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Posts tagged ‘Seasons’

Autumn Waving

“October, crisp, misty, golden October, when the light is sweet and heavy.”― Angela Carter, The Magic Toyshop

Grace by Wendell Berry

“The woods is shining this morning.
Red, gold and green, the leaves
lie on the ground, or fall,
or hang full of light in the air still.
Perfect in its rise and in its fall, it takes
the place it has been coming to forever.
It has not hastened here, or lagged.
See how surely it has sought itself,
its roots passing lordly through the earth.
See how without confusion it is
all that it is, and how flawless
its grace is. Running or walking, the way
is the same. Be still. Be still.
“He moves your bones, and the way is clear.”

Waves of fall colors linger
Holding out
A spell longer
Time and timing
Thresholds
A foot on each side
Lingering, abiding, tending
The work of this day, each day
Grace and gratitude
Harvesting presence.

“And autumn ain’t so shabby for wow, either. The colors are broccoli and flame and fox fur.” – Anne Lamott

 

Finishing, Not Finished

“The thing about finishing a story is that finishing is really only the beginning.”― William Herring

There are days when it feels like we are finished.
It’s over, gone.
Some things are, they had their season.
Make space for new things, fresh seasons, for new buds to bloom.
Glancing back we see the path of finishing, becoming.
Change past tense to active present to witness and partake in the unfolding and finishing

“May you have the courage to begin; the patience to persist; and the strength to finish.”― Michael Bassey Johnson

October Grace

“October, baptize me with leaves! Swaddle me in corduroy and nurse me with split pea soup. October, tuck tiny candy bars in my pockets and carve my smile into a thousand pumpkins. O autumn! O teakettle! O grace!”
― Rainbow Rowell , Attachments

“Let misty autumn be our part!
The twilight of the year is sweet:
Where shadow and the darkness meet
Our love, a twilight of the heart
Eludes a little time’s deceit.

Are we not better and at home
In dreamful Autumn, we who deem
No harvest joy is worth a dream?
A little while and night shall come,
A little while, then, let us dream.”
― Ernest Dowson, The Poems and Prose of Ernest Dowson

Harvest to be found in each season
Seeding and tending too
Invitation and attention
Abiding and presence
The path
Straight, winding, detours, delays
On ramps and rest stops
Slow and fast
Points of distance and reflection, where meaning is made
Grace for this day
May joy find you on today’s leg of the journey.

“For even the very wise cannot see all ends.”― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

September Sun

“September days have the warmth of summer in their briefer hours, but in their lengthening evenings a prophetic breath of autumn.”― Rowland E. Robinson

“September reminds us to lean into change, to trust the process, and to welcome the opportunities that come with every new chapter. As the air shifts, we are reminded that every ending carries the seed of a new beginning. Life whispers that change is not to be feared, but embraced… a gentle reminder that letting go is a part of growth and that beauty is found not only in what blooms, but also in what transforms.”― Steve Maraboli

Season shifts.
Out and in.
Thresholds, bridges, crossings.
To remain open, curious, welcoming.
Beginnings and endings woven with seeds and fruit,
Harvest well.
Fruit of transformation.

“[T]hat old September feeling, left over from school days, of summer passing, vacation nearly done, obligations gathering, books and football in the air … Another fall, another turned page: there was something of jubilee in that annual autumnal beginning, as if last year’s mistakes had been wiped clean by summer.”― Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose

Harvest the Fruit of this Day

“Extraordinary things are always hiding in places people never think to look.”― Jodi Picoult, My Sister’s Keeper

“Let July be July,
And let August be August.
And let yourself
just be
even in
the uncertainty.
You don’t have to fix everything.
You don’t have to solve everything.
And you can still find peace
and grow
in the wild
of changing things.” – Morgan Harper Nichols

August spilling into September.
Last days holding hands with first days.
Roots, fruits, harvest.
In the wild of changing things.
Breathing and grounding in love.
Participate, offer, partake.

“Love is not an equation, it is not a contract, and it is not a happy ending. Love is the slate under the chalk, the ground that buildings rise, and the oxygen in the air. It is the place you come back to, no matter where your headed”― Jodi Picoult

Slow, Gentle Rhythms

“August is the slow, gentle month that stretches out the longest across the span of a year. It yawns and lingers on with the light in its palms.” — Victoria Erickson

“We must be willing to get rid of
the life we’ve planned, so as to have
the life that is waiting for us.

