Category Archives: Mindful Life

In My Haste to Post I Forgot the Title

Posted on July 15, 2012 by ivonprefontaine

It was an interesting day. In the midst of it, Parker Palmer posted a poem by Wendell Berry on Facebook. It is a special day when Parker posts a poem by Wendell Berry, Mary Oliver, or himself. The poem was How to Be a Poet (to remind myself). Wendell Berry is low tech and uses a typewriter to craft his words. Parker pointed to an aspect of the poem’s message: “Shun electric wire/Communicate slowly/Live a three-dimensional life.”The slow of life is worth something. It lets us be the person we are most fully.

Later, I began to think about two songs by two artists I enjoy and have seen multiple times live. Guy Clark sings The Carpenter and John Wort Hannam sings With the Grain. Both songs are rich with the metaphors of living a three-dimensional life. It is no coincidence the topic is that of a carpenter in both cases. It is about true to one’s self and living a life with value.

Sabbath

Silence, solitude, sacred

A mountain’s strength

The sky’s expanse

A lake mirrors

Words of wisdom

Spoken so softly.

Disconnect to reconnect

Listen that silent sacred space

The inner teacher beckons

Be present

Wisdom revealed

Let it heal, repair

A single thread at a time

The web of life so fragile.

Questions emerge

Hold gently

Live their mystery

They answer only when ready

Until then they lie dormant

Ready when ready

Embrace life as it is.

I salute you and take my leave for a few hours. Have a wonderful 16th of July.

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Posted in Mindful Life, Nature in All Its Glory, Photography, Poetry, Reflective Moments, Synchronicity, Uncategorized and tagged Guy Clark, John Wort Hannam, Mary Oliver, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, nature, Parker Palmer, poetry, teacher as transformer, Wendell Berry. Bookmark the permalink.

Seasons of Clouds

Posted on July 13, 2012 by ivonprefontaine

Kathy’s niece took these pictures of boomers the other night west of Edmonton. Kathy and I talked about what we saw in the clouds. There is a lot in there and yesterday, as I walked, I understood clouds meaning something different during different seasons of life.

The spring of childhood,

Clouds were homes

Where

My imagined friends

Came to life

Nursery rhymes, fairy tale, cartoons

People lived there.

A voice called: “Hurry home before it rains.”

Spring met summer

Romance arrived

A single rain drop touched us

We scrambled

Holding hands

We discovered shelter

In each other

And laughed: “Let it rain.”

The dog days of summer arrived

I looked up

Storm clouds overhead

Ominous

Please, I need to finish the lawn

Or there goes the BBQ tonight

I hear my voice: “Hurry home before it rains; so much to do.”

In autumn

A safe distance

We view

But, don’t hurry

Clouds

Real places in our imagination

Together, we share

God’s chair, a child’s face, google eyes

It may rain tonight

I hear my voice: “I am here again.”

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Posted in Mindful Life, Nature in All Its Glory, Photography, Poetry, Reflective Moments and tagged clouds, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, nature, poetry, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

Granite Fortress

Posted on July 11, 2012 by ivonprefontaine

This is the Rocky Mountains as I looked southwest at Pincher Creek, Alberta. They are spectacular, but as you move towards them and Waterton Lakes National Park they are more majestic. Several years ago, I drove back through Browning, Montana and crossed the border south of Cardston, Alberta. As I drove north, I looked in the rear view mirror and saw the solid face of the granite rising out of the prairie floor. Seeing nature’s glory is humbling.

Rock reaches

Steel gray granite

Rises from prairie

Skyward bound.

I am insignificant

In this place.

Mountains,

Walled guardians

Impenetrable reminders of real gifts.

I am taking a short break, so have a great July 13, 2012.

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Posted in Mindful Life, Nature in All Its Glory, Photography, Poetry, Reflective Moments and tagged Mindful Practice, nature, poetry, Rocky Mountains, teacher as transformer, waterton lakes national park. Bookmark the permalink.

Henry David Thoreau

Posted on July 11, 2012 by ivonprefontaine

It is the 150th anniversary of Thoreau’s death. I find his thinking and writing refreshing. His quotes always give on pause to think about the world and this short poem expresses what one can hope life will be like. I just finished reading Experiments in Ethics by Kwame Appiah. If I could summarize that with one quote, it would be this one by Thoreau. I added a haiku below the picture.

experience life

a rich, bountiful harvest

savour over time.

Have a great July 12, 2012. Smile at someone; make them wonder.

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Posted in Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments and tagged haiku, kwame appiah, life, mindfulness, poetry, teacher as transformer, Thoreau. Bookmark the permalink.

Is It Art?

Posted on July 10, 2012 by ivonprefontaine

Last night, I went for a short walk and on the way back sat on a bench overlooking the Spokane River. There are two benches there. I glanced over at the second bench and noticed three pine cones. There is a pattern emerging here: one of me, two benches, and three pine cones. The cones were neatly organized and I wondered who left the art behind. The wonder was strong enough I share the picture and a few lines of poetry.

A gift received

Left by nature in some form

Maybe urban art.

Have a great July 11th, 2012

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Posted in Mindful Life, Nature in All Its Glory, Photography, Poetry, Reflective Moments and tagged eloquent questions, mindfulness, nature, poetry, spokane river, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

There Are a Lot of Mockingbirds in This Book by Mary Oliver

Posted on July 9, 2012 by ivonprefontaine

Sabbath was good. I feel rejuvenated and more at rest plus I got a lot done. Sat quietly twice during the day, went to church, and shared pizza with friends.

