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Posts tagged ‘Reflection’

Aug 4

Power of Rest

“Rest and be thankful.”― William Wordsworth

“RESTING IS DOING

If only we could see the power in rest.
If only we could attach to it, the worth it so deserves.
If only we could open our minds to the idea, that everything in nature has its time to rise and its time to descend.
That each of these acts is just a important as the other.
And that is exactly as it must be.
If only we could see the courage it takes to lay aside the worries, the fears and the comparison, just for a few hours, to let the mind, spirit and body come together again.
Doing the one thing they all require so much… nothing.
If only we could see the power in rest.
Because resting is very much doing.” – Donna Ashworth

Pause, sit, rest
Look up at the sky
Often
Margins and white space
Time to rise
Time to descend.
The doing and work of rest.

“There is virtue in work and there is virtue in rest. Use both and overlook neither.”― Alan Cohen

Jun 26

Window on the World

“Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won’t come in.”― Alan Alda

“Curiosity is the wick in the candle of learning.” – William Arthur Ward

What am I missing that’s right in front of me?
What don’t I know?
What’s beneath the surface?
Ask good questions
Give space and margins for the answers to rise up
To take shape and form
Unlearning, relearning, discovery
Inquiry, curiosity, imagination
Listening, hearing, receptivity
Crack the door
Open the window
Let fresh air of unknowing and mystery in
Get out of your own way to find the way
May you see the delight, wonder and awe that cross your path today
Let the light in.

“Dreams don’t die.
They move on to the next available dreamer.”― Michael Bassey Johnson

Jun 22

Summer’s Song, Symphony

“I want to sing like the birds sing, not worrying about who hears or what they think.”― Rumi

Warm Summer Sun
by Mark Twain

Warm summer sun,
Shine kindly here.
Warm southern wind,
Blow softly here.
Green sod above,
Lie light, lie light.
Good night, dear heart,
Good night, good night.

Lute and drum
Silence and song
Summer sun
Soft breeze
Summer, a string of Sundays
Sabbath rest carried through the week
Full bloom
Brilliant color
Slowing, seeing, savoring
Holy sacred ground
Surrender. Yield. Dance.

A day of Silence
Can be a pilgrimage in itself.

A day of Silence
Can help you listen
To the Soul play
Its marvelous lute and drum.

Is not most talking
A crazed defense of a crumbling fort?

I thought we came here
To surrender in Silence,

To yield to Light and Happiness,

To Dance within,
In celebration of Love’s Victory”― Hafez, I Heard God Laughing: Poems of Hope and Joy

Jun 21

Beauty of Now

“The quieter you become, the more you are able to hear.” – Rumi

“Remember then that there is only one important time, and that time is now. The most important one is always the one you are with. And the most important thing is to do good for the one who is standing at your side. This is why we are here.”― Jon J. Muth, The Three Questions

In slowing, ease and restoration.
In awareness, depth and dimension.
In quiet, reflection and discernment.
In reflection, abundance and clarity
In the present, gratitude for what already is, on the ground we stand.
Fullness and beauty of this day.

“A person in such a hurry seldom gets good results”― Jon J. Muth, Zen Socks

Jun 10

Beauty Bursting Everywhere, Notice

“Be melting snow.
Wash yourself of yourself.”
― Rumi, The Essential Rumi

“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”― Rumi

Winter melting into spring, spilling into summer.
Frozen ground to softening.
Seeds unfolding into buds.
Breaking ground.
Bursting into bloom.
Exploding in color, dance, delight.
Enter each and every season that comes with curiosity, bewilderment.
The same transformed into new.
Rooted in attention and awareness.
Gratitude and grace.
Beauty bursting everywhere, notice.
This is life.
Right now.

“Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment.”― Rumi

Jun 9

Singleness of Eye

“Arranging a bowl of flowers in the morning can give a sense of quiet in a crowded day- like writing a poem or saying a prayer.”― Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Gift from the Sea

“…I want first of all – in fact, as an end to these other desires – to be at peace with myself. I want a singleness of eye, a purity of intention, a central core to my life that will enable me to carry out these obligations and activities as well as I can. I want, in fact – to borrow from the language of the saints -to live ‘in grace’ as much of the time as possible. I am not using this term in a strictly theological sense. By grace I mean an inner harmony, essentially spiritual, which can be translated into outward harmony…”― Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Summer
Sea
Sun
Slowing
Savoring
Softening
Witnessing
Entering
Deepening
Widening
Rising
Releasing
Still points
Pathways to peace, awe, wonder, joy
Take the journey.