The old skin has to be shed
before the new one can come.

If we fix on the old, we get stuck.
When we hang onto any form,
we are in danger of putrefaction.

Hell is life drying up.”
― Joseph Campbell, A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living

Seasons on the cusp of change.
Not there yet.
Still roads to be traveled, reveled.
No leaping ahead, nor falling behind.
Full presence, thresholding.
Summer still blooming and fertile.
Fall scattering strokes of crimson and gold as green yields.
Transitions, the first steps to transformation.

“August creates as she slumbers, replete and satisfied.” — Joseph Wood Krutch

Spring Swinging

“Only those with tenacity can march forward in March.”― Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

“The stormy March has come at last,
With winds and clouds and changing skies;
I hear the rushing of the blast
That through the snowy valley flies.”
― William C. Bryant

March push and pull.
50-degree temperature swings.
Softening earth.
Followed by 10 inches of snow.
Transformation under construction.
Preparing spring to burst with brilliant colors.
Join the dance.
Winter always yields to spring.
Time and timing.
Joy in the waiting, on each step of the journey.
Gratitude in, for, through all seasons.

“In March winter is holding back and spring is pulling forward. Something holds and something pulls inside of us too.”― Jean Hersey

Spring Unfolding Slow and Sure

“March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.” – Charles Dickens

“Within the grip of winter, it is almost impossible to imagine the spring. The gray perished landscape is shorn of color. Only bleakness meets the eye; everything seems severe and edged. Winter is the oldest season; it has some quality of the absolute. Yet beneath the surface of winter, the miracle of spring is already in preparation; the cold is relenting; seeds are wakening up. Colors are beginning to imagine how they will return. Then, imperceptibly, somewhere one bug opens and the symphony of renewal is no longer reversible. From the black heart of winter a miraculous, breathing plenitude of color emerges.

The beauty of nature insists on taking its time. Everything is prepared. Nothing is rushed. The rhythm of emergence is a gradual slow beat always inching its way forward; change remains faithful to itself until the new unfolds in the full confidence of true arrival. Because nothing is abrupt, the beginning of spring nearly always catches us unawares. It is there before we see it; and then we can look nowhere without seeing it.”― John O’Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

Slow softening of ground
Seeds opening beneath
Snow turning to steady streams
Warm sun, crisp cool air lingers
Mud, earth opening up for business
Of bloom, renewal, awakening
Join the slow waltz into spring.
Attune. Open. Awake.

“Keep everything open and live from openness to openness.”― Francis Lucille, The Perfume of Silence

Fresh Heart, Filled with Hope

“As the seasons shift, remember that just as winter surrenders to spring, so too can your heart transform in time.”― An Marke

“We live in cycles. Cycles, how simple is that? It’s just like the tug and pull of the tides, the inhale and exhale of the wind, the ease of the trees letting loose their leaves, knowing full well they’ll regrow next spring.”― Kassandra Dick

Summer brisk then light shortens
Fall colors blaze in harvest abundance
Giving way to wintering, rest if we allow
The place where spring prepares, plans, plots
To burst and break out in brilliant color, fragrance, confetti
Seasons, cycles, rhythms
The poetry of ordinary days, thresholds to cross, and transformation unfolding.
Join the dance of bloom and fresh hope.

“As the seasons change, so do the rhythms of our lives; may we learn to flow with grace through every cycle.”― An Marke

Arriving and Unfolding

“Thriving is not an end state—it is a continuous” journey.”― Sahil Bloom, The 5 Types of Wealth

“The arrival fallacy is the false assumption that reaching some achievement or goal will create durable feelings of satisfaction and contentment in our lives.”― Sahil Bloom, The 5 Types of Wealth

Perpetual spring.
In all seasons.
Desert and oasis.
Changing, growing, unfolding.
May I never be done.
Present and grateful.
Finding and sitting with joy woven into the daily journey.
Hidden in the ordinary.
Knit into detours, delays, waiting.
Hope. Light. Bloom.
Revised. Renewed. Refreshed.

“Accept that you are a work in progress, both a revision and a draft: you are better and more complete than earlier versions of yourself, but you also have work to do. Be open to change. Allow yourself to be revised.”― Maggie Smith, Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity, and Change