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Tag Archives: mindfulness

Creativity

Posted on March 30, 2013 by ivonprefontaine

I am grateful for the comments I received. The link to the radio show is not working today.  I made minor changes, but still did not get through. I will work on this and see what I can do to correct the problem.

I believe the Internet is a place to build community, enhance conversations, and create relationships previously impossible. I think it requires a mindful approach, and serial single tasking to do this, but it is doable. There are creative spaces in any community that makes all this possible.

A pause,

A whisper,

A gentle voice,

In that gap–

Mindful response to stimulus.

The gap grows–

A mindfully tended space

Nourished and fed,

Attended, become aware

Sow with care.

Blossoms ready themselves–

Creativity appears at the door

Heartfelt listening

There senses merge into one

Receive that gentle lady.

She is a visitor–

Long awaited;

Not chased after–

In that spaciousness

There creativity wraps me in her arms.

10 Comments

Posted in Blogging, Community, Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments, Sabbath and tagged , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

Posted on February 26, 2013 by ivonprefontaine

This is not the poem. I chose a part that speaks to me deeply. I tend to be a bit of rebel. I know it hard to believe, but I am always willing, when others are not, to shake up the things as they are. T. S. Eliot said it so well: “Do I dare/Disturb the universe?” I find comfort some days in the power of that question. What in my universe needs to be disturbed? Even as I grow older, what does wisdom call on me to do that ruffles my feathers and those around me?

And indeed there will be time
For the yellow smoke that slides along the street,
Rubbing its back upon the window-panes;
There will be time, there will be time
To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;
There will be time to murder and create,
And time for all the works and days of hands
That lift and drop a question on your plate;
Time for you and time for me,
And time yet for a hundred indecisions,
And for a hundred visions and revisions,
Before the taking of a toast and tea…

And indeed there will be time
To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?”
Time to turn back and descend the stair,
With a bald spot in the middle of my hair—
[They will say: "How his hair is growing thin!"]
My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin,
My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin—
[They will say: "But how his arms and legs are thin!"]
Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.

14 Comments

Posted in Community, Leadership, Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments and tagged , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Life Arrives

Posted on October 18, 2012 by ivonprefontaine

I read comments today in response to yesterday’s post, Transformation, and found words emerging. They remind me of the unnecessary chase. I only need patience and life arrives in each moment, fully revealed in its extraordinary nature. Life is not a race or hunting trip in which I seek the biggest prize.

When I seek

When I chase

Am active

I fail.

Patience

When I sit

I need not seek

Life discovers me.

Found

I wait

Life arrives

I only need sit.

6 Comments

Posted in Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments, Synchronicity and tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Calm in Turbulence

Posted on September 26, 2012 by ivonprefontaine

As insight grows,

Clarity emerges

Wisdom revealed.

Enter life’s stream

Accept turbulence

Seek calm waters.

Drop labels

Cease judgment

Fall awake.

13 Comments

Posted in Mindful Life, Nature in All Its Glory, Photography, Poetry and tagged , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

In the Greater Scheme

Posted on September 25, 2012 by ivonprefontaine

It was a tiring day. I sat and reminded myself of a time I felt less tired. I took this picture that day.

I sit

I walk.

In the greater scheme

What does it mean?

Sunlight warms face

Gentle breeze cools air.

Fresh morning;

Comfortable afternoon.

Feel one with Nature

Deep roots.

Supported by ground;

Enveloped by all around.

Afresh, like a beginner;

Feel that which was always there.

See the world;

Feel it for the first time.

I find a place;

A place at the table of life.

7 Comments

Posted in Mindful Life, Nature in All Its Glory, Photography, Poetry and tagged , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Safe Haven

Posted on August 15, 2012 by ivonprefontaine

Kathy went to the farm yesterday and walked in from the road. Although it is overgrown, it is full of memories. One can think of the farmhouse as uninhabited, but visitors still abound. We sat at the kitchen table many mornings, watched the barnyard, and viewed assorted wildlife that found safe haven. Yesterday, this deer visited while Kathy visited and stirred memories.

The farm is in west-central Alberta and on clear days (yesterday was not) you can see the Rockies in the distance at various points on the drive out.

Sense serenity

Surrounded

By nature and memories.

Some visible

Others invisible

Each appears.

A home for being

A work place

A learning place.

