Category Archives: Community

Once you realize…

Posted on November 13, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

Nisargadatta is new to me, but the short message is inspirational. Responsibility for who we are and the way we live is essential to living. Emmanuel Levinas called it being response-able. We are able to be responsible for living and becoming the person we are.

When we let the world inside shine onto the world outside, we are able to respond to the world more fully. Levinas’ work is often connected to ethics and living a good life. Ethics is about a practical rather than theoretical way of living. It is easy to take the moral high ground. It is not so easy to live the moral high ground. Being able to respond, to be mindfully responsible is essential to living well and fully.

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Posted in Community, Mindful Life, Reflective Moments and tagged community, creativity, Emmanuel Levinas, Ethics, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, Nisargadatta, spirituality, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

Your Sunrise

Posted on November 10, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

Your Sunrise.

Rumi speaks about paradox in the quote introducing the poem. We often think of entrances as being an external portal but, when we seek sanctuary, we turn in looking for the entrance to that sanctuary. The entrance is inside us leading further inside.

As the poem suggests, to be human is to be sacred. It is the coming together of two worlds, one outside and one inside. The inner one is much harder to reach as we try opening the door the wrong way quite often. We push out rather than turning in and pulling gently revealing light from the inner sanctuary that shines on us as we sit quietly waiting for silence to speak.

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Posted in Community, Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments, Uncategorized and tagged community, conversational journey, creativity, meditation, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, poetry, Rumi, silence, spirituality, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

The Other Kingdoms

Posted on November 8, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

It is Sabbath and winter arrived over night. It snowed and is colder. Mary Oliver`s poem speaks about the way the Inuit use many expressions describing snow. In doing so, they are mindful and aware of the world they live in. It speaks to them and shares its experiences in ways words used are meaningful. But, it happens only when we are present and attentive of extraordinary events co-mingling with the ordinary world we think we experience. We rush past the world and lose the words it speaks quickly. We lose the kingdom we live in unless we slow down and drink from its cup fully.

When we slow down, we grow wild and are in the wild world around us and in us. The wildness animates us and we live more fully. Snow today means slippery roads, drivers who have forgotten what it means to drive in the snow, and a blanket beginning to cover the ground as it slumbers. Snow means more than just one word to me. It is how I experience the snow that speaks of snow. There is nobility in the titles the world carries that we have not given names for and can not find the words for those titles.

Consider the other kingdoms. The
trees, for example, with their mellow-sounding
titles: oak, aspen, willow.
Or the snow, for which the peoples of the north
have dozens of words to describe its
different arrivals. Or the creatures, with their
thick fur, their shy and wordless gaze. Their
infallible sense of what their lives
are meant to be. Thus the world
grows rich, grows wild, and you too,
grow rich, grow sweetly wild, as you too
were born to be.

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Posted in Community, Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments, Sabbath and tagged creativity, Inuit, Mary Oliver, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, poetry, Snow, spirituality, teacher as transformer, The Other Kingdoms. Bookmark the permalink.

I think ; therefore I am & Je pense, donc je suis & Penso dunque sono & Ich denke, also bin ich & Pienso, luego existo & Düşünüyorum, öyleyse varım !!

Posted on November 6, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

I think ; therefore I am & Je pense, donc je suis & Penso dunque sono & Ich denke, also bin ich & Pienso, luego existo & Düşünüyorum, öyleyse varım !!.

The link included quotes from Rumi and Tolstoy. We begin changing the world as an internal project, one that changes who we are first. The ripple effect is only possible, not certain. I say possible, because there is no certainty in life’s project. They take time, patience, and compassion to encounter who we are in an honest way. Living is hard work and it is not easily completed.

The change in self is possibly easier when we are older and take time living. It is also harder. Are we able to move the same way we did as a younger person? We can be more mindful and attentive perhaps. We can only hope the ripple reaches those close and they are able to use those ripples in meaningful ways.

Whatever we do, we should only expect the change to be our change. We can only till the soil closest and most meaningful to us.

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Posted in Community, Education, Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments, Uncategorized and tagged community, creativity, education, Leo Tolstoy, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, poetry, Rumi, spirituality, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

It is an issue of private shame

Posted on November 4, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

It is an issue of private shame.

