Teacher as Transformer

Walk Out of Your Dream

Posted on March 26, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

Letting go is one of the hardest things to do. Each morning, as I meditate, I find the first thing I need to do is begin to let thoughts flow rather than dwell on and in them. It is a liberating process and leads to an invigorating day usually.

Wildflower Women

The Buddha was no different from you. No different. That is why he serves as a good model, because he was as you are now. So don’t worship the Buddha. Don’t put him on a pedestal. Don’t even look up to him. Become him. Have the same intentions, take the same stand. Be the Buddha now! Put an end to all delaying, to all excuses, to all bowing down to saintly figures of the past or present. Stand up!

You are the Buddha! You are freedom itself! Stop dreaming your dream! Stop pretending that you are in bondage – stop telling yourself that lie! Stop pretending to be someone, or something! You are no one, you are no-thing! You are not this body or this mind. This body and mind exist within who and what you are. You are pure consciousness, already free, awake, and liberated. Stand up and walk…

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A Ritual to Read to Each Other

Posted on March 25, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

People quite often have views of the world and people that are fixed. We become observers and outsiders separate from the life we live in a sense.

William Stafford‘s poem offers another approach. We read our lives as stories to each other and share in the living. This is important in leading, which we are all able to do. In a sense, reading life is leading, learning, and teaching in the world we co-inhabit.

If you don’t know the kind of person I am
and I don’t know the kind of person you are
a pattern that others made may prevail in the world
and following the wrong god home we may miss our star.

For there is many a small betrayal in the mind,
a shrug that lets the fragile sequence break
sending with shouts the horrible errors of childhood
storming out to play through the broken dyke.

And as elephants parade holding each elephant’s tail,
but if one wanders the circus won’t find the park,
I call it cruel and maybe the root of all cruelty
to know what occurs but not recognize the fact.

And so I appeal to a voice, to something shadowy,
a remote important region in all who talk:
though we could fool each other, we should consider–
lest the parade of our mutual life get lost in the dark.

For it is important that awake people be awake,
or a breaking line may discourage them back to sleep;
the signals we give–yes or no, or maybe–
should be clear: the darkness around us is deep.

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to be silly

Posted on March 25, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

The best memories are often associated with laughter, storytelling, and silliness, sometimes all wrapped into one. They give us permission to live fully and in the moment relish what we have and are.

Ethereal Heights

that
joy of
full liberty to
be as silly and
open you can ever be
jump, hoot, dance with joy and
no one will be angry, well almost!

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Mankind has reached a bridge that can only be crossed in unity.

Posted on March 24, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

This is a powerful message to share. We live in the world and in relationship with all its inhabitants and phenomena. When we put faces and names to them, we accept responsibility for the world.

A Small Act Of Kindness Can Bring Smile On Million Faces

Kindly reblog us to spread peace and unity.

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Glimpse

Posted on March 24, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

I heard Eckhart Tolle present virtually just over a year ago at Wisdom 2.0 in San Francisco. This is such an uplifting message that reminded me of Thich Nhat Hanh saying the extraordinary is in the ordinary. I only need to open my eyes and heart to witness the extraordinary.

Cast Light

“Seeing beauty in a flower could awaken humans, however briefly, to the beauty that is an essential part of their own innermost being, their true nature.” – Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth

“The Amen of nature is always a flower.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Let each day unfold without pretense or prediction of what will or should be. Look for the good in others and yourself and let the rest go. Stop trying to fix others and control the uncontrollable. Glimpses of light and clarity are woven through each day to awaken us to life, to ourselves.

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For Courage

Posted on March 23, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

John O’Donohue wrote this lovely poem about the need for quiet spaces where we rekindle the love and joy we find in living life. I attended and presented at a small leadership symposium today. Although it was an invigorating two days, my brain is a bit like mush.

I think I will close my eyes, gather a little kindling around my heart, and seek to create a new spark to light my way.

Close your eyes.
Gather all the kindling
About your heart.
To create one spark.
That is all you need
To nourish the flame
That will cleanse the dark.
Of its weight of festered fear.

A new confidence will come alive
To urge you toward higher ground
Where your imagination
Will learn to engage difficulty
As its most rewarding threshold!

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312. At last the vernal equinox — “Springtime is the land awakening. The March winds are the morning yawn.” ~Quoted by Lewis Grizzard

Posted on March 22, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

I love Mary Oliver’s poetry. She writes in a purely joyful way about those things that are readily available in daily life and often overlooked.

Sacred Touches

Such Singing in the Wild Branches

By Mary Oliver

It was spring
and finally I heard him
among the first leaves—
then I saw him clutching the limb

in an island of shade
with his red-brown feathers
all trim and neat for the new year.
First, I stood still

and thought of nothing.
Then I began to listen.
Then I was filled with gladness—
and that’s when it happened,

when I seemed to float,
to be, myself, a wing or a tree—
and I began to understand
what the bird was saying,

and the sands in the glass
stopped
for a pure white moment
while gravity sprinkled upward

like rain, rising,
and in fact
it became difficult to tell just what it was that was singing—
it was the thrush for sure, but it seemed

not a single thrush, but himself, and all his brothers,
and also the trees around…

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The life of hunters in Greenland.

Posted on March 21, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

There are some great pictures in this post. Greenland would be an interesting place to visit during the summer. I suspect winter is not very warm.

Nature’s Secret

Posted on March 20, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

Grace Holmes wrote this poem. I was unable to find a link to the poet, but wanted to share the poem. If someone has a link, I will edit and add it.

The poem reminded me of Alfred North Whitehead‘s thinking. He suggested we only need to look at nature and find general patterns for life. Nature reveals patterns when we take time and observe living in nature.

There’s a secret with these rugged hills, whose slender tops are gray;
There’s a secret with the wild flowers that bloom along the way;

There’s a secret with the roaming clouds that change the changeful sky
A secret have the busy winds, that chant and moan and sigh:

A secret has the moonlight, that touches land and sea,
A secret is between the stars that blink and you and me.

Ah the secrets! can you count them? so numerous are they!
Ah the secrets! can you find them out? can you find them out, I say?

I knew that some sweet secret ‘twixt my garden flowers grew.
But I said, I know, I feel, it is not for me, or you.

I felt there was a secret with the wondrous charming sea,
But again I shook my head and said, that secret’s not for me.

Yea, every where I turn my eyes on nature living show,
I feel there is a secret that ’tis not for me know.

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DAMN DOOR

Posted on March 20, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

Cartoons sometimes provide insight into the world that we miss. Kathy always reminds me that when one door closes another has opened. Patience and faith, as evidenced by the cartoon wolf, are necessary in life. We talk about resiliency and forget about the underlying qualities that contribute to it. Enjoy a great day.