A deer poses

Momentarily safe,

Human memories stir.

14 Comments

Posted in Mindful Life, Nature in All Its Glory, Photography, Poetry, Reflective Moments and tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Calm Within the Turbulence

Posted on August 14, 2012 by ivonprefontaine

I awake each morning

Smile into the day

Soak in each moment.

Pause

Find calm

Let calm find me

Amidst the turbulence.

7 Comments

Posted in Nature in All Its Glory, Photography, Poetry, Reflective Moments and tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Transform

Posted on August 13, 2012 by ivonprefontaine

Since arriving home, it has been a slow process. I resist the routine or rut I was in when we left for Spokane. It is hard work, but one thing I noted today, I am not alone in my travails. It seems universal and I am glad for company. As I went through blogs I recognized transformation is a patient process, a slow process, and a personally purposeful process. I looked at the pictures we took on our travels and for all of nature’s ability to change rapidly, most change is slow and transformational.

I wait

Often impatient

Desire for something better

Lean into my steps

Transform

Slow, patient, with purpose

Without plan

An invisible blueprint.

Journey

With one’s self

Often with companions

Break bread together.

Trust

Moments of devotion

To each another

Change together.

Embrace

No need to explain

Words sometimes fail

A smile assures.

Turn back

A worn path emerges

Look ahead

Share paths.

14 Comments

Posted in Mindful Life, Nature in All Its Glory, Photography, Poetry and tagged , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

The Woodcarver

Posted on August 10, 2012 by ivonprefontaine

When I walk in nature and see the panoramic creation, I recall this is a gift. Each day I am present and stop to meet what is there, is a day I move beyond my ego. I am grateful for simply being . It is the greatest gift.

The Woodcarver

Khing, the master carver, made a bell stand

Of precious wood. When it was finished,

All who saw it were astounded. They said it must be

The work of spirits.

The Prince of Lu said to the master carver:

“What is your secret?”

 ***

Khing replied: “I am only a workman:

I have no secret. There is only this:

When I began to think about the work you commanded

I guarded my spirit, did not expend it

On trifles, that were not to the point.

I fasted in order to set

My heart at rest.

 ***

After three days fasting,

I had forgotten gain and success.

After five days

I had forgotten praise or criticism.

After seven days

I had forgotten my body

With all its limbs.

 ***

“By this time all thought of your Highness

And of the court had faded away.

All that might distract me from the work

Had vanished.

I was collected in the single thought

Of the bell stand.

 ***

“Then I went to the forest

To see the trees in their own natural state.

When the right tree appeared before my eyes,

The bell stand it also appeared in it, clearly, beyond doubt.

All I had to do was to put forth my hand

And begin.

***

“If I had not met this particular tree

There would have been

No bell stand at all.

“What happened?

My own collected thought

Encountered the hidden potential in the wood;

From this live encounter came the work.

Which you ascribe to the spirits.”

***

Palmer, P. J. (2004). A hidden wholeness: The journey toward an undivided life. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Parker Palmer attributed his source as The Way of Chuang Tzu by Thomas Merton and published by The Abbey of Gethsemani in 1965.

6 Comments

Posted in Mindful Life, Nature in All Its Glory, Photography, Poetry, Reflective Moments and tagged , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Sabbaths by Wendell Berry

Posted on July 23, 2012 by ivonprefontaine

What do I gain from taking a break; disconnect to reconnect? I think this poem speaks volumes. Jay F. Smith contributed the idea for this poem along with a brief reflective essay in Leading from Within.

In his essay, Rev. Smith indicated the Sabbath mood is “a mood resulting from a deep sense of knowing that no matter what the immediate visible, tangible, measurable ‘results’ may be, [something bigger than me] God is at work in the world” (p. 114).

Whatever is foreseen in joy

Must be lived out from day to day.

Vision held open in the dark

By our ten thousand days of work.

Harvest will fill the barn; for that

The hand must ache, the face must sweat.

And yet no leaf or grain is filled

By work of ours; the field is tilled

And left to grace. That we may reap,

Great work is done while we’re sleeping.

When we work well, a Sabbath mood

Rests on our day, and finds it good.

Berry, W. (2007).  Sabbaths.  In S. M. Intrator and M. Scribner (Eds.), Leading from within: Poetry that sustains the courage to lead (pp. 115). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

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Posted in Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments and tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.
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