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Posts tagged ‘Samoyed’

Jan 22

Altars in the Ordinary

“Walk on air against your better judgement.”― Seamus Heaney

“Isn’t that a kind of prayer? The care and maintenance of the web of our noticing, the paying heed?”― Kathleen Jamie, Findings

Walking on air
Better yet, running with abandon, delight, ease
Attention, witnessing, partaking
Overflowing, abundant, intricate
Altars in the ordinary
Found in pause, quiet, noticing
Invitation and homecoming
To kneel in reverence, awe, wonder
With gratitude, gravity, grace
Woven in the beautiful mess, imperfected, unfinished, unfolding
Awaiting our care and maintenance
Reciprocating the same and so very much more.

“It’s poetry’s job, isn’t it, to keep making sense of the world in language, to keep the negotiation going? We can’t relinquish that.”― Kathleen Jamie, Findings

Nov 24

A Way, Not a Day

“We would worry less if we praised more. Thanksgiving is the enemy of discontent and dissatisfaction.”― Harry A. Ironside

“I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual. It is surprising how contented one can be with nothing definite – only a sense of existence. Well, anything for variety. I am ready to try this for the next ten thousand years, and exhaust it. How sweet to think of! my extremities well charred, and my intellectual part too, so that there is no danger of worm or rot for a long while. My breath is sweet to me. O how I laugh when I think of my vague indefinite riches. No run on my bank can drain it, for my wealth is not possession but enjoyment.”― Henry David Thoreau

Not a day
A long weekend
The start of holiday flurry and hurry
An approach
Foundation
Perspective
Attitude
Commitment
Deliberate practice
Daily habit
Noticing and simple joys
Toys and fresh dug holes
May thanksgiving be a way, not a day.

“Eucharisteo—thanksgiving—always precedes the miracle.”― Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts


“A has one aim in life… to bestow his heart.”― J. R. Ackerley

Jun 20

Insert Summer, Delight and Savor

“Summertime, and the living is easy.” – Ella Fitzgerald

“In early June the world of leaf and blade and flowers explodes, and every sunset is different.” – John Steinbeck

Wild air.
Blue skies.
Long slow days of the sun and delight.
Sit.
Savor.
Summer.
Soak it in.
Joy and fun at work.

“Summer has a flavor like no other. Always fresh and simmered in sunshine.” – Oprah Winfrey

“Live in the sunshine, swim in the sea, drink in the wild air.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Jun 11

Bits and Pieces

“The path to a greater life is not “suffering until you achieve something,” but letting bits and pieces of joy and gratitude and meaning and purpose gradually build, bit by bit.”― Brianna Wiest, 101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think

“The key to finding happiness in this life is realizing that the only way to overcome is to transcend; to find happiness in the simple pleasures, to master the art of just being.”― Brianna Wiest

May today be enough.
Overflowing.
Ebb and flow.
Fun, laughter, play.
Delight in the art of being.
Space, margins, pause, praise.
For what already is.
Fresh eyes.
Grateful heart.
Chasing joy.
Being caught by it too.
Bits and pieces.
Abundance of presence.
Spectator and participant in this day.
Simple delicious pleasures.

“It’s not about getting over things, it’s about making room for them. It’s about painting the picture with contrast.”― Brianna Wiest

May 17

Accept the Invitation to Joy, Daily

“Life is filled with invitations to experience joy and goodness.”― Laurie E. Smith, Leap With Me

Invitation by Mary Oliver

“Oh do you have time
to linger
for just a little while
out of your busy

and very important day
for the goldfinches
that have gathered
in a field of thistles

for a musical battle,
to see who can sing
the highest note,
or the lowest,

or the most expressive of mirth,
or the most tender?
Their strong, blunt beaks
drink the air

as they strive
melodiously
not for your sake
and not for mine

and not for the sake of winning
but for sheer delight and gratitude—
believe us, they say,
it is a serious thing

just to be alive
on this fresh morning
in the broken world.
I beg of you,

do not walk by
without pausing
to attend to this
rather ridiculous performance.

It could mean something.
It could mean everything.
It could be what Rilke meant, when he wrote:
You must change your life.”

For sheer delight and gratitude
Walk lightly with rapt attention
Your path this day
Accept the invitation to joy whenever and wherever offered, without delay
To pause, praise, savor
And, of course, chase a tennis ball or two.

