It is kind of a cool and breezy day in Spokane. Nature is its own boss and decides on rules humans do not impose. In this way, spring does come slowly, but it is a gentle awakening and healthy. The world has been meditating and is ready to be fully visible.
Sakura Satori
spring comes slowly. bloom
sleeps in cluster waiting for
the time to awaken and
glow pink against grey.
![images[3]](https://ivonprefontaine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/images3.jpg)
I know it is not daybreak, but it could be. There are many things at many times of the day that leave us breathless. Yesterday, it was squirrels that are simple yet important part of my daily life. At home, it is the rabbits who have migrated into our neighbourhood. They sit very still as we cannot see them, but we know they are there and they are know we are there.
Gabriela Mistral wrote this poem as a reminder that there are many things that can leave me breathless. Being present in the world is important in taking note of those things in more than a superficial way.
My heart swells that the Universe
like a fiery cascade may enter.
The new day comes. Its coming
leaves me breathless.
I sing. Like a cavern brimming
I sing my new day.
For grace lost and recovered
I stand humble. Not giving. Receiving.
Until the Gorgon night,
vanquished, flees.
These are words to live by. My guess is when I walk this way my footprint is quite small, but impactful.
Simplicity sometimes is so simple we miss it completely. I see many squirrels on my walks around the campus. They sometimes make a great show of hiding behind trees when I walk to close. More often, they stay out in the open, continue to attend to their work, and keep a close eye on me. It is one of the simple things I can enjoy that sometimes flies under the radar when I am not paying attention.
Life, Love and Happiness are all so very simple.
Their simplicity is the only thing that makes them genuine and real.
Enjoy them as they are, when they come.
Be grateful for the blessings that you have.
Be aware that YOU are the Love and YOU are the Happiness and this will make you feel alive too.
Be blessed and don’t forget to smile. 🙂
Ela
Photo: memyselfandela, 2014
I just met Danna Faulds poetry. I used this poem as it has a sabbath quality to it. The words suggest stillness and non-reaching that mesh together. The real me is living inside stillness and non-reaching. Letting go affords opportunities to locate myself in the effortless that emerges.
Settle in the here and now.
Reach down into the center
where the world is not spinning
and drink this holy peace.
Feel relief flood into every
cell. Nothing to do. Nothing
to be but what you are already.
Nothing to receive but what
flows effortlessly from the
mystery into form.
Nothing to run from or run
toward. Just this breath,
awareness knowing itself as
embodiment. Just this breath,
awareness waking up to truth.
I recently found this blog. I am not sure why I missed it for so long, because it is well followed. The messages are simple and to the point like this one about opening our hearts which allows our eyes to see differently. The message is profound and similar to Proust’s quote about seeing with new eyes as we find new shores.
Dr. Seuss had a way with words that just make sense. I only recently came across a biography that suggested a purpose behind his writing was to help children be more socially just. It seems there is a message in there for adults.
e. e. cummings was a poet who loved playing with language and its rules. We see this where he makes up words and excludes capitalization except for two words.
Poetry allows me to explore the world in new ways such as watching for the leaping greenly of trees and all those things which are yes. It is in the cracks that appear in poetry that light shines through.
i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes
(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)
how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any–lifted from the no
of all nothing–human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?
(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)
Rumi is one of my favourite writers. His words resonate through the centuries and offer thoughtful insight and inspiration in the 21st Century. When we open our sails and catch the wind, life is much simpler and rewarding.
We need a spirituality that binds all humans together with their universe. Religion comes from the Latin ligio which means to bind together. In this sense, a new spirituality would bind us together and accept the differences that are so exquisitely revealed.
ivonprefontaine
Teacher as Transformer 