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Posts tagged ‘Summer’

Jul 14

Sunshine Swimming

“When you regain a sense of your life as a journey of discovery, you return to rhythm with yourself. When you take the time to travel with reverence, a richer life unfolds before you. Moments of beauty begin to braid your days.”― John O’Donohue, Divine Beauty: The Invisible Embrace

“Awaken to the mystery of being here and enter the quiet immensity of your own presence.
Have joy and peace in the temple of your senses.
Receive encouragement when new frontiers beckon.
Respond to the call of your gift and the courage to follow its path.
Let the flame of anger free you of all falsity.
May warmth of heart keep your presence aflame.
May anxiety never linger about you.
May your outer dignity mirror an inner dignity of soul.
Take time to celebrate the quiet miracles that seek no attention.
Be consoled in the secret symmetry of your soul.
May you experience each day as a sacred gift woven around the heart of wonder.” – John O’Donohue

May beauty braid your day.
Wonder wander in, take your hand, come follow me.
Awe rise inviting reverence in.
Open hands, soft heart, quiet mind.

“When we approach with reverence, great things decide to approach us. Our real life comes to the surface and its light awakens the concealed beauty in things. When we walk on the earth with reverence, beauty will decide to trust us. The rushed heart and arrogant mind lack the gentleness and patience to enter that embrace.”― John O’Donohue, Beauty: A Study of Beauty in Celtic Spirituality and the Human Spirit

Jul 7

Slight Shift, Quiet Eyes

“look at the world with quiet eyes.”― Sharon Salzberg, Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation

“Life is like an ever-shifting kaleidoscope – a slight change, and all patterns alter.”― Sharon Salzberg

Summer the stage
Slow and savor
Kaleidoscope of color
Bountiful beauty
Vibrancy and growth
Quiet eyes
Soft heart
Travel light
Lovingkindness, peace, ease.

“Restore your attention or bring it to a new level by dramatically slowing down whatever you’re doing.”― Sharon Salzberg, Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation

Jul 2

Beeing

“Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces. Smell the rain, and feel the wind.” – Ashley Smith

“Mindfulness is not chasing the moment but sipping the nectar of the moment.”― Amit Ray, Mindfulness Living in the Moment – Living in the Breath

Put on summer.
Soak in slow.
Put down doing.
Pick up ease.
Sit in being.

“Let July be July. 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

Jun 30

Gaze and Stance

“May today bring us simple things in simple packages. Easy-to-use things. Things we can tuck into our hearts and don’t require instructions or batteries. Simple things like love and peace, like comfort and joy.”― Mary Davis, Every Day Spirit: A Daybook of Wisdom, Joy and Peace

“Resistance comes in many guises, the most common symptoms being worry, fear and the need to maintain control.”― Mary Davis, Every Day Spirit: A Daybook of Wisdom, Joy and Peace

Yield
Gaze longer
Stance of peace
Catch and release
Fluidity, ease of water
Through, over, around rocks
Simple ways, daily practices
Delight and bliss
Emergence, slow and steady
Peace, light, joy
Rising within, spilling into the world.

“May we be at peace in our hearts. May we be at peace in our homes. May we be at peace with each other. May we imagine peace in our world.”― Mary Davis, Every Day Spirit: A Daybook of Wisdom, Joy and Peace

Jun 27

Mindful or Mind Full?

“Overthinking is not a sign of intelligence – it’s a thief of clarity.” – Arsalan Yousufzai

“A crowded mind
Leaves no space
For a peaceful heart.” – Christine Evangelou

The job of play
Of no place to be but here
Now
Losing track of time
Checking nothing off the list
Not running ahead
Nor lagging behind
Present, awake, spacious
Resting mind, peaceful heart
May you dance here today.

“Now that your worry has proved such an unlucrative business,
Why not find a better job?” – Hafez

Jun 14

Narrow Path, Beauty Abundant

“And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul”― John Muir

“It seems to me that the natural world is the greatest source of excitement; the greatest source of visual beauty; the greatest source of intellectual interest. It is the greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living.”― David Attenborough

Wandering
Wondering
Exploration
Beauty
Fresh air
Relaxation
Reflection
Reset
Realignment
Renewal
Compound interest
Economy of Delight, Pause, Praise
Refill your tank
Daily

“Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt.”― John Muir

Jun 2

In the Details, Life Ablaze

“The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.” — Henry Miller

The Summer Day by Mary Oliver

“Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean—
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down—
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?”

In the details, such beauty
The pause, immensity
The gaze, discovery
The stillness, symphony
The witnessing, amazement
The idleness, expansion
Holy, sacred ground we stand
Ordinary days, brimming with life
In wonder, reverence, goodness, grace

“God is in the details.” – Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Jun 1

Weight of Joy

“Spring being a tough act to follow, God created June.” – Al Bernstein

“For love is not what we do after we get other things done, if we have any energy left over. Love is what we do, period. It is not how we work; it is the work.” – Eugene Peterson, The Hallelujah Banquet

Show up
To this day
Anew
Changing the world, self first
Weight of joy
Gravity of delight
Grounding of gratitude
Open heart
Small acts
Love is the work.

“When I make changes to me and the way I show up in the world, the world changes too.”― Genevieve Davis, Magic Words and How to Use Them

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

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