I read. I randomly chose a poem from Evidence by Mary Oliver called There Are Lot of Mockingbirds in This Book and read when I first got up. The last three stanzas really stood out. We plan and over plan and it is those unexpected things that reveal themselves. We just have to wait. I also read Derek Boks, Parker Palmer, Thich Nhat Hanh, and Wayne Muller, a bit of an eclectic mix.

The quiet gave me time to digest food and food for thought. I disconnected to reconnect.

this is isn’t nature

where the sweetest things, being hidden in leaves

and thorn-thick bushes

reveal themselves rarely–

this is a book

of the heart’s rapture,

of hearing and praising

and never forgetting

so that the world

is what the world is

in a long lifetime:

singer after singer

bursts from the thorn bush,

now, and again, and again,

their songs in the mind forever.

Have a great 10th of July. Smile at someone secretly.

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Posted in Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments and tagged Mary Oliver, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, poetry, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

Sabbath – A Poem

Posted on July 8, 2012 by ivonprefontaine

Recently, I posted Humility and referenced Wayne Muller’s book Sabbath: Restoring the Sacred Rhythm of Rest. He suggested we all need to take time, disconnect, and do those things and be with those people in our immediate lives which bring us moments of quiet and refuge. He has offered a new awareness for me of what was missing in my life, a calm, tranquil, restful time I share with those immediately around me and my self. I am disconnected for the next 36 hours. I will just be.

I leave with a found poem of sorts. I chose words from the book that exemplified my understanding of Sabbath. I look forward to comments and likes when I return on Monday morning.

Shine the light

Reveal a next step

On the journey.

Moments of remembrance

Blessing gifts received

Delight in life

Reflect in wonder.

Uplift the spirit

Care for the body

Rest your soul

Take refuge

Take sanctuary

In the moment

Hibernate, lie fallow.

Insight, wisdom, compassion

Arise from stillness

A bell chimes

Time transformed

Mindfulness consecrates the day

Timeless words revere the day.

Bring forward

Right speech, right action, right effort

Break bread

Companionship

Refuge.

Heal, liberate, surrender

Receive and give

Lovingkindness

In each breath

An inner light attracts

Leads home

In each breath

The rhythms of life, earth, action, rest

The Sabbath arrives.

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Posted in Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments, Uncategorized and tagged Mindful Practice, mindfulness, poetry, sabbath, spirituality, teacher as transformer, Wayne Muller. Bookmark the permalink.

Haiku Haven

Posted on July 8, 2012 by ivonprefontaine

I had some thoughts come to me while sitting quietly and wanted to share them in the form of a haiku.

ebbing and flowing

each moment’s uniqueness

a tended garden.

Melody Lowes inspired the second poem. She is a wonderful poet, photographer, and gardener. She posted a poem called Baby Steps.

slow is freedom’s flight

a question to live into

gifts of poetry.

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Posted in Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments, Uncategorized and tagged haiku, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, nature, spirituality, stewardship, teacher as transformer, writing. Bookmark the permalink.

In Those Years by Adrienne Rich

Posted on July 7, 2012 by ivonprefontaine

As I posted the last two or three blogs, I realized sometimes how little we think of we and we individually think of I. I am often guilty of this. Life experienced is a relational enterprise. I think it does start with the I, but moves out to embrace the Thou in the way writers such as Martin Buber meant. We experience life through relational experiences of I and Thou.

Adrienne Rich provided us with poetry as a daily reminder of “no man being an island.”

In those years, people will say, we lost track

of the meaning of we, of you

we found ourselves

reduced to I

and the whole thing became

silly, ironic, terrible:

we were trying to live a personal life

and, yes, that was the only life we could bear witness to

But the dark birds of history screamed and plunged

into our personal weather

They were headed somewhere else but their beaks and pinions drove

along the shore, through the rags of fog

where we stood, saying I

Take care with those who you are we with and enjoy them today. Have a good 7th of July.

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Posted in Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments and tagged adrienne rich, community, daily reminder, I and Thou, leadership, Martin Buber, Mindful Practice, poetry, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

Trying to Learn by Lydia Davis

Posted on July 7, 2012 by ivonprefontaine

Today, I read part of Experiments in Ethics by Kwame Appiah, a professor at Princeton. It is an interesting book and I doubt I can do it justice in a blog posting, but, as the title suggests, it is about ethics and their complex nature due to human complexity.

He provided a very short story by Lydia Davis. I might compare it to Heraclitus’ quote: “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.” No person steps twice in the same river, because the river is constantly changing. I also think the complexity nature of our human being is such that we change as we move into each ensuing moment. I cannot be the same person in the next moment. Living an ethical life is challenging as I am not the same person at each moment. In French, the word for experiment is experience. I think a life fully lived is one that is an experiment. I constantly learn from this fully lived life if I am mindful and use my beginner’s mind.

“I am trying to learn that this playful man who teases me is the same as that serious man talking money so seriously he does not eve see me anymore and that patient man offering me advice in times of trouble and that angry man as he leaves the home. I have often wanted the playful man to be more serious, and the serious man to be less serious, and the patient man to be more playful. As for the angry man, he is a stranger to me and I do not feel it is wrong to hate him. Now I am learning that if I say bitter words to the angry man as he leaves the house, I am at the same time wounding the others, the others I do not want to wound, the playful man teasing, the serious man talking money, and the patient man offering advice. Yet I look at the patient man, for instance, whom I would want above all to protect from such bitter words as mine, and though I tell myself he is the same man as the others, I believe I said those words, not to him, but to another, my enemy, who deserved all my anger.”

What other ways can we learn to live a life fully, ethically, and in an experiential manner?