Source: Spring
Mary Oliver is one of my favourite poets. There is something deeply spiritual about her poetry that finds its way into my heart.
I was not familiar with this poem. Poetry allows us to imagine that we have wings. With those wings. we tap our experiences more fully as we fly with others who join us. When we share the journey with others, it becomes much richer. It is not only our journey.
Notes: Full poem here: a blind flaneur. Poem Source: quotes from books
Source: Live
David posted this wonderful Mary Oliver quote. We can embrace the world as a place that amazes us and not merely one we visit in passing. I love the paradox of simultaneously being bride and bridegroom embracing and being amazed.
When we live fully, we engage in a conversation full of questions that can never be fully answered, but that guide us in our journey. This life is not about a planned legacy, but one that emerges in the memories we leave for others.
Rumi wrote magnificent poetry that resonates through the ages. Patience is a virtue. When I sit in my place of patience, others, the world, and myself speak to me and I can listen.
Parker Palmer says the soul is like a wild animal. When I trample around and make noise, I scare it away and it is unable to come out of hiding. In a world that is already busy and noisy, I can not hear my heart speak to me, let alone the world and others
In mindful moments, I pause and what I chase after comes to me, relieving me of the stress and anxiety my chasing brings. There is attraction between what I wait for and I find with patience it wants me, as well.
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.
Mary Oliver writes such wonderful poetry, even when it looks like prose. I find a depth in the words and spaces that calls me to reflect upon the cultural and personal constraints that surround me. Certainly, I need those constraints. They guide me through the moment-to-moment actions of my daily life. I need those words that help me make sense of the most immediate world that I often take-for-granted.
What if I lived in the north? I would need those many words and an awareness of what the snow told me to survive. I read today that mother orangutans spend 7-8 years with each offspring. During that time, the mothers appear to teach the ways of life necessary for the offspring’s survival. I say appear, because we cannot communicate with them well enough to know with certainty. There is something mystical about that existence that cannot be fully grasped. So even in the orangutan world, there is a culture and communication that helps them negotiate their terrain instinctively.
I love the line “Their infallible sense of what their lives are meant to be.” Just like the lilies of the field, those other kingdoms exist in ways that allow the world that includes us to grow sweetly wild, when we are attentive and mindful to the world.
Consider the other kingdoms. The
trees, for example, with their mellow-sounding
titles: oak, aspen, willow.
Or the snow, for which the peoples of the north
have dozens of words to describe its
different arrivals. Or the creatures, with their
thick fur, their shy and wordless gaze. Their
infallible sense of what their lives
are meant to be. Thus the world
grows rich, grows wild, and you too,
grow rich, grow sweetly wild, as you too
were born to be.
In any given moment I have two options: to step forward into growth, or to step back into safety – Abraham Maslow
Source: Observing life differently….
Being mindful assumes an awareness that growth comes with potential risk. We live in a world that is often described in technical ways, and not as one filled with other humans, animals, plants, and objects that we have relationships with When we construct a technical world, we strip the world and us of potential relationships which allow us to grow. Part of mindfulness is to be aware playing it safe includes risk. What did I miss? Who did I miss? Even in playing it safe, there are no guarantees. There are inherent risks.
Amy Uyematsu wrote this poem for the Zen monk, Thich Nhat Hanh. In several books, he describes the peacefulness of drinking tea, washing dishes, and being a parent. The key to success, and it is hard to accomplish, is to be present and give one’s self over to the task, the person, and moment being shared.
Carl D’Agostino at I Know I Made You Smile reminded me today that the present is “very trying times for most of us.” It is. I find it easier to fictionalize the past and fantasize the future, but it is demanding to be present to the moment I share with someone else, a task, and/or an object.
The poem suggests this living in the present is not a task to be mastered, but something we engage with throughout our lives and it is hard work. Reading the poem gives me a sense of what a great role model Thich Nhat Hanh would be as he makes time for the present moment.
I read articles about mindfulness as a corporate strategy for leaders and followers alike. The authors often treat mindfulness as if it is something we can turn on and off at will, that there are 5 easy steps to follow. I know, from personal experience and missteps, that it is not that easy to live in the present moment each and every moment. The sunset I watch, the tea I drink, and the smiles I share with loved ones are not always easy to capture in the moment. It takes a life time of practice that is never complete.
How many years of suffering
revealed in hands like his
small and deliberate as a child’s
The way he raises them
from his lap, grasps the teacup
with sure, unhurried ease
Yet full of anticipation
for what he will taste in each sip
he drinks as if it’s his first time
Lifts the cup to his mouth,
a man who’s been practicing all his life,
each time tasting something new.
Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself. ― Rumi
Source: Change
I enjoy Rumi. He wrote poetry that yielded lasting messages.
We live in a world where people want to change the world, rather than themselves. However, the world changes when we change ourselves. I transform and move beyond who I was, even the second before. As I change, my view of the world shifts and the world appears new to me.
It reminds me of Marcel Proust‘s quote: “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”
Leaders who believe they can change the world for others are mere managers. Leaders change the world for themselves and invite others to join them in sharing their view of the world. There are not two identical views.
Teacher as Transformer 