Tag Archives: conversational journey

Every Movement

Posted on April 29, 2016 by ivonprefontaine

The philosopher and Talmudic scholar Emmanuel Levinas proposed that events are ongoing and remain incomplete, including creation as an event. In a sense, God’s creating is never completed.

Hafiz suggests something similar when it comes to understanding God’s work. It is a movement, an event. I find it easy to say no without pausing and being attentive. What does this mean? Am I able to understand its meaning at this time?

There is little patience in waiting for the luminous movement of existence. Quite often, we want something and set forward in a singular way captivated by the thoughts of that might mean as if living is done in moments. When we are patient, mindful, and attentive, the luminous movements appear at the most unexpected times that cannot be measured and described in any complete way.

I rarely let the word “No” escape
From my mouth
Because it is plain to my soul
That God has shouted “Yes! Yes! Yes!”
To every luminous movement in existence.

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Posted in Education, Leadership, Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments and tagged community, conversational journey, creativity, Emmanuel Levinas, Every Movement, Hafiz, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, poetry, servant-leadership, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

Praying

Posted on April 27, 2016 by ivonprefontaine

Mary Oliver writes wonderful, often short, poetry and this poem is no exception. The small and overlooked things in nature seem to call to her so she can share their words with the world.

When we just pay attention, we notice people and things that we might overlook in our haste to move through the world and our days. Praying is a doorway, not a contest. Prayer calls upon each of us to listen and give thanks for the world and its gifts. It is in those mindful and attentive moments that the world speaks to us and it is in silence that we hear its words.

It doesn’t have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patch

a few words together and don’t try
to make them elaborate, this isn’t
a contest but the doorway

into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak.

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Posted in Community, Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments and tagged community, conversational journey, creativity, Mary Oliver, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, nature, poetry, Praying, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

A Prayer Among Friends

Posted on April 21, 2016 by ivonprefontaine

We live in a world populated by others and surrounded by things. Often, we take the communal nature of living for granted. John Daniel suggests we walk together “in the light of this unlikely world that isn’t ours for long.” He counsels that we spend our time with each other and the world generously.

Being present, mindful, and attentive to others and the world lifts our relationships from the taken-for-granted to the meaningful. We elevate the ordinary to the status of extraordinary, finding beauty in the smallest details that are easily overlooked in the busyness of our living.

Sam Intrator wrote about the etymology of companion, which is breaking and sharing bread on one’s journey. As a teacher, eating lunch with students became an important feature of my relationships with them. I got to them and they me during those more informal moments, adding depth to the pedagogic relationships.

I often feel eating lunch with students added to “gift of good work” that pedagogy calls teachers and others to be part of. Taking time with each other over meals is similar to a prayer spoken from the heart and the listening for responses.

Among other wonders of our lives, we are alive
with one another, we walk here
in the light of this unlikely world
that isn’t ours for long.
May we spend generously
the time we are given.
May we enact our responsibilities
as thoroughly as we enjoy
our pleasures. May we see with clarity,
may we seek a vision
that serves all beings, may we honor
the mystery surpassing our sight,
and may we hold in our hands
the gift of good work
and bear it forth whole, as we
were borne forth by a power we praise
to this one Earth, this homeland of all we love.

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Posted in 21st Century Education, Community, Education, Leadership, Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments and tagged A Prayer Among Friends, community, conversational journey, John Daniel, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, poetry, Sam Intrator, servant-leadership, spirituality, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

Love Does That

Posted on April 19, 2016 by ivonprefontaine

I have not used Meister Eckhart in my writing and what little I know about his work comes indirectly through reading others such as Thomas Merton and Richard Rohr.

His poetry follows the mystical line of his other writing, exploring spiritual questions that are challenging to explore. The monk in the poem is a whisperer who for a few moments lifts the worries from the little burro. He shares a pear, rubs her/his ears, looks into his/her eyes as if the he might see the burro’s soul, and offers kindness to the burro.

