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Posts tagged ‘Summer’

May 27

Enjoyment, Try It

“You have gained a new source of enjoyment, and it is well to have as many holds upon happiness as possible.”― Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

“We must risk delight. We can do without pleasure,
but not delight. Not enjoyment. We must have
the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless
furnace of this world. To make injustice the only
measure of our attention is to praise the Devil.”
― Jack Gilbert, Refusing Heaven

Risk delight
Play, lighten up, laugh
Have fun
Not platitudes or naïve
Daily practices
Ways to walk in the world
A skip in your step
To not succumb to chaos
Gloom and doom
A counterbalance
Resilience and resistance
Simple, doable, plentiful
Joy spilling into action
Action spilling into joy
Stubbornness to accept gladness
Cast light

“We classify too much and enjoy too little.”― Okakura Kakuzō, The Book of Tea

 

May 26

Let Us Dance

“Let us dance in the sun, wearing wild flowers in our hair…”― susan polis Schutz

“I do love the beginning of the summer hols,’ said Julian. They always seem to stretch out ahead for ages and ages.’

‘They go so nice and slowly at first,’ said Anne, his little sister. ‘Then they start to gallop.”― Enid Blyton, Five Go Off in a Caravan

Too cold, too hot
Too slow, too fast
Too much, too little
Measure, compare, grumble less
Invite, receive, open up to joy more
Summer’s call to presence, awe, life.
Dance.

“Some of the best memories are made in flip flops.”― Kellie Elmore

Sep 15

In All Seasons, Blooming

“Deep in their roots, all flowers keep the light.” – Theodore Roethke

“If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.” – Frances Hodgson Burnett

Beginning, ending, beginning, ending
Woven together in ordinary days
Extraordinary ways
Last blooms of summer
First blooms of fall
Choreography of transitions to transformations
Join the dance
From darkness and dirt to light and glory
In all seasons. blooming.

“One day you will look back and see that all along, you were blooming.”- Morgan Harper Nichols

“September is the culmination of the harvest and the storing of earth’s abundance.”― Joan Borysenko, Pocketful of Miracles

Aug 30

Seasons in Harmony

“This is the real secret of life — to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play.”― Alan Watts

“Is not this a true autumn day? Just the still melancholy that I love – that makes life and nature harmonise. The birds are consulting about their migrations, the trees are putting on the hectic or the pallid hues of decay, and begin to strew the ground, that one’s very footsteps may not disturb the repose of earth and air, while they give us a scent that is a perfect anodyne to the restless spirit. Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.” ― George Eliot

Autumn at the door
Let her in
Harvest
Deep colors of celebration
Of brilliant bloom, growth
Whether we see it yet or not
New life, different forms, shapes, sizes
Sunrises and sunsets remain
Grounding us in present beauty
In all seasons.

“The more a thing tends to be permanent, the more it tends to be lifeless.”― Alan Watts

Aug 25

Summer and Fall Jubilee

“And the yellow sunflower by the brook, in autumn beauty stood.”― William Cullen Bryant

“That 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

First dance of many
Summer and fall waltz begins
Fall soon to take the lead
Cool mornings
Earlier sunsets
Flowers bright turning to jewel tones
Thresholds
A foot on each side
Cusp of transition, change
Transformation if we choose to forego resistance
The work of seasons
To remain in the season while in it
Finding the gifts in each

“And all at once, summer collapsed into fall.”― Oscar Wilde

Aug 20

Summer’s Sunset

“The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.”― Alan Wilson Watts

“Try to imagine what it will be like to go to sleep and never wake up… now try to imagine what it was like to wake up having never gone to sleep.”― Alan Watts

Last weeks of summer.
Soak them in with joy, not lament.
Each season has its gifts and purpose.
Participate and partake in each one with enthusiasm and delight.
Unlearn, plunge in, never going to sleep.
To awe, wonder and beauty woven into each day.
Don’t miss the show.

“A scholar tries to learn something everyday; a student of Buddhism tries to unlearn something daily.”― Alan Watts

Aug 13

Hovering

“Plants do not speak, but their silence is alive with change.”― May Sarton, Plant Dreaming Deep

“Slowly slowly O mind…
Everything in own pace happens,
Gardner may water a hundred buckets…
Fruit arrives only in its season.”― Kabir

Savor and slow
Partake and witness
Summer’s work is rest, play
Still here, do not miss it looking too far ahead
Harvest all of the colors
Deep breath
Hover and delight

“Breathe the sweetness that hovers in August.” – Denise Levertov

Jul 31

Summer’s Third Act

“This morning, the sun endures past dawn. I realise that it is August: the summer’s last stand.”― Sara Baume, A Line Made By Walking

The Pond

“August of another summer, and once again
I am drinking the sun
and the lilies again are spread across the water.
I know now what they want is to touch each other.
I have not been here for many years
during which time I kept living my life.
Like the heron, who can only croak, who wishes he
could sing,
I wish I could sing.
A little thanks from every throat would be appropriate.
This is how it has been, and this is how it is:
All my life I have been able to feel happiness,
except whatever was not happiness,
which I also remember.
Each of us wears a shadow.
But just now it is summer again
and I am watching the lilies bow to each other,
then slide on the wind and the tug of desire,
close, close to one another,
Soon now, I’ll turn and start for home.
And who knows, maybe I’ll be singing.”
― Mary Oliver, Felicity

Time slows when we do
Immersion, presence, attention
This place and space of now
Soak in the rest of summer, third act
Fruits of harvest to follow
A little thanks, maybe more.

“Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.”― John Lubbock, The Use Of Life

Jul 30

Beauty Unfolding in This Very Day

“Peace is always beautiful.” – Walt Whitman

“Every morning there are flowers of potentials. Your thoughts and interactions give them shape and reality.”― Amit Ray, Peace Bliss Beauty and Truth

Fresh eyes
New day
Summer beauty ablaze, unfolding everywhere
Take the slow cut
Look up and around
Seek peace
It will find you
In the slowing and savoring
Beauty unfolding in this very day
Do not miss the show.

“Beauty awakens the soul to act.” – Dante Alighieri

Jul 18

Summer’s Work of Presence and Ease

“I drifted into a summer-nap under the hot shade of July, serenaded by a cicada lullaby, to drowsy-warm dreams of distant thunder.”― Terri Guillemets

“The silence in me propels me to fully feel the majesty of nature, to connect to my aliveness in the presence of trees, water, mountains, soft earth.” – John O’Donohue

Summer
A season
A flow
A whisper
A way of being
An ease inviting pause and restoration
Relax and witness the beauty abound
Warm sun
Blue skies
Flowers in bloom
Birds in song
Trees swaying
Soft breeze waltzing
Let summer do its work in you
Majesty and rapt presence
Sweet, slow time

“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.” – John O’Donohue

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