“if you see for yourself, hear for yourself, and enter deeply enough this seeing and hearing, all things will speak with and through you.”― Jane Hirshfield, The Heart of Haiku

May 3

Spring Work Begins

"In spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt." —Margaret Atwood

“In spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.” —Margaret Atwood

“That is one good thing about this world…there are always sure to be more springs.”― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Avonlea

Unapologetically walking in
Dirt embedded in her paws, face too
Hole expanded
Work done
Fun had
The dance of filling and un-filling the perennial hole begins
Spring delight
Lesson learned
Lighten up, put the world down, enjoy the journey
Go wear some spring today

“It is spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.”― Rainer Maria Rilke

Mar 22

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Sweet Smell of Dirt

“In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.” – Margaret Atwood

“As the years pass, I am coming more and more to understand that it is the common, everyday blessings of our common everyday lives for which we should be particularly grateful. They are the things that fill our lives with comfort and our hearts with gladness — just the pure air to breathe and the strength to breath it; just warmth and shelter and home folks; just plain food that gives us strength; the bright sunshine on a cold day; and a cool breeze when the day is warm.”― Laura Ingalls Wilder, Writings to Young Women from Laura Ingalls Wilder: On Wisdom and Virtues

Winter to spring dance
Dirt softening to growth
Get out and put on some spring
A walk in the woods
Wrestle in the back yard
Mud on the forehead
Dirt embedded in your feet
Grounding in ordinary days
With extraordinary gratitude
To be right where you are
Delighting in this day
The unfolding of a thousand springs.

“For a day, just for one day,
Talk about that which disturbs no one
And bring some peace into your
Beautiful eyes.”
– Shams-al-Din Mohammad Hafez, The Subject Tonight Is Love: 60 Wild and Sweet Poems Inspired by Hafiz

“Spring work is going on with joyful enthusiasm.” – John Muir

Mar 19

Daily Work of Delighting

“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I’ll meet you there.” – Rumi

“We have to fight them daily, lake fleas, those many small worries about the morrow, for they sap our energies.”― Etty Hillesum

Care without carrying it all
Pause to root, reset, redirect
Laughter to lighten the load
Wander to enter awe and wonder again and again
Nature to awaken the senses
Reverence to till gratitude
Kindness to soften the heart
A coat of joy to wear on the journey
May you find delight today
And let it in

“A desire to kneel down sometimes pulses through my body, or rather it is as if my body has been meant and made for the act of kneeling. Sometimes, in moments of deep gratitude, kneeling down becomes an overwhelming urge, head deeply bowed, hands before my face.”― Etty Hillesum

“Despite everything, life is full of beauty and meaning.”― Etty Hillesum, Lettres de westerbork

Dec 18

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Delight in the Ordinary

“…small bits of our day are profoundly meaningful
because they are the site of our worship. The crucible of our formation is in the monotony of our daily routines.”― Tish Harrison Warren, Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life

“We are standing before the Grand Canyon or the Sistine Chapel and rolling our eyes.”― Tish Harrison Warren, Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life

Hum of the ordinary.
Invitation to play.
Nuance of color.
Current of rivers.
Flow of wind.
Dance of trees.
Rhythm of life.
Hidden in plain sight.
Asking our partaking, savoring, pausing.
Small moment, big life.

“The new life into which we are baptized is lived out in days, hours, and minutes. God is forming us into a new people. And the place of that formation is in the small moments of today.”― Tish Harrison Warren, Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life

Oct 28

Simple Moments

“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” – Wayne Dyer

“Give yourself a gift of five minutes of contemplation in awe of everything you see around you. Go outside and turn your attention to the many miracles around you. This five-minute-a-day regimen of appreciation and gratitude will help you to focus your life in awe.” – Wayne Dyer

Simple moments.
Slivers of joy.
Found hidden on the ground you stand.
Overflowing with delight.
These are what add up, accumulate, multiply.
Do not miss the simple moments, the ingredients of a good life well lived.
Small and immense all at once.
Daily gratitude revealing the abundant present.

“Our present moment is a mystery that we are part of. Here and now is where all the wonder of life lies hidden. And make no mistake about it, to strive to live completely in the present is to strive for what already is the case.” – Wayne Dye

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