Monthly Archives: December 2016

Our Devotion to Transformation

Posted on December 29, 2016 by ivonprefontaine

In this poem, Alice Walker counselled us to think of life as a transforming event. Parker Palmer referred to the inner and outer movement as similar to a Möbius Strip with one side that is continuous.

We have to pause and be mindful, but it is not like we are separate from the world. We live in it and it lives in us. We act on it as it acts on us.

Living is about going beyond who we are. Trans means to go beyond. We are continuously moving beyond who we are at any given moment. It is inevitable and poetic. Living is poetry. We are always creating someone and something new, despite ourselves.

Poetry is leading us.

It never cares how we will

be held by lovers

or drive fast

or look good in the moment;

we are committed to movement

both inner and outer;

and devoted to transformation

and to change.

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Posted in Community, Leadership, Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments, teacher as transformer and tagged Alice Walker, community, creativity, leadership, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, Mobius Strip, Parker Palmer, poetry, servant-leadership, spirituality, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

Each Day Is A Gift

Posted on December 27, 2016 by ivonprefontaine

Each day is a gift! Make sure you share it with joy and happiness!

Source: Each Day Is A Gift

This is a beautiful thought that we can each take action on and bring to life.

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Posted in Community, Leadership, Mindful Life, Reflective Moments, teacher as transformer, Uncategorized and tagged learning community, Mindful, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, relationships, Snoopy. Bookmark the permalink.

Merry Christmas Everyone

Posted on December 25, 2016 by ivonprefontaine

You already possess everything necessary to become great. source: Crow image: Eddie’s Image Collection editor’s note: this is a repost from ETH December 2015 “Happy Holiday Everyo…

Source: Merry Christmas Everyone

When I saw the picture and quote in this post, they reminded me how much we have in common with each other. Instead of a politics of fear and division, can we can live in peace and harmony as stewards who care for each other, the world, and the future generations we live that world to?

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Posted in Community, Leadership, Mindful Life, Reflective Moments, Sabbath, Social Justice, teacher as transformer, Uncategorized and tagged Christmas, community, eloquent questions, Leadership. Servant-Leadership, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, peace, spirituality, stewardship. Bookmark the permalink.

Merry Christmas

Posted on December 25, 2016 by ivonprefontaine

I grew up in Northern Alberta and Christmas was a special time of the year. I recall cold winter nights. I mean they were cold–almost minus 40 at night. Our windows upstairs were partly frosted over and on moonlit nights the light kept me awake or that is what I told others.

During Advent, my mom and older brothers walked across the street for evening Mass. The younger ones, including me, went to bed. I did not fall asleep right away and would watch out the window for them to come home. I thought no one saw me, but my Mom would come up and tell me to go to bed.

The other experience I recall is the Northern Lights and how you could hear them as they lit up the sky. We don’t see them very often in Edmonton with the urban light. When we spent time at the farm at Christmas, we heard and saw them there. Again, on cold nights we heard the train (about a mile away) and it sounded like it was coming right through the house.

I wrote this poem several years ago about the magic provided by the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) and Christmas. What message was in those celestial colours and sounds? As a child, I thought the sky talked to me and told me a creation story.

Small children–

Breathlessly wait,

Peer through frosted window

Soak it in.

Heavens ripple–

Lights undulate;

A celebratory fury

An indisputable guide.

This old house speaks;

Nature answers–

The heavens crackle

Sweet symphonic sounds shimmer.

Earth’s floor–

Blanketed in white

Celestial colours speak to me

Captures young senses.

A vivid winter scene,

A sensual, sensory palette,

Reminds me–

Christ’s Mass is here.

pic_wonder_northern_lights_lg

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Posted in Blogging, Community, Mindful Life, Nature in All Its Glory, Photography, Poetry, Sabbath, teacher as transformer and tagged Christmas, community, creativity, northern lights, poetry, spirituality, teacher as transformer, writing. Bookmark the permalink.

“The Good Samaritan” by French artist Maximilien Luce (1858-1941)

Posted on December 22, 2016 by ivonprefontaine

Photo post by @georgebost.

Source: “The Good Samaritan” by French artist Maximilien Luce (1858-1941)

I enjoy this parable. It should raise questions about what I do for others and how, when I do right , my life is enriched. It is a spiritual richeness that can make each day Christmas, rather than one day a year.

Several years ago, I heard a sermon that explained how the first two people who passed by may have felt they had to do so based on their understanding of certain laws. The Samaritan did not feel he was and stopped to care for someone in need.

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The Angels and the Furies

Posted on December 6, 2016 by ivonprefontaine

May Sarton used the questions about the light and dark sides we each possess, but often go unnoticed. They inhabit our souls, which she calls premier danseur–first dancer. The angels and furies of our personalities are always with us, dancing with each other to gain our attention.

When I read this poem some time ago, I jotted down that to notice the furies sometimes they have to dance furiously to gain our attention. We prefer not to acknowledge their presence, but they are there and real along with our angels.