How often do we find ourselves worrying about things that only bother us? How tired we feel in those times. Sometimes, we pause and lift the burdens that weigh down our minds and spirits. Other times, we have our whisperers who share love with us and help lift life’s burdens. Similar to the burro, we are free to laugh, even for a few seconds. Love is the balm for our tired spirits.

All day long a little burro labors, sometimes
with heavy loads on her back and sometimes just with worries
about things that bother only
burros.

And worries, as we know, can be more exhausting
than physical labor.

Once in a while a kind monk comes
to her stable and brings
a pear, but more
than that,

he looks into the burro’s eyes and touches her ears

and for a few seconds the burro is free
and even seems to laugh,

because love does
that.

Love frees.

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Posted in Community, Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments and tagged community, conversational journey, creativity, Love Does That, Meister Eckhart, Mindful Practice, poetry, Richard Rohr, spirituality, teacher as transformer, Thomas Merton. Bookmark the permalink.

talisman

Posted on April 17, 2016 by ivonprefontaine

When we pray, the words are an amulet for someone to wear. Suheir Hammad suggested the words remind us there is a divine space in each of us, waiting to be brought out as we write and speak. Inside each of us, there is a space of strength and courage we can offer to others as we write and repeat the poetic words.

In silence that endures within each of us, we discover the gestures and words of prayer and poetry another has written and spoken. A prayer reaches out to the other and adds strength to their living in moments of hardship, reminding them they are not alone. It is in those moments that something stirs gently and unexpectedly in us, reminding us we are not alone and perhaps a smile appears similar to the sun and moon’s warmth.

During those moments, we find the words written and spoken in silence. It is essential we set aside the busyness of daily living and listen attentively for those words to bring the god out in each of us.

it is written
the act of writing is
holy words are
sacred and your breath
brings out the
god in them
i write these words
quickly repeat them
softly to myself
this talisman for you
fold this prayer
around your neck fortify
your back with these
whispers
may you walk ever
loved and in love
know the sun
for warmth the moon
for direction
may these words always
remind you your breath
is sacred words
bring out the god
in you

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Posted in Community, Leadership, Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments, Sabbath and tagged community, conversational journey, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, poetry, prayer, servant-leadership, spirituality, Suheir Hammad, talisman, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

The Other

Posted on April 16, 2016 by ivonprefontaine

When we lived in rural British Columbia, there were winter nights that were so crisp, cold, and clear that the silence made sounds. It cracked and crackled. Things sounded so much closer in the cold. At the farm, trains went by 2 kilometres away, but in the cold, clear night they were just outside.

We had a dog, a wonderful German Shepherd and on those nights she would often become agitated wanting out and barking at the mountains and sky. I listened, but could not hear what she heard. Even though there were new sounds for me, there were likely others that escaped me and our dog heard them.

I think R. S. Thomas captured this sound of silence and prayer brilliantly. It reaches out and we hear something even when we do not hear actual sounds and see the people speaking to us. We feel them and the world at large. We are in concert and communion with the other – sentient and non-sentient – even though we cannot see them, sharing a prayer in that silence. Laying there, words come to us out of silence finding their way from heart to heart to heart.

There are nights that are so still
that I can hear the small owl calling
far off and a fox barking
miles away. It is then that I lie
in the lean hours awake listening
to the swell born somewhere in the Atlantic
rising and falling, rising and falling
wave on wave on the long shore
by the village, that is without light
and companionless. And the thought comes
of that other being who is awake, too,
letting our prayers break on him,
not like this for a few hours,
but for days, years, for eternity.

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Posted in Community, Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments and tagged community, conversational journey, creativity, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, poetry, R. S. Thomas, teacher as transformer, The Other. Bookmark the permalink.

Thought for Today

Posted on April 13, 2016 by ivonprefontaine

“Keep close to Nature’s heart… and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.” —John Muir

Source: Thought for Today

This is a wonderful quote. It speaks to slowing down and being mindful of the world as we move through it. When I was teaching, I took a week or so to slow down.

When I was in Spokane, I found the walking I did benefited me, whether it was on campus or along the river which runs right next to the campus.

