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Posts tagged ‘Seasons’

Dec 5

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A Different Coat

“Snow creates that quality of awe in the face of a power greater than ours. It epitomises the aesthetic notion of the sublime, in which greatness and beauty couple to overcome you—a small, frail human—entirely.”― Katherine May, Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times

“I recognized winter. I saw it coming (a mile off, since you ask), and I looked it in the eye. I greeted it and let it in. I had some tricks up my sleeve, you see. I’ve learned them the hard way. When I started feeling the drag of winter, I began to treat myself like a favored child: with kindness and love. I assumed my needs were reasonable and that my feelings were signals of something important. I kept myself well fed and made sure I was getting enough sleep. I took myself for walks in the fresh air and spent time doing things that soothed me. I asked myself: What is this winter all about? I asked myself: What change is coming?” ― Katherine May, Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times

In slowing, wintering, waiting, a certain and steady unfolding.
In stillness, restoration, clarity, ease.
Crisp air to open, awaken.
Sun dancing with shadows.
Change, transition, transformation.
A new coat in the making.

“That’s the gift of winter: it’s irresistible. Change will happen in its wake, whether we like it or not. We can come out of it wearing a different coat.”― Katherine May, Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times

Nov 30

Transformation Time

“Time flies never to be recalled.” – Virgil

“Nobody’s going to do your life for you. You have to do it yourself, whether you’re rich or poor, out of money or raking it in, the beneficiary of ridiculous fortune or terrible injustice. And you have to do it no matter what is true. No matter what is hard. No matter what unjust, sad, sucky things befall you. Self-pity is a dead-end road. You make the choice to drive down it. It’s up to you to decide to stay parked there or to turn around and drive out.”― Cheryl Strayed, Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar

When circling the cul-de-sac of comparison, fairness, control, disappointment, expectations, hard right out.
Leave the familiar and flat behind, venture out and go deeper.
New map, new path, new territory.
Be kind and generous along the way, share the road, make space for other.
In the stillness of winter, create your spring.
Transformation time.

“Breaching out of their rooted darkness, breakthroughs are seeds of nonconformity determined to sprout into the light of freethinking.”― Monica Gagliano

Nov 29

Take Rest

“Everything comes gradually and at its appointed hour.” – Ovid

“Take rest; a field that has rested gives a beautiful crop.” – Ovid

Winter is back.
50-degree days and now snow.
The dance of seasons.
Fall, winter, a touch of spring.
Winter’s turn now.
Slowness, quiet, dormancy.
The earth rests and extends the invitation to join.
Beneath, preparing the path to spring when the rest is complete.

“True restfulness, though, is a form of awareness, a way of being in life. It is living ordinary life with a sense of ease, gratitude, appreciation, peace and prayer. We are restful when ordinary life is enough.”― Ronald Rolheiser, The Shattered Lantern: Rediscovering a Felt Presence of God

Nov 24

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Thanks-Receiving

“The thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest.” – William Blake

“It is only the farmer who faithfully plants seeds in the Spring, who reaps a harvest in the Autumn.” – B. C. Forbes

May you be open to receive, accept and be held in love.
Ebb and flow.
In and out.
Like breath.
A dance, a rhythm, a flow.
Receive and give thanks.
Plant seeds. Nurture. Harvest.
Happy Thanks-receiving and Thanksgiving.

“Until we can receive with an open heart, we are never really giving with an open heart.”― Brene Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection

Nov 19

Winter Sun

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

“That’s what winter is: An exercise in remembering how to still yourself then how to come pliantly back to life again.” – Ali Smith

The strength and brilliance of winter sun.
Blue is bluer.
Air crisp and sharp.
The sound of snow under foot.
A quiet, slowing, softening.
The great pause.
Acceptance opens the door to joy.
Prelude, precursor to spring.
Preparation and transformation in the rest.

