A Secret to Grasp

Posted on July 10, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

Rumi and other Sufi poets provide practical wisdom after 800 years. Viktor Frankl wrote that we do not find meaning in life. Life finds meaning in us. Patience and quietness are important in the listening we undertake to let that meaning reveal itself and speak to us.

Misifusa's Blog

When I run after what I think I want,
my days are a furnace of stress and anxiety;
if I sit in my own place of patience,
what I need flows to me, and without pain.
From this I understand that what I want also wants me,
is looking for me and attracting me.
There is a great secret here for anyone who can grasp it.
~Rumi

So, with that information, my plan this week is to ‘sit in my own place of patience’ and allow the flow of goodness to come to me, be attracted to me and to envelope me with its stillness and wisdom. Opportunities flow for us all. Let us…

Shine On!

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Beauty in your eyes…

Posted on July 9, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

When we sense the world fully, we come to understand its beauty not as an outsider looking in, but as someone who lives and is in full relationship with the world and all its inhabitants.

Otrazhenie

“The sign of a beautiful person is that they always see beauty in others.”

Omar Suleiman

beauty is in the eye of the beholder From http://www.wordsonimages.com/

Have lots of beautiful people in your life

🙂

THE END

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The Bright Field

Posted on July 8, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

About a year ago, Kathy and I picked up her mom about an hour away from where we live and drove her to the hospital for tests. She is non-verbal, but it does not mean she does not communicate. It was early morning and the sun lit up fields of freshly cut hay in furrows and bales.

Despite the early hour, about 6:00 AM, the scene was spectacular. Suddenly, I sensed movement beside me and turned to see Kathy’s mom waving her arm, smiling, and trying to form words. I think the treasures of those bright fields lit up the day for her filling her with rich memories reminding her of early mornings on the farm.

R. S. Thomas reminds us we live in each moment, not in dim futures and idealized pasts. There is brightness in moments when we realize that even when something cannot be spoken and words fail us, its essence is communicated and shines like a sun illuminating each field we pas in life.

I have seen the sun break through
to illuminate a small field
for a while, and gone my way
and forgotten it. But that was the
pearl of great price, the one field that had
treasure in it. I realise now
that I must give all that I have
to possess it. Life is not hurrying

on to a receding future, nor hankering after
an imagined past. It is the turning
aside like Moses to the miracle
of the lit bush, to a brightness
that seemed as transitory as your youth
once, but is the eternity that awaits you.

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Things I’ve Seen

Posted on July 8, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

The images provided are beautiful. Annie Dillard’s quote at the very end is appropriate. It tells us to sense more deeply and richly what we often take for granted or see fleetingly in a moment. When we ask why it is beautiful the extraordinary takes a place in our heart as more than something in a local landscape we pass by each day.

New Hampshire Garden Solutions

English plantain (Plantago lanceolata) pollen has been found in sites in Norway that date to the early Neolithic period, so it has been around for a very long time. It was introduced into North America from Europe and loves it here. It is a favorite of many butterflies, songbirds, and animals, and is pretty when it flowers like the one in the photo.

Last year I was walking through a forest clearing and almost stepped on a turtle. This year I did the same thing in almost the same spot and wondered if it was the same turtle. Last year it was spotless and looked as if it had come from the local Buff ‘N Shine and, as you can see in the photo, this one looked the same.

This snapping turtle was also very clean and I almost stepped on it as well. Luckily I caught some…

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Holiday weekend update

Posted on July 7, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

I am a couple of days late with this re-blog, but I thought the messages involved were worth sharing. Take care on the first day back to work after the holiday weekend remembering it is not always our circus.

Just Cruisin 2

The festivities of Independence Day are drawing
closer to the grand finale complete with fireworks
and soon the holiday will be done. There will still
be a lot going on this weekend so we thought we’d
mention a few events around eastern Iowa.

For the past 23 years, the big event has been the
Goodguys Heartland Nationals held on the Iowa State
Fairgrounds in Des Moines, Iowa, which starts today
and runs through Sunday.

This event usually contains lots of sun, lots of
people, a lot of cars, and a few cars that run
like a hummingbird on Red Bull.

Saturday, July 5th the River Valley Classic Car Club
is hosting the “Rollin in the Oldies” Cruise Night
at Northpark Mall in Davenport, Iowa. Gates open at
5 pm and spectator admission is a mere $2. Always
neat cars, great people, and good music.

Sunday, July 6th the Strictly Street…

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Good Night

Posted on July 6, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

I was not in the US for the first time in several years for July 4. Yesterday, I recalled how it was unusual and refreshing to greeted with “Happy 4th” when I would meet people and go into various businesses in Spokane. For one day, I found differences seemed to be set aside and there was a celebratory feel in the air.

Carl Sandburg suggested there are many ways to say good night. As I enter my week-end Sabbath, the July 4 weekend ends. The word spell has several meanings. We can think spelling words in a living and celebratory story and we can think of it as a magical feeling experienced in living life with the fullest awareness possible.

Many ways to say good night.

Fireworks at a pier on the Fourth of July
spell it with red wheels and yellow spokes.
They fizz in the air, touch the water and quit.
Rockets make a trajectory of gold-and-blue
and then go out.

Railroad trains at night spell with a smokestack mushrooming a white pillar.

Steamboats turn a curve in the Mississippi crying a baritone that crosses lowland cottonfields to razorback hill.

It is easy to spell good night.
Many ways to spell good night.

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Shabbat

Posted on July 5, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

This post came into my reader last weekend, but it was so timely I saved it and am sharing it.

Hortus Closus

It’s Shabbat time,
The two candles are lighted
I sing and I pray.

In the silent night, my soul
Is peaceful, I am thankful.

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look deep

Posted on July 4, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

Einstein had a wonderful way with words mixing spiritual and intellectual. When we look deeply into nature, we see ourselves embedded in nature and begin to sense more deeply what it means to live.

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Travelling at Home

Posted on July 4, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

Wendell Berry is one of my favourite writers. He writes fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. There is an honesty and sparseness in his writing that speaks to me deeply. He bares his soul in ways that poets should. Even in the country we know by heart it is hard to go the same way twice. It is more likely impossible, but I would give Mr. Berry the benefit of the doubt and believe that is likely what he meant as he suggests we attempt to make intent with what happens by accident.

I chose the forming of the person, more specifically the teacher, as a central theme in my dissertation. Actually, the theme chose me. It was unintentional and strictly by accident. As I read and write, I find myself drawn to the topic and new thinking emerging where any word can be the bud of new direction.

Judith Butler suggests becoming is the vehicle forming each particular identity and subjectivity against a cultural backdrop which is always changing itself. Even when we name something, it is traversing the land. We can never plan our becoming even in a country we think we know by heart.

Even in a country you know by heart
it’s hard to go the same way twice.
The life of the going changes.
The chances change and make it a new way.
Any tree or stone or bird
can be the bud of a new direction. The
natural correction is to make intent
of accident. To get back before dark
is the art of going.

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I don’t mind

Posted on July 3, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

The words we use to describe the phenomenon which is our life leaves the description incomplete. There is always a mystery in living which makes the adventure more complete. There is a hole in the whole.

Mindfulbalance

J. Krishnamurti, the great Indian philosopher and spiritual teacher, spoke and travelled almost continually all over the world for more than fifty years attempting to convey through words…that which is beyond words. At one of his talks in the later part of his life, he surprised his audience by asking, “Do you want to know my secret?”

Everyone became very alert. Many people in the audience had been coming to listen to him for twenty or thirty years and still failed to grasp the essence of his teaching. Finally, after all these years, the master would give them the key to understanding.