Tag Archives: Henry David Thoreau

How Quotes Enoble Us

Posted on November 7, 2017 by ivonprefontaine

I love quotes. They make me reflect about meanings that are not clear. They raise eloquent questions that have no pat answers. They inspire me. Balroop provided three quotes that underscore these points.

Poetry is like quotes and I find many quotes from poems and poets. There are spaces between words, lines, and stanzas I can stand in and wonder.

I leave you with quotes that inspire me to think deeply and ask questions about the meaning of my life.

The first two are from Mary Oliver.

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

“Said the river: imagine everything you can imagine, then keep on going.”

The following is from Wendell Berry.

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound…
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

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Posted in Community, Leadership, Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments, teacher as transformer, Writing and tagged eloquent questions, Henry David Thoreau, learning, Mary Oliver, quotes, reflecting, Rudyard Kipling, Wendell Berry, William Arthur Ward. Bookmark the permalink.

Walk Your Path

Posted on May 29, 2017 by ivonprefontaine

We each walk our own path. Others can walk beside us, hold our hand, and be there. What they cannot do is live our lives.

I thought about traveling today, as I prepare for my trip tomorrow. It brought several quotes to mind about the paths we travel and what that means.

“Don’t walk behind me; I may not lead. Don’t walk in front of me; I may not follow. Walk beside me and be my friend.” Camus

“It’s your road, and yours alone. Others may walk it with you, but no one can walk it for you.” Rumi

“Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence.” Thoreau

The reflecting led me to look through some notes and this poem emerged.

Walk it so may be glorious.

Your courage is your truth

Let it shine a light on the path.

Discover beauty in what you give

Let it be the path you seek.

Walk at your pace

Be present in the world.

Walk with your story

Follow the questions of your quest.

Find a space to catch a glimpse of yourself

It is a space to dance, sing, and live.

Be vulnerable in that space

It is makes you who you are.

This is a path at Sunwapta Falls in Jasper National Park. We walked down to the see the falls and Kathy took the picture as I walked back up. The roots and people walking wove a pattern and story into the path.

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Posted in Community, Leadership, Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments, teacher as transformer and tagged Albert Camus, community, creativity, Henry David Thoreau, Jasper National Park, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, poetry, reflecting, Rumi, Sunwapta Falls, teacher as transformer, Walk Your Path. 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.

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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.

Solitude. A Photographic Journey.

Posted on February 9, 2017 by ivonprefontaine

I think that I cannot preserve my health and spirits, unless I spend four hours a day at least, and it is commonly more than that, sauntering through the woods and over the hills and fields, absolu…

Source: Solitude. A Photographic Journey.

The photographs are wonderful and a quote accompanies each speaking to the essential nature of spending time with our self. It is in reflective moments that we spend in solitude that we rediscover who we are in trying to make our self whole.

The Hasidic scholar, educator, political activist, and philosopher Martin Buber said “solitude is the place of purification.” Through dialogue with our self, others, and the world, we grow to understand who we are and our place in the world in relationship to others.

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Posted in Community, Mindful Life, Nature in All Its Glory, Photography, Reflective Moments, teacher as transformer, Uncategorized and tagged community, conversational journey, creativity, Deepak Chopra, Desmond Tutu, Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, Martin Buber, Mary Oliver, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, nature, Paulo Coehlo, spirituality, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

If you want to write or paint,then do it !

Posted on December 13, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

If you want to write or paint,then do it !.

As I get ready for a Sabbath break this week, I am also shifting my focus a bit. I found this post the other day and was not sure what it meant at the time. Today, it is suggesting more focus on dissertation writing and less on blogging.

I will visit blogs and post less in the next month . I want to deliver a clean, preliminary writing of the first three chapters by January 20. I am re-organizing more than writing fresh.

Thoreau‘s quote speaks to me. The world is a canvas and I am exploring them both. My topic is the phenomenology of teaching and how becoming a particular teacher is a continuing process. Phenomenology is wondering about phenomena we encounter, including ourselves and other humans, and how we experience encounters.

Parker Palmer suggests truth, from the word troth, reveals itself through living in the world, relating to its sentient and non-sentient beings.

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Posted in Community, Mindful Life, Reflective Moments, Sabbath, Uncategorized and tagged community, creativity, Henry David Thoreau, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, Parker Palmer, teacher as transformer, writing. Bookmark the permalink.

Men Say They Know Many Things

Posted on March 1, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

Henry David Thoreau wrote this poem at a time he could not have foreseen where we are with the thousands of appliances. He thought it was only a thousand appliances. There are times I get lost in them and forget they are separate from me and only tools that enable a particular job. At the same, I realize used wisely they advance life and the tasks involved.

The arts and sciences blend together, but I would take it a step further and suggest that the spiritual and the sciences are not separate from each other. When I take time and see life through a lens that allows me to understand what is at hand, I can make wiser decisions and feel that wind blow.

Men say they know many things;
But lo! they have taken wings, —
The arts and sciences,
And a thousand appliances;
The wind that blows
Is all that any body knows.