The link is not to a poem, but rather to a series of quotes about hunger and the personal shame that comes with it. Politicians use hunger and other social justice issues as talking points and not seeing it as a matter of private and public shame in countries such as Canada and the US with their wealth.

On the left, we have politicians who would subscribe to giving people something. On the right, politicians would blame those who go hungry including the children. Giving people a hand up is important and walking with them is a part of the longer journey. Solving issues such as hunger is community work. It takes neighbours helping each other in those moments of need. Regardless of what we have, we share. Wouldn’t that be a powerful learning in our schools.

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Posted in Community, Education, Leadership, Mindful Life, Progressive Education, Reflective Moments, Social Justice and tagged community, creativity, Educational Leadership, Leadership. Servant-Leadership, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, school, stewardship, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

Quotes on Humility

Posted on October 30, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

Quotes on Humility.

Humility, human, and humble all share the same root word, humus. When we are humble and human we lower ourselves in those moments accepting the humility and humiliation that comes with being human.

The quotes come from a variety of sources, but one that caught my attention was from Abraham Lincoln. We have to lower ourselves sometimes to find our way through living’s dense thicket and underbrush. It is here we find our wisdom and can discern the next possible step.

Humility is accepting that nothing comes with certainty. Discerning at this level allows us to look upwards and find the stars again as they help us on the journey called living. In these spaces, we seek the questions which open space rather than the answers so often fixed firmly in our beliefs.

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Posted in Community, Mindful Life, Reflective Moments and tagged Abraham Lincoln, community, creativity, eloquent questions, humility, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

Sometimes

Posted on October 25, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

It is the end of a busy week. It might be the busiest since I came home from Spokane. I don’t coach ice hockey any more, but I help in several ways. For example, I am helping a young man who coached with me several years ago get a hockey related business off the ground. I also facilitate coaching clinics which help coaches with their work. In Canada, this is a time of the year when hockey is busy. It is important to take a break, a Sabbath from the busyness and business.

I came across this poem by Hermann Hesse who is better known as an author of fiction such as Steppenwolf, Siddhartha, and The Journey to the East. He was a wonderful writer of prose writing in a poetic and mystic voice.

The poem reminds me to stop and pause, to listen attentively to the world and my self. It is in the mindfulness that I hear the questions being asked by the world and me. It is in those silences that the world and I create together speaking to each other in richness in our silences.

Sometimes, when a bird cries out,
Or the wind sweeps through a tree,
Or a dog howls in a far off farm,
I hold still and listen a long time.

My soul turns and goes back to the place
Where, a thousand forgotten years ago,
The bird and the blowing wind
Were like me, and were my brothers.

My soul turns into a tree,
And an animal, and a cloud bank.
Then changed and odd it comes home
And asks me questions. What should I reply?

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Posted in Community, Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments, Sabbath and tagged community, conversational journey, creativity, Hermann Hesse, ice hockey, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, poetry, spirituality, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

The Illusion of Control

Posted on October 23, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

The Illusion of Control.

The link contains a wonderful quote from Maya Angelou and an article explaining the importance of letting go to bring peace to one’s self.

A lack of control over the world and our self feels good. We become explorers rather than chasers who hunt and gather. The hunting and gathering become part of the exploring. When we pause and are present in living, the world embraces us. We create in the embrace that follows as part of a larger community. There is not a forcing, but an ease with which we live life.

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Posted in Community, Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments and tagged creativity, Maya Angelou, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, poetry, spirituality, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

The child in us!

Posted on October 21, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

The child in us!.

We each have a child in us. When we pause and take a moment to reflect, we find wonderful places waiting our exploration. That is the way the child in us would approach living, as exploring the nooks and crannies we discover in living.

The quote provided in the link is from Paulo Coehlo. He suggests by keeping contact with the child in us we keep in touch with living the life we are living. We gaze upon and explore in the living as we undertake it. What is most exciting is living in the company of others and in the world.

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Stillness Speaks…

Posted on October 18, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

Stillness Speaks….

The link contains beautiful quotes and photographs about stillness. When we stand in the solitude and peacefulness that Nature provides, it speaks to us. Quieting our self and the busyness even for a few minutes brings into the deepest relationships we can have with Others and the world.

When we become participants in the world and listen closely to what it says, we are offered sanctuary in the quietness and stillness that shelters us. The stillness provides a sense of community we long for. We become linked religiously with the world in all its forms.