Rumi has such simple and profound messages. We can see what others feel through those windows. There is a shimmering that happens and makes us feel complete.
there is…
Because Kindness Matters
It always does. Alfonso Lingis writes that sometimes just being present is the most important thing and the words we say. Kind acts speak and tell the Other that they are recognized.
What do you hear when you look at a tree?
This reminded me of Thich Nhat Hanh who describes an oak tree at Plum Village. He advises retreat attendees to take time, hug the tree, and listen to what it says. Deep ecology operates on the same premise. Nature has something to show us. We have to stop and listen with our hearts.
When we were in Gatlinburg Tn, we got this face for my Mom and Dad’s tree. The face is still there. From where I sat it looked like the leaves of the tree appeared to be hair for this face. I started thinking about trees. When I was young I used to collect leaves and other plants to identify them. My father helped me to know which tree was what. He also knew the bark. One time his sister asked him to come up and see if her trees had Dutch Elm disease. He drove up and got out of the car and looked at the trees and said “No. These are Oak trees”. He got back into the car and his sister said “For heaven’s sake, come on in. You came all this way.” He had completed his mission and the trees weren’t elms. He could see by their…
View original post 332 more words
Barefoot In The Sacred
This beautiful poem reminded me of the Alfred North Whitehead that the past and future always meet in the sacred, holy ground of the present. We cannot be any other place except in our thoughts which create a fantastic future and idealized past.
Step outside the garden door,
with bare feet on cold concrete,
and after the realisation that it’s not so bad,
you can bear it,
move on to the dew wet morning grass,
to the uncut patch,
where the secret life within grounds you
to the heart of your heart,
to the world heart,
to the one sacred whole where you know yourself in everything,
where everything has it’s peace,
and even inanimate objects
find their rest in the sacred.
No. 1054
Materialism and consumerism run rampant. One of the things we talked about in the wake of my mother’s passing was how the generation that grew up in the 1930’s is disappearing. With them goes the ethic of not wanting for more than what we have. When we experience our place and time in the world with indigenous qualities unique to it, it changes how we experience the world. That is a valuable lesson to be learned from those who went before.
Embrace The New Dawn. By CpSingleton © 2015
Breathe like summer’s lighting up your skin.
That tingle in your cheeks to signal
A smile is about to begin
To take over your features.
This is what defines us from
The darker shadow creatures.
Don’t rely on your bank balance to bring you joy.
Numbers can’t replace a gifted soul,
Nor the shiny toy,
Or worthless rock.
No man found enlightenment
From sweating over stock.
Instead, open up your mind wider than a dragon’s yawn.
Disregard last night’s teachings and
Stride into your new dawn
Ready to enjoy your day.
Because, in a flash that is your life,
It can all be taken away.
Song for Nobody
Thomas Merton was a Trappist Monk and prolific spiritual writer of the mid-20th Century with many works published posthumously. He passed away in an accident at a relative young age so it is hard to say how much more writing he had in him. He is best known for his essays, journals, and letters, but wrote poetry and was an artist as well.
He included as one of his key themes the key concept of activism as a form of violence on one’s self. He drew on Eastern philosophies and mindfulness in describing contemplation as a human necessity in the 20th Century with its busyness and distractions. One can only imagine what he would think today.
I thought of the biblical passages about how lilies grow and just do what comes naturally. The flowers sing their songs without words by themselves without spin and toil. We find their music in their simplicity.
A yellow flower
(Light and spirit)
Sings by itself
For nobody.
A golden spirit
(Light and emptiness)
Sings without a word
By itself.
Let no one touch this gentle sun
In whose dark eye
Someone is awake.
(No light, no gold, no name, no color
And no thought:
O, wide awake!)
A golden heaven
Sings by itself
A song to nobody.
Homage to the Prophet
This is a triple-whammy. The post begins with a wonderful quote from Khalil Gibran and then provides a poem that expands on teh quote. The poem is co-written by Frederic and Lorrie. Love and peace are not easy to find. Thomas Merton wrote we call it falling in love, because it is hard work. Robert Greenleaf reminds us that passion comes from the root meaning to suffer and (com)passion is sharing that suffering in ways that make us better people and provide a better world.
I guess that settles it then…
Einstein had a way with words that just cut to the chase of the message.
Mary Oliver poems
I can not pass on Mary Oliver poetry even when I posted Wild Geese recently. I have not posted The Journey. We each reach those times when we do not follow the directions we are given by others and live life for what it is to be lived for. We can only live it for one purpose and that is our life.
I’ve recently woken up to the poetry of Mary Oliver. I don’t know why I haven’t really discovered her till now; it wasn’t for lack of the universe whispering her name in my ear! Here are two of her poems that I love.
The Journey by Mary Oliver
One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice–
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
“Mend my life!”
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the…
View original post 190 more words
Things You Don’t Have To Do
I am not sure which is more spectacular the image or the poem. They fit so well together. The opening lines reminded me of Langston Hughes’ poem: A Dream Deferred. We need our dreams and interests, the people and things, we love to make our lives complete.
Don’t ever let people tell you that you aren’t good enough
Because you are.
Don’t ever give up your dreams
Because you need them.
Don’t ever compromise your morals
Because they make you who you are.
Don’t ever hide your feelings
Because someone’s willing to hear them.
Don’t ever think you’ve got it all figured out
Because the next moment you won’t.
Don’t ever live your life in the past
Because then you’ll miss out on the now.
Don’t ever let people bring you down
Because they don’t deserve to.
Don’t ever be someone you aren’t
Because then you’ll never know you who really are.
Don’t ever let someone tell you how you feel
Because it’s not their right to.
Don’t ever give up something that feels right
Because it probably is.
Don’t ever worry about the petty things
Because they just don’t matter.
Don’t ever run away from your…
View original post 36 more words
Teacher as Transformer 