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Posts tagged ‘Winter’

Mar 19

Cardinal Points

“If self is a location, so is love:
Bearings taken, markings, cardinal points,
Options, obstinacies, dug heels, and distance,
Here and there and now and then, a stance.”― Seamus Heaney, District and Circle

“Awake! arise! the hour is late!
Angels are knocking at thy door!
They are in haste and cannot wait,
And once departed come no more.
Awake! arise! the athlete’s arm
Loses its strength by too much rest;
The fallow land, the untilled farm
Produces only weeds at best.”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Complete Poems of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Winter, spring
Spring, winter
Wintering rest
Spring rising
Fallow to fertile
Cardinal points
New creation unfolding
Within first, moving out anew.

“If you feel like you don’t fit into the world you inherited it is because you were born to help create a new one.”― Ross Caligiuri, Dreaming in the Shadows

Mar 17

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

Mar 15

Not Yet. Settle In.

“The pine stays green in winter… wisdom in hardship.” – Norman Douglas

“Winter is not a season, it’s an occupation.” – Sinclair Lewis

“Not yet.”
Said winter to spring.
“Soon.”
Said spring to winter.
The dance ensues.
Winter takes the lead back from spring.
Beauty and bounty in both.
Slow. Sunday. Settle in.
The call of Sabbath.
Making space, giving way, finding treasure.

“It is the life of the crystal, the architect of the flake, the fire of the frost, the soul of the sunbeam. This crisp winter air is full of it.” – John Burroughs

Mar 14

Threshold of Threshold

“Often when something is ending we discover within it the spore of new beginning, and a whole new train of possibility is in motion before we even realize it. When the heart is ready for a fresh beginning, unforeseen things can emerge. And in a sense, this is exactly what a beginning does. It is an opening for surprises.” – John O’Donohue

“When we choose indifference, we betray our world. Yet the world is not decided by action alone. It is decided more by consciousness and spirit; they are the secret sources of all action and behavior. The spirit of a time is an incredibly subtle, yet hugely powerful force. And it is comprised of the mentality and spirit of all individuals together. Therefore, the way you look at things is not simply a private matter. Your outlook actually and concretely affects what goes on. When you give in to helplessness, you collude with despair and add to it. When you take back your power and choose to see the possibilities for healing and transformation, your creativity awakens and flows to become an active force of renewal and encouragement in the world. In this way, even in your own hidden life, you can become a powerful agent of transformation in a broken, darkened world. There is a huge force field that opens when intention focuses and directs itself toward transformation.” – John O’Donohue

Transitions to transformation
On display
Nature shows the dance and delay
Late winter sun
Ice moving to water
Crisp air
Ice lingers longer
In between time
Threshold of threshold
Winter is not done yet
Spring hokey pokey
One foot in, one foot out
Tide and breathing
Cusp of emergence.

“Part of the art of living wisely is to learn to recognize and attend to such profound openings in one’s life.” – John O’Donohue

Mar 3

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

Mar 2

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

Feb 22

Lighting Dim Places

“Our role in life is to bring the light of our own souls to the dim places around us.”— Sister Joan Chittister

“But grace tiptoed in, and I remembered that the meaning of the day is about as plain as it gets — we come from ashes and return to ashes, but when we stop our chaotic activity for awhile, and experience this, there is something that remains, deep and true, quiet and sweet.

Ashes can definitely be scary to confront, the dark night of the soul stuff that John the Divine writes about: we may fall into an abyss that we have been trying to outrun since we were little children. The American way is to trick out the abyss so it’s a little bit nicer. Maybe go to Ikea and get a more festive throw rug, right? But if you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten, which may leave you empty and afraid. Spring is the offer of new life.” – Anne Lamott

Wintering, rest and slow.
On the road to spring.
Attune and awake for the whole journey.
New life unfolding quietly.
Spring never skips its turn.
Winter neither.
Threshold of transformation.
Seasons. Cycles. Rituals.
Beauty of enough.
Lighting dim places.

“Never let the quest for more distract you from the beauty of enough.”― Sahil Bloom, The 5 Types of Wealth

Feb 19

Quiet State of Wonder

“The world will never starve for want of wonders, but for want of wonder.” – G.K. Chesterton

a blessing for when you want to wake up to joy by Kate Bowler

“Blessed are you for feeling the pull,
that tug back toward a part of yourself
so easily ignored.
Yourself at ease.
Yourself in the flow.
Yourself at play.

Pain or boredom or business has sucked up all the energy.
But wait. Aren’t you more than a crisis firefighter?

Blessed are you when you relax.
When you feel young again
When you LAY THE STRESS DOWN.

Blessed are you when you remember
That you used to be pretty good at guitar
Or piano, or actually you’re a terrible singer but, wait for it, you’re going to bring out the showtunes.

Blessed are you who put the words FUN in the calendar
Even when you have no idea what you might actually do.

You are more than a list of things to do, people to love, problems to survive.

You are a big, loud laugh. Or a quiet, study of wonder.
Extroverted or introverted.
Splashy or contained.
May the joy of fun be poured back in your roots,
And may you watch yourself come back to life.”

If but for a moment, maybe 20.
Put it all down.
Time out.
Take a walk.
Have fun.
Quiet study of wonder.
Joy poured back into your roots work.
Nature, kids, dogs, playground, music, poetry, laughter, dance.
In reach, conduits to delight.
Being not doing.
Allowing not pursuing.
Brought back to life.

Feb 18

Life Anew in the Layers

“God’s gifts put men’s best dreams to shame.”― Elizabeth Barrett Browning

“We enter Lent to enter our own earth, to make a pilgrimage into our own terrain. We move into this season to look at our life anew, to consider what has formed us, where we have come from, what we are carrying within us. Lent invites us to look at the layers that inhabit us: our stories and memories, our imaginings and dreams. This season invites us to notice what in our life feels fallow or empty, where there is growth and greenness, what sources of sustenance lie within us, where we find our inner earth crumbling to reveal something new. Lent opens our own terrain to us, that we might meet anew the God who lives in every layer of our life.” – Jan Richardson

Ash Wednesday
Lenten journey begins
Desert time
Invitation within
For each and all
Relationship, not religion
Take your journey
All, all, are welcomed and loved
Made anew in the layers.

“I pray to the God within me that He will give me the strength to ask Him the right questions.”― Elie Wiesel, Night

Dec 30

Stunning

“The poetry of the earth is never dead.” – John Keats

“The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper” – W.B. Yeats

Stunning
Gorgeous
Magical
Jaw dropping
Breath taking
Spectacular
May each day be filled with these encounters
Places
Spaces
Outside your door
Front and center
Joy, delight, awe, wonder, gratitude
Ordinary days, senses ablaze
Get out and play.

“In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.” – Aristotle

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