“This is what one thirsts for, I realize, after the smallness of the day, of work, of details, of intimacy – even of communication, one thirsts for the magnitude and universality of a night full of stars, pouring into one like a fresh tide.”― Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Gift from the Sea

Jun 7

Let the Beauty…

“For the grace of the presence, be grateful.” – Rumi

“You wander from room to room
Hunting for the diamond necklace
That is already around your neck!”
― Rumi

Grace of presence.
Beauty abounds.
Awash with gratitude.
To kneel and kiss the ground.
Let quiet, reflection, slowness in.
Work to be done in this place.
Joy to be had.
Delight to partake in.
Wearing diamonds and knowing it.

“Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.”― Rumi

May 22

Deeper Into It

“The spiritual life does not remove us from the world but leads us deeper into it.”― Henri J.M. Nouwen

“Aren’t you, like me, hoping that some person, thing, or event will come along to give you that final feeling of inner well-being you desire? Don’t you often hope: ‘May this book, idea, course, trip, job, country or relationship fulfill my deepest desire.’ But as long as you are waiting for that mysterious moment you will go on running helter-skelter, always anxious and restless, always lustful and angry, never fully satisfied. You know that this is the compulsiveness that keeps us going and busy, but at the same time makes us wonder whether we are getting anywhere in the long run. This is the way to spiritual exhaustion and burn-out. This is the way to spiritual death.”― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Life of the Beloved: Spiritual Living in a Secular World

Valley to mountain
Back again
Diving below the surface
Deep water
Rising anew
Beneath the noise
Quieting to inquire, hear
Anchor in the storm
Slowing to reflect
Pausing to reverence
Thin spaces
Hem of heaven
Partaking in the present
Garden of solitude
Take the journey, step by step
Steadfast
Peace awaits your arrival
To fearless play.

“To live a spiritual life we must first find the courage to enter into the desert of our loneliness and to change it by gentle and persistent efforts into a garden of solitude. The movement from loneliness to solitude, however, is the beginning of any spiritual life because it is the movement from the restless senses to the restful spirit, from the outward-reaching cravings to the inward-reaching search, from the fearful clinging to the fearless play.”― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life

May 14

Rising Up Rooted

“If we surrendered
to earth’s intelligence
we could rise up rooted, like trees.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God

“Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.”― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

How we think of things
The work behind the work
The stories we tell
Plot twist
Draw into mystery rather than false certainty
Inquiry, attention, listening
A new story unfolding
Blank page to be written
Broaden, deepen, widen
Widening circles
Deep roots
New risings

“I live my life in widening circles that reach out across the world.”― Rainer Maria Rilke, Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God

Apr 13

Ashes to Palms, Darkness to Light

Blessing for Palm Sunday by Jan L. Richardson
“Blessed is the one
who comes to us
by the way of love
poured out with abandon.
Blessed is the one
who walks toward us
by the way of grace
that holds us fast.
Blessed is the one
who calls us to follow
in the way of blessing,
in the path of joy.”

“May the blessings released through your hands
Cause windows to open in darkened minds.

May the sufferings your calling brings
Be but winter before the spring.

May the companionship of your doubt
Restore what your beliefs leave out.

May the secret hungers of your heart
Harvest from emptiness its sacred fruit.

May your solitude be a voyage
Into the wilderness and wonder of God.

May your words have the prophetic edge
To enable the heart to hear itself.

May the silence where your calling dwells
Foster your freedom in all you do and feel.

May you find words full of divine warmth
To clothe the dying in the language of dawn.

May the slow light of the Eucharist
Be a sure shelter around your future.” – John O’Donohue

Walk, witness, partake.
Holy.
Sacred.
Awe.
Winter to spring.
Grief to grace.
Fear to love.
Death to Resurrection.
The invitation is to all, not the select few.
Though few enter.
Enter.

“One hundred religious persons knit into a unity by careful organization do not constitute a church any more than eleven dead men make a football team.”― A.W. Tozer

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