Tag Archives: creativity

All the Hemispheres

Posted on March 18, 2017 by ivonprefontaine

Hafez counsels me to look in to discover the hemispheres. I love lines where he calls on me to make a new water-mark on my excitement and love. When I turn in, it is possible to welcome new seasons and bloom in new unexpected ways that are a result of changing the rooms in my mind.

When I greet myself with kindness and the world with humility, I find my way home. An essential element of this journey is I am not alone, but with those who go with me and share with me the journey.

The journey of life is always made in the mindful and attentive of company of others inside and outside me as I let my senses and bodies stretch out in unfamiliar ways. I create the new in those moments and deepening of relationships with those gathered around the fire.

Leave the familiar for a while.
Let your senses and bodies stretch out

Like a welcomed season
Onto the meadows and shores and hills.

Open up to the Roof.
Make a new water-mark on your excitement
And love.

Like a blooming night flower,
Bestow your vital fragrance of happiness
And giving
Upon our intimate assembly.

Change rooms in your mind for a day.

All the hemispheres in existence
Lie beside an equator
In your heart.

Greet Yourself
In your thousand other forms
As you mount the hidden tide and travel
Back home.

All the hemispheres in heaven
Are sitting around a fire
Chatting

While stitching themselves together
Into the Great Circle inside of
You.

11 Comments

Posted in Community, Mindful Life, Reflective Moments, Sabbath, teacher as transformer and tagged All the Hemispheres, community, conversational journey, creativity, Hafez, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, poetry, spirituality, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

Suspended Person

Posted on March 8, 2017 by ivonprefontaine

Source: Suspended Person

This an older post from July 2013, but Chief Seattle‘s quote is a beautiful reminder that resonates.

We connect to each other and the world. We are one thread of an intricate tapestry woven throughout time.

When we remember we are connected, we unite with each other through a deep and abiding love for all that exists and all that has traveled down through time. Our mindfulness and presence reflects this love.

8 Comments

Posted in Community, Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments, teacher as transformer, Uncategorized and tagged Chief Seattle, community, creativity, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, poetry, teacher as transformer, Wildflower Women. Bookmark the permalink.

Hands…

Posted on March 7, 2017 by ivonprefontaine

Moving away from Nature …

I am presenting something different..

There is no special teaching: The most ordinary things in our daily

Life hide…

Source: Hands…

Siram provides several wonderful pictures of hands and poetry with quotes from Buddha for each. Each one called me to be mindful and present to what happened in that image.

The images and words reminded me, even in the midst of a busy world, it is in silence between words and sounds that I find meaning. I find the extraordinary in the ordinary. Even the most familiar moments take on new meaning, filled with extra and overflowing meaning, when I pause and am present.

9 Comments

Posted in Community, Mindful Life, Photography, Poetry, Reflective Moments, teacher as transformer, Uncategorized and tagged Buddha, Buddhism, community, creativity, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, nature, poetry, Siram Janak, spirituality, teacher as transformer, Zen Buddhist. Bookmark the permalink.

Dr. Seuss

Posted on March 3, 2017 by ivonprefontaine

Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, was born this day in 1904. Teachers, librarians, and parents use his books in children’s literacy, but I found children and adults never really out grow Dr. Seuss.

Several years ago, I read an article about Dr. Seuss. He created cartoons as a critical response to Hitler and Mussolini. He deplored racism and his books were a means of introducing children to diversity. Even though we think of his books as essential to children’s literacy, they are as important to social justice and equity.

It was not just his characters, but what they ate or did not eat that were part of the diversity.

Do you like green eggs and ham?

I do not like them, Sam-I-am.
I do not like green eggs and ham!

Would you like them here or there?

I would not like them here or there.
I would not like them anywhere.

I do so like green eggs and ham!
Thank you! Thank you,
Sam-I-am!

23 Comments

Posted in Education, Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments, Social Justice, teacher as transformer and tagged creativity, Dr. Seuss, education, Green Eggs and Ham, literature, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, poetry, social justice, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

Rumi on pronoun use

Posted on March 1, 2017 by ivonprefontaine

At one time when life was real, your soul was one with my soul:
All we were, open or secret, was part of the same whole.
If “you” and “I” are pronouns I use, they are only terms–
In truth, there can be no separate you or I at all.

Source: Rumi on pronoun use

I came across this Rumi quote at Leonard‘s blog. We do not live separate from one another, but are part of an inseparable collective. Understood this way, language only acts as labels we affix to one another to enable communication.

When we understand we are each part of that larger collective and are attentive to the needs of others, community emerges in unexpected ways. We seek to help one another, living together in worthwhile and healthy ways.

