transforming.
Not done yet.
The story continues.
Slowly born.

“There are things known and things unknown and in between are the doors.” – Jim Morrison

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