Nature helps me the space to be quiet. It took me back to other times, when I was a boy growing up in rural Alberta and after we married we lived in small towns in rural British Columbia.

I think, as we grow older, we find anchors that help us pay closer attention to the world, both the inner and outer ones as they continuously converse.

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Posted in Community, Mindful Life, Reflective Moments, Uncategorized and tagged community, conversational journey, creativity, Espirational, John Muir, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, nature, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

“I” [“No, no, there is no going back”]

Posted on April 6, 2016 by ivonprefontaine

I purchased Wendell Berry’s latest book, Our Only World, on Sunday at Auntie’s, a small, independent book store since 1978. If you live in or near or visit Spokane, it is a nice location with restaurants near by.

After my purchases, I realized I had not used one of his poems in some time. I chose this one. I think it might be easy to say this is a bleak poem, talking about death. In a literal way, that makes sense. I take it figuratively.

Jacques Derrida contended that in becoming who we are the previous “who” repeatedly dies, but leaves memories and traces to be recalled. I read this poem, similarly. Who I am is metaphorically a grave of memories and traces that belong to me, but I share in various ways with others and the world. The tree is me standing guard over those memories. Guard might be too protective. Instead, similar to a tree’s rings signifying its age and even various years’ conditions, the tree represents the memories and stories about my living.

The tree allows me to recount my story, but not as it happened. My stories contain gaps, uncertainties, and ambiguity. I repeatedly edit them, filling in blanks, recalling events, and forgetting other things. As I recount my stories, they form a fictional account of who I am, where I’ve been, when I thrived, and when I struggled, similar to the rings on that poetic tree.

No, no, there is no going back.

Less and less you are

that possibility you were.

More and more you have become

those lives and deaths

that have belonged to you.

You have become a sort of grave

containing much that was

and is no more in time, beloved

then, now, and always.

And so you have become a sort of tree

standing over the grave.

Now more than ever you can be

generous toward each day

that comes, young, to disappear

forever, and yet remain

unaging in the mind.

Every day you have less reason

not to give yourself away.

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Posted in Community, Education, Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments and tagged Auntie's Bookstore, community, conversational journey, creativity, Jacques Derrida, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, poetry, Spokane, teacher as transformer, there is no going back"], Wendell Berry. Bookmark the permalink.

Lost

Posted on March 31, 2016 by ivonprefontaine

I sometimes feel lost in the world, without bearings. David Wagoner counseled that when we feel lost to stop and listen to the world, as if it were the forest and a powerful stranger able to speak to us.

When I stop and pray, I ask someone for help, but, if I rush on, without listening, the prayer cannot be answered. I pose a question that I cannot answer. Prayer is not just speaking. My heart opens and receives what is returned to me.

Is it in the form of words? Or, is it the gentle breath that is hardly perceptible? When I am mindful and listen to listen, I intuitively sense differences. Mindfulness becomes an attentive and sensitive way of life, as opposed to just happening.

Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you,
If you leave it you may come back again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you.

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Posted in Community, Leadership, Mindful Life, Nature in All Its Glory, Poetry, Reflective Moments and tagged community, conversational journey, creativity, David Wagoner, education, Lost, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, nature, poetry, servant-leadership, spirituality, teacher as transformer, transformative education. Bookmark the permalink.

walk your path…

Posted on March 29, 2016 by ivonprefontaine

Photo post by @arganesh3.

Source: walk your path…

The quote included in the post involves walking our path in a responsible and responsive way. We walk with others. Others walk with us whether it is beside us, behind us, or in front of us. They walk their path, as we, in turn, walk our path.

The etymology of the word truth involves faithfulness to someone or something, beginning with ourselves as we look inward and search for our particular truth. In this sense, truth is unique to each person, but there is fidelity and faithfulness that serves as a pledge or covenant to other things and people we encounter.

When we walk our path, it is our path, but we find ourselves in the company of others and things. The world and its beings lead us, constrain us and guide, as we lead, constrain, and guide them. We each share our particular truth with thhe world and others in and through these relationships. It is essential to be mindful and attentive to those relationships as we discover our particular truth.