Tag Archives: mindfulness

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.

The Wisdom of Buddha

Posted on February 19, 2017 by ivonprefontaine

If you light a lamp for somebody, it will also brighten your path. Buddha. It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.

When we show the way for others, we show the way for ourselves.

Source: The Wisdom of Buddha

The Buddha left many thoughts for us to explore and understand in our lives. The link to Lara and Tina‘s post shares several quotes and pictures, underscoring how love and care for others begins with love and care for ourselves.

When we are mindful and attentive to our self, we shine a light for others and we can be mindful and attentive to them.

9 Comments

Posted in Community, Leadership, Mindful Life, Photography, Reflective Moments, Sabbath, teacher as transformer, Uncategorized and tagged Buddha, Buddhism, community, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, servant-leadership, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

Love is a Magic Ray

Posted on February 16, 2017 by ivonprefontaine

Kahlil Gibran wrote many poems that he embedded in The Prophet. I think this poem was an excellent choice for Valentine’s Day, but it reminds us how we can live each of our lives day-to-day; moment-to-moment.

In loving-kindness, we illuminate the world that surrounds us and the path we each walk. Being mindful and present to who and what accompanies each of us is awakening to see the world as a beautiful dream we share.

Love is a magic ray
emitted from the burning core
of the soul
and illuminating
the surrounding earth.

It enables us
to perceive life
as a beautiful dream
between one awakening
and another.

11 Comments

Posted in Community, Education, Leadership, Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments, teacher as transformer and tagged community, creativity, education, Khalil Gibran, Love is a Magic Ray, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, poetry, spirituality, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

Nothing Can Be Done 2 Days Out of the Year

Posted on February 14, 2017 by ivonprefontaine

“There are only two days in the year that nothing can be done. One is called Yesterday and the other is called Tomorrow. Today is the right day to Love, Believe, Do and mostly Live.” ~ His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama

Source: Nothing Can Be Done 2 Days Out of the Year

This is a wonderful reminder of the essential nature of mindfulness in our lives. To be present, is to accept that we live in one moment at a time. In each ensuing moment, our life is created.

4 Comments

Posted in Leadership, Mindful Life, Reflective Moments, teacher as transformer, Uncategorized and tagged Buddhism, creativity, Dalai Lama, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, philosophy, spirituality, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

The Real Work

Posted on February 12, 2017 by ivonprefontaine

I found it interesting that as I searched for a poem I typed in the words The Real Work by Wendell Berry. As Google anticipated, another search emerged: The Real Work by Gary Snyder. This book of essays emerged from a series of interviews and talks Snyder conducted over several years.

Wendell Berry and Gary Snyder are writers, environmentalists and farmers who live in Kentucky and California respectively. Together, they wrote a book called Distant Neighbours and shared their views about the real work they undertook as writers, environmentalists, and farmers. How each of them understood and wrote about real work echoed the other.

Real work happens not when we find ourselves going through the work aimlessly and mindlessly. It emerges when obstacles arise and we are mindful and attentive in our work. It holds our interest through baffling us and our being unsure of what to do next. As we work thoughtfully and our mind is employed in meaningful acts, our work sings like an impeded stream and makes us whole. It is like we our speaking through our work and its meaning to us.

It may be that when we no longer know what to do
we have come our real work,

and that when we no longer know which way to go
we have come to our real journey.

The mind that is not baffled is not employed.

The impeded stream is the one that sings.

14 Comments

Posted in Community, Leadership, Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments, Sabbath, Synchronicity, teacher as transformer and tagged community, creativity, Gary Snyder, mindful leadership, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, poetry, teacher as transformer, The Real Work, Wendell Berry. Bookmark the permalink.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Solitude

Posted on February 11, 2017 by ivonprefontaine

Solitude has soft, silky hands, but with strong fingers it grasps the heart and makes it ache with sorrow. /Kahlil Gibran/ Weekly Photo Challenge: Solitude

Source: Weekly Photo Challenge: Solitude

This is a short and powerful quote by Khalil Gibran accompanied by a glowing flame. It is in those moments of true solitude we find ourselves and who we are lights the path ahead.

Solitude embraces us in its questions without pre-known answers. We we engage the deepest parts of our self in conversation. Engage means to pledge and in solitude we can pledge to make a difference in the world.

4 Comments

Posted in Community, Education, Mindful Life, Reflective Moments, teacher as transformer, Uncategorized and tagged conversational journey, creativity, eloquent questions, Khalil Gibran, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, solitude, 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.

12 Comments

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.

Absence

Posted on February 8, 2017 by ivonprefontaine

I’ve come to understand that absence lies at the heart of our seeing more clearly. It’s often in something’s absence that we suddenly begin to see, whatever it is, in a new light.…

Source: Absence

Jacques Derrida said one cannot speak of something without acknowledging its opposite. When we hear black, it is natural for us to think of white. He went so far as to say that to claim one is atheist acknowledges the very possibility God exists.

Absence make the heart grow fonder, particularly when we love something or someone deeply. The Khalil Gibran quote at the end is essential to how we come to appreciate what and who we have in life. It is in the moments absence we grow to understand how much we love. It is in those moments we grow to be mindful and attentive when absence turns to presence.