There is a always a deeper secret within the secret which cannot be fully explained. Accepting this wordless and mysterious essence allows us to find our way home.
Monthly Archives: December 2014
Wonder Haiku 93
Time is elusive. Yet, we try to manage it, own it, and save it.
If you are a poet….
Thich Nhat Hanh’s poem describes the interconnection of matter. Remove one thing from the link and what remains?
“If you are a poet, you will see clearly that there is a cloud floating in this sheet of paper. Without a cloud, there will be no rain; without rain, the trees cannot grow: and without trees, we cannot make paper. The cloud is essential for the paper to exist. If the cloud is not here, the sheet of paper cannot be here either. So we can say that the cloud and the paper inter-are.”
Free Flight Into The Wordless
The image and the short piece by Pablo Neruda fit so well together. Poetry is a deep inner calling in humans. It is a language that allows us to speak immediately to the world.
“Free Flight into the Wordless” — Image by kenne
Poetry is a deep inner calling in man: from it came liturgy, the
psalms, and also the content of religions. The poet confronted
nature’s phenomena and in the early ages called himself a priest,
to safeguard his vocation. . . . Today’s social poet is still a member
of the earliest order of priests. In the old days he made his
pact with the darkness, and now he must interpret the light.
— Pablo Neruda
Christmas Light
May Sarton provided a simple message for this time of year. When we take a moment and share a few moments of quiet, there is sometimes a feeling of being reborn. It is in the quiet and simple moments we feel love’s presence.
As I prepared to post, I read the poem again. It took May Sarton almost a whole year to feel love’s presence. Regardless of our beliefs, each day is a special celebration and feeling love’s presence. Each day offers silent spaces for meditation and prayer bringing us closer to each other.
Take care and enjoy each day as if it were a special and wonder filled holiday. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
When everyone had gone
I sat in the library
With the small silent tree,
She and I alone.
How softly she shone!
And for the first time then
For the first time this year,
I felt reborn again,
I knew love’s presence near.
Love distant, love detached
And strangely without weight,
Was with me in the night
When everyone had gone
And the garland of pure light
Stayed on, stayed on.
Christmas Gift Suggestions
The short poem offers us a way to experience the holidays regardless of how we believe. The suggestions are something we can carry into daily living.
Natures Wisdom
Wisdom is not easy to find. It is buried in the roots of our living. Nature is a space where wisdom does not know bounds in the way humans often place them around phenomena.
Be Still in Haste
Wendell Berry is one of my favourite poets. He writes with such clarity and practical appreciation for the world. Even in clarity, the world remains ambiguous and fuzzy.
I read the last stanza of this poem as an example of the paradox and tension we try to hold. Perhaps, as much as I would like it to be different, time is always starting over in each moment. Each moments holds the eternity of time to paraphrase Alfred North Whitehead, yet I do not sense that unless I pause and notice time is passing me by.
Unless I pause, time passes me by and, yet, I cannot hold time still. It is inevitable it will start afresh in the next moment. In these pauses, I encounter the world and living as creative processes which I experience more fully when I am awake.
How quietly I
begin again
from this moment
looking at the
clock, I start over
so much time has
passed, and is equaled
by whatever
split-second is present
from this
moment this moment
is the first.
Schlumbergera truncata (Christmas Cactus)
When we went to the farm for Christmas the Christmas Cactus in the front porch area would be blooming some years to greet us. They are absolutely breathtaking in full bloom.
Happy Holidays to all! I will be back shortly with the Pinwheel Flower’s corrugated cultivar form, but I was interested in posting about the Christmas Flower Cactus plant because I was able to acquire a flowering specimen, and was amazed to see the flower in full bloom for the first time. Contrary to my beliefs, these cacti are exclusive to Brazil’s coastal mountain forests. 
Schlumbergera truncata (Christmas Cactus) Aka Christmas Cactus, Thanksgiving Cactus, Crab Cactus, or Zygocactus, is native to Brazil, Rio de Janeiro (Serra do Mar and Serra dos Orgãos), to the coastal forests and jungles at an altitude of 100-1500 m. In its native environment it is an epiphyte (occasionally lithophytic, growing on both trees and rocks). They grow their roots into the bark of their host tree. Their only access to moisture and nutrients is from rain and droppings that fall from above. They also always grow under a…
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QUOTE…by John Lennon
Love is something that we need to nurture and cultivate. It is only in giving we receive it.
We’ve got this gift of love,
but love is like a precious plant.
You can’t just accept it and
leave it in the cupboard
or just think it’s going to get on by itself.
You’ve got to keep watering it.
You’ve got to really look after it and nurture it.
–John Lennon
Teacher as Transformer 