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Posts tagged ‘Reflection’

Nov 16

Forefront and Backdrop

“There is a magic made by melody:
A spell of rest, and quiet breath, and cool
Heart, that sinks through fading colors deep
To the subaqueous stillness of the sea,
And floats forever in a moon-green pool,
Held in the arms of rhythm and of sleep. ”
― Elizabeth Bishop

“There are those fortunate hours when the world consents to be made into a poem.”― Mark Doty

Space and reflection
Curiosity and attention
Pause and praise
Spell of rest to notice
Forefront and backdrop
Magic of melody, flow
Music and poetry woven into this day
To be found, to be written
Joy, no slight thing

“What did you think, that joy / was some slight thing?”― Mark Doty

Nov 15

Poetry of Presence

“Poetry calls us to pause. There is so much we overlook, while the abundance around us continues to shimmer, on its own.”― Naomi Shihab Nye

“only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
it is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend.”
― Naomi Shihab Nye

From doing to being
Swift to slow
Pausing to notice, partake
Kindness of gratitude, awe, wonder
Shimmer of this day
Poetry of presence
Interrupted by beauty

“Every day is a poetry day.”― Naomi Shihab Nye

Nov 14

Sacred Spaces, In and Out

“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 all your thinks be thanks.”― W.H. Auden

Within, to heart, not head
Venturing out, beauty abound
Enter the stream
At ease in the flow
Stay here for a spell
Sacred spaces, of awe and wonder
Tune out the noise to listen.

“Now, I want only to give away all that I’m blessed to know and disappear in the stream.”― Mark Nepo, Seven Thousand Ways to Listen: Staying Close to What Is Sacred

Nov 13

Gifts of Listening

“God is more time than schedules, more grace than boundaries, more everything than the imaginable.”― Kaitlin B. Curtice, Native

“Help me resist the urge to dispute whether things are true or false which is like arguing whether it is day or night. It is always one or the other somewhere in the world. Together, we can penetrate a higher truth which like the sun is always being conveyed.”― Mark Nepo, Seven Thousand Ways to Listen: Staying Close to What Is Sacred

Either or
Duality
Multiple choice, one answer only
Skimming the surface
Life is not a checklist, spreadsheet, calculator, mere transactions
It’s an essay to be written, rewritten
Complexity and nuance of relationships, connections, patterns
Rhythm, dance to move with
Ebb and flow, current
Inhale and exhale
Canvas to be painted
Outside the line
All of the colors
Beneath the surface
Above the noise
Listen closely, quietly
Pay attention
Big yes, lean in, awe and wonder
The work of being rather than the regiment of doing.

“No one can teach us how to intuitively listen or trust, but the quiet courage to say yes rather than no is close to each of us. It involves holding our opinions and identity lightly so we can be touched by the future. It means loosening our fist-like hold on how we see the world, so that other views can reach us, expand us, deepen us, and rearrange us. Saying yes is the bravest way to keep leaning into life.”― Mark Nepo, Seven Thousand Ways to Listen: Staying Close to What Is Sacred

Oct 28

The Doing of Undoing

“If you don’t know what to do next take the oath that will enhance your soul and erase your ego, & from the quiet space inside yourself, you will know what to do.”― Nikki Rowe

“The timeline of your life is not a straight line, after all; it is a series of ebbs and flows, backs and forths, heres and theres. You are nowhere and everywhere all at once, and that means that most of the time, the best you can do is be present to the moment, be open to the unlearning and the learning, and trust that you’re doing the work of Love.”― Kaitlin B. Curtice, Living Resistance

Rolling
Rhythm
Unraveled
Ebb
Flow
Unbound
Untangled
Unwound
Relax
Release
Recover
Remake
Renew
Refresh
Awe, wonder, reverence, ease
Being, unbeing
Learning, unlearning
The doing of undoing.

“Identity does not come to us without journey, because to learn who we are means we face difficult truths in our own lives and imagine what life might look like as those truths work themselves out inside of us.”― Kaitlin B. Curtice, Native

Sep 24

Undoing and Singularity

“Hold still. Be quiet. Listen.”― Margaret Renkl, Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss

“What if resting, all by itself, is the real act of holiness? What if honoring the gift of our only life in this gorgeous world means taking time every week to slow down? To sleep? To breathe? The natural world has never needed us more than it needs us  now, but we can’t be of much use to it if we remain in a perpetual state of exhaustion and despair.”― Margaret Renkl, The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year

From fast and furious
To slow and savor
Stop, reset the pace
Cadence and ease
Undoing, mere being
Singularity, simple delight
Overthinking to senses ablaze
Curiosity and wandering
Awe and wonder
Woven in this very day
Put it down

“There are worse things, I think, than leaving a task undone. The oak forests of the world would not exist if squirrels did not lose track of acorns.”― Margaret Renkl, The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year

Aug 31

For the Beauty of the Earth

“Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.”― Alan Watts

“For the beauty of the earth
For the beauty of the skies
For the love which from our birth
Over and around us lies.” – Folliott S. Pierpoint

Earth, skies, all around us that lies
For the beauty of it
Calm the waters
Pause, look, reflect
Move softly and lightly, with reverence
Sacred ground of the present, of full presence in it
Drink in every ounce of beauty, wonder and awe
Abundant and overflowing.

“For the wonder of each hour
of the day and of the night,
hill and vale and tree and flower,
sun and moon and stars of light.”– Folliott S. Pierpoint

Aug 26

Spacious Radiance

“The ripple effect stemming from a single moment of love might be infinite in reach.”― Narissa Doumani, A Spacious Life: Memoir of a Meditator

“It starts with a single breath and the present moment, but where it takes you is into the vast radiance of your true nature, into a magical, spacious life.”― Narissa Doumani, A Spacious Life: Memoir of a Meditator

Spacious
Stillness
Attention
Reverence
Immersion
Emergence
Reflection
The beauty, width, density, depth of moments
And for the sense to recognize them while in them
Single breath
Fresh eyes
Vast radiance
Take the trip often, daily.

“The whole present moment was a celebration; it always had been; all I needed was fresh eyes to see it.”― Narissa Doumani, A Spacious Life: Memoir of a Meditator

Aug 17

Dancing with Daffodils

“Wisdom is oft-times nearer when we stoop
Than when we soar.”― William Wordsworth, The Excursion 1814

“I wandered lonely as a clouds. That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed–and gazed–but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.”
― William Wordsworth, I Wander’d Lonely as a Cloud

Floating
Hovering
Rest
Reflection
Joy in presence
Attention rooted in this day alone
Dancing with daffodils.

“Rest and be thankful.”― William Wordsworth

Aug 7

1 Comment

Cusping

“Be where you are; otherwise you will miss your life.” – Buddha

You do not always have to be producing, creating, harvesting. Learn to be idle. Learn to rest.”― Joyce Rupp, The Circle Of Life: The Heart’s Journey Through The Seasons

Making space, creating margins
Ordinary days, simple joys, laughter, color, hue
Flow and ease of being present, on the ground of this day
Cusping and leaping
Free falling
Trusting and seeking
Slow and deliberate
Idle and rest
Intention and direction
Honing and glistening
Choosing “and” rather than “or”
Present over perfect
Gratitude over comparison, calculation, counting
Essay rather than equation
All of these things and more
No “to do” lists or bucket list but one
To be fully alive both in reflection, projection and real time.

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”― Søren Kierkegaard

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