8 Comments

Posted in Community, Leadership, Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments, Social Justice, teacher as transformer, Uncategorized and tagged community, creativity, Leonard Durso, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, poetry, Rumi, spirituality, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

My head is…

Posted on February 25, 2017 by ivonprefontaine

**Image via Wallpapers App; text added by Natalie

Source: My head is…

Natalie’s post is a wonderful quote from Rumi. What I do not know is far more than what I know. Even what I think I know, is less than what I can actually know.

Even two people standing side-by-side experience the world differently. As they each look back, they recall what imprinted itself on them, but not the other.

As I live and exit each moment, I forget good portions of what I experienced. As I move on, I forget more and more. All that is left is a fainter and fainter impression of what I thought I knew.

The best I can do is to experience each moment as mind(fully) as possible and to enjoy the company of the other in that moment.

5 Comments

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

Poems on Love

Posted on February 23, 2017 by ivonprefontaine

Rabindranath Tagore‘s poem echoes the words of Thomas Merton: humans fall in love and falling is painful. If rejected, the rejection is painful. When accepted by another, it is true gift that speaks through acceptance and the other’s reciprocity.

Love is an endless mystery is a perfect line. There is no full explanation of what love is and why people love one another. When two people find each other and find love, it just is and is freely given and accepted. There are no conditions attached and its beauty radiates from an internal place.

When we are in love, we express a presence and attentiveness to the other person and objects that move beyond words. Mindfulness is a silent expression of love.

Love adorns itself;
it seeks to prove inward joy by outward beauty.

Love does not claim possession,
but gives freedom.

Love is an endless mystery,
for it has nothing else to explain it.

Love’s gift cannot be given,
it waits to be accepted.

18 Comments

Posted in Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments, teacher as transformer and tagged conversational journey, creativity, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, Poems on Love, Rabindranath Tagore, spirituality, teacher as transformer, Thomas Merton. Bookmark the permalink.

If you have built castles in the air,

Posted on February 22, 2017 by ivonprefontaine

“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.” ~ Henry David Thoreau Artist~Catrin Welz-Stein
Text & image source: Moonlight Serenade https://web.facebook.com/Moonlight-Serenade-228504310532112/

Source: If you have built castles in the air,

We need images for our imaginations, but it is equally important to give them foundations. In this way, our castles are sustainable.

When we put foundations under our dreams and castles, we do so by being present and mindful. We are aware of the hard work that it takes to build those castles and the building requires the help of others, just as they build their castles with our help.

3 Comments

Posted in Community, Mindful Life, Photography, Reflective Moments, teacher as transformer, Uncategorized and tagged community, creativity, Henry David Thoreau, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, servant-leadership, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

How Poetry Comes to Me

Posted on February 21, 2017 by ivonprefontaine

Much like poetry, living comes to each of us and it blunders along just out of view from us. It is like sitting around a campfire and knowing there is something outside the ring of light the fire casts.

Within the ring of light, there is a warmth, perhaps a certainty. We think we know what is happening next. In truth, the living happens just outside our reach. Wendell Berry describes it as happening, but, once it happens, we cannot be fully describe it.

Gary Snyder wrote about his poetry writing as having to go meet the poetry just outside the range of his campfire. When we are attentive and mindful of each moment and what is just beyond our reach and vision, life dances at the edge of the light, like poetry.

Instead of certain answers, we encounter questions that cannot be fully answered, but help form the conversation and poetry that is our living.

It comes blundering over the

Boulders at night, it stays

Frightened outside the

Range of my campfire

I go to meet it at the

Edge of the light

13 Comments

Posted in Education, Leadership, Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments, teacher as transformer, Writing and tagged conversational journey, creativity, eloquent questions, Gary Snyder, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, poetry, teacher as transformer, Wendell Berry. Bookmark the permalink.

Langston Hughes

Posted on February 18, 2017 by ivonprefontaine

As far back as I can remember, I have adored poetry. I’m especially drawn to the works of poets who courageously dive deeply into their stories… their journeys through life. These are m…

Source: Langston Hughes

Similar to Gina, I enjoy poetry. I wrote poetry in junior high school. When I began teaching Language Arts, I taught poetry. During difficult times in my teaching career, I returned to writing poetry.

I loved Langston Hughes‘ poems and used them each year. His poems were short and students discerned their themes, such as holding fast to one’s dreams, social justice, and life’s challenges, and relate to them fairly easily.

Langston Hughes wrote poetry that reflected both his experiences and the culture of the African-American community. This reflected both the celebrations and suffering that people experienced, which are often intertwined with each other.