“Ô, Sunlight! The most precious gold to be found on Earth.”― Roman Payne

Nov 17

In the Way of Beauty

“How wild it was, to let it be.”― Cheryl Strayed, Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

“There’s always a sunrise and always a sunset and it’s up to you to choose to be there for it,’ said my mother. ‘Put yourself in the way of beauty.”― Cheryl Strayed, Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

May you be hit by beauty, stopped in your tracks, held in awe.
In all seasons, life brimming, brewing, unfolding.
Stillness in winter, preparing for spring awakening, paving the way for summer confetti, followed by autumn fire.
All colliding, dancing, merging together into the fabric and flow.
Put yourself in the way of beauty.

“The work of embodiment begins with being present. It’s important to note that the word responsibility at its root means “our ability to respond.” So, living an embodied life begins with our vow to stay present and to respond to life in all its forms.”— Mark Nepo, Surviving Storms: Finding the Strength to Meet Adversity

Oct 3

October Bloom

“I can smell autumn dancing in the breeze. The sweet chill of pumpkin, and crisp sunburnt leaves.”– Ann Drake

“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

Crisp mornings and eves
Warm sun nestled between
Colors transforming into a rich tapestry
Remain and rest in the beauty of October harvest and bounty
Preparation for dormancy to return yet again to spring
Take a season at a time and open the gifts each offers.

“There is something in October sets the gypsy blood astir: We must rise and follow her, When from every hill of flame She calls, and calls each vagabond by name.”― William Bliss

Sep 15

Hues of Change

“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” – Albert Camus

“Nature will bear the closest inspection. She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf, and take an insect view of its plain.” – Henry David Thoreau

Hues of change, unfolding
Rainbow of colors melting one into the next
A kaleidoscope of artistry in a leaf amidst transition
Slowly, surely, and unseen if we bypass the pause, the gaze
Second spring where nature shows off, seasons dance
A masterclass in transformation, beauty the professor.

“Every particular in nature, a leaf, a drop, a crystal, a moment of time is related to the whole, and partakes of the perfection of the whole.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Sep 7

The Changed, the Changing

“I hope I can be the autumn leaf, who looked at the sky and lived. And when it was time to leave, gracefully it knew life was a gift.”– Dodinsky

“Blessed are you dear one, when the world around you has changed. Everything is different now. Your body, your age, your relationships, your job, your faith. The things that once brought you joy. The way you existed in the world. The people you love and trust and rely on. Things have changed and it would be silly to imagine you haven’t changed with them. You are not who you once were. Bless that old self. They did such a good job with what they knew. They made you who you were. All the mistakes and heartbreak and naivety and courage and blessed are who you are now. You who aren’t pretending that things are the same and who continue to grow and stretch and show up to your life as it really is. Wholehearted, vulnerable, maybe a little afraid. So blessed are we the changed.” – Kate Bowler

Follow the seasons for cues and clues, directions.
Everchanging, wandering, transforming.
Dirt to bud to bloom, to dormancy, back to life again and again.
Cycles and circles.
Rarely linear.
Made new in the delays and detours.
Shaped and stretched in the struggle.
Resilient, soft and strong.
The work of transition, the fruit of transformation.
Blessed are we the changed, the changing.

“There is something so special in the early leaves drifting from the trees–as if we are all to be allowed a chance to peel, to refresh, to start again.”– Ruth Ahmed

Sep 4

Summer-Fall

“Life is the flower for which love is the honey.” – Victor Hugo

“There is a time in the last few days of summer when the ripeness of autumn fills the air.” – Rudolfo Anaya

Cool mornings
Warm afternoons
Cool evenings
Summer not quite over
Fall knocking on the door
Flowers in bloom and drying up
On the cusp
The balance beam
The edge
Multiplicity, both and
Threshold, a foot on each side
Transition time, a familiar place of life
Do not surpass or rush by
Stay awake on the path to transformation

“Leaving the old, both worlds at once they view, That stand upon the threshold of the new. – Edmund Waller

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