It is the mindful inner work that helps us understand the paradox of living in a world with both our angels and furies. It is not a choice between them. They exist with each other and both need our time and attention.

Have you not wounded yourself
And battered those you love
By sudden motions of evil,
Black rage in the blood
When the soul, premier danseur,
Springs toward a murderous fall?
The furies possess you.

Have you not surprised yourself
Sometimes by sudden motions
Or intimations of goodness,
When the soul, premier danseur,
Perfectly poised,
Could shower blessings
With a graceful turn of the head?
The angels are there.

The angels, the furies
Are never far away
While we dance, we dance,
Trying to keep a balance
To be perfectly human
(Not perfect, never perfect,
Never an end to growth and peril),
Able to bless and forgive
Ourselves.
This is what is asked of us.

It is light that matters,
The light of understanding.
Who has ever reached it
Who has not met the furies again and again?
Who has reached it without
Those sudden acts of grace?

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Posted in Community, Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments, teacher as transformer and tagged conversational journey, creativity, eloquent questions, May Sarton, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, poetry, spirituality, teacher as transformer, The Angels and the Furies. Bookmark the permalink.

The Night Ship

Posted on December 4, 2016 by ivonprefontaine

William Ayot reminds me how much goes unexplored in my life. In the busyness and noise of my living, I do not hear what is calling me to be explored.

When I am mindful to the universe and my self, I hear whispers that come in gentle breezes and on the sun’s rays. Being present to the universe and my self, helps me explore stars that seemed beyond my reach and climb peaks I believed unscalable.

The universe is a great ocean calling to me and patiently waiting my response.

What do you want to do in this world?

What is your star, your far distant peak?

What dream lies unexplored within you

like a vast uncharted southern ocean:

daunting, demanding, compelling in the night,

yet receding in the bright and busy light of day?

What discoveries invite you to the water?

What deck awaits your first excited step?

What ship, what clipper, what brave caravel?

what crowded ferry crosses back and forth,

from dream to waking, dream to waking,

every morning of your undiscovered life?

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Posted in Education, Leadership, Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments, teacher as transformer and tagged creativity, education, eloquent questions, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, poetry, spirituality, stewardship, teacher as transformer, The Night Ship, William Ayot. Bookmark the permalink.

The world offers itself to your imagination ~ Mary Oliver

Posted on December 3, 2016 by ivonprefontaine

“You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. Tell me a…

Source: The world offers itself to your imagination ~ Mary Oliver

Mary Oliver is one of my many favorite poets. The poem Wild Geese, which is the poem these lines are from, comes from Poetry Showcase.

In the poem, Mary Oliver reminds us that we are part of a larger family and are being called home. When we are mindful, we can hear who and what calls us and we can imagine what that means to each of us. Even in the busyness of our living, there is something calling us to awaken and listen more closely.

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FATHER CHARLES BRANDT… THE LAND AS SACRED COMMONS

Posted on December 2, 2016 by ivonprefontaine

~ the Brandt Series ~ Fr. Charles Brandt is a hermit monk from Vancouver Island, British Columbia, who recently celebrated 64 years of ordination. At 91 years of age, his gentle activism and…

Source: FATHER CHARLES BRANDT… THE LAND AS SACRED COMMONS

In a day and age of environmental concerns, I think a post from Bruce is appropriate. It is important to keep in mind that, with each economic choice we make, there are ecological choices and consequences, some more obvious than others.

Wendell Berry writes about economy from an etymological point of view. Economy from comes from the Greek oikos, meaning to manage one’s household and is about stewardship. If we think of ourselves as living outside the environment, being a good steward seems less important. If we choose to live in the environment, being a good steward is essential to the prosperity of the world and ourselves.

To me, it is not about economy over environment. How do we understand both as interconnected, and not separate? It is not an easy question, but questions of social justice, and the environment is one, are ever easy. Being mindful and living in the moment will help.

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Posted in Community, Education, Leadership, Mindful Life, Nature in All Its Glory, Reflective Moments, Social Justice, teacher as transformer, Uncategorized and tagged Bruce Thomas Witzel, community, conversational journey, creativity, eloquent questions, Father Charles Brandt, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, servant-leadership, spirituality, stewardship, teacher as transformer, Through the Luminary Lens, Wendell Berry. Bookmark the permalink.

Look deep…

Posted on December 1, 2016 by ivonprefontaine

**Images found on Pinterest

Source: Look deep…

Natalie shared an Einstein quote about looking deep into nature if we want to understand the world and people better. It does not mean we will understand them completely, just better and that is not a given.

Better is an incomplete process. There is always something to be experienced and learned about nature. It keeps telling us its story in ways that we cannot completely understand.

When we experience nature, it is about being mindful and attentive to it. We experience it more fully when we understand we are part of nature, as opposed to outside of it.