As insight grows,
Clarity emerges
Wisdom revealed.
Enter life’s stream
Accept turbulence
Seek calm waters.
Drop labels
Cease judgment
Fall awake.
Tag Archives: mindfulness
In the Greater Scheme
It was a tiring day. I sat and reminded myself of a time I felt less tired. I took this picture that day.
I sit
I walk.
In the greater scheme
What does it mean?
Sunlight warms face
Gentle breeze cools air.
Fresh morning;
Comfortable afternoon.
Feel one with Nature
Deep roots.
Supported by ground;
Enveloped by all around.
Afresh, like a beginner;
Feel that which was always there.
See the world;
Feel it for the first time.
I find a place;
A place at the table of life.
Safe Haven
Kathy went to the farm yesterday and walked in from the road. Although it is overgrown, it is full of memories. One can think of the farmhouse as uninhabited, but visitors still abound. We sat at the kitchen table many mornings, watched the barnyard, and viewed assorted wildlife that found safe haven. Yesterday, this deer visited while Kathy visited and stirred memories.
The farm is in west-central Alberta and on clear days (yesterday was not) you can see the Rockies in the distance at various points on the drive out.
Sense serenity
Surrounded
By nature and memories.
Some visible
Others invisible
Each appears.
A home for being
A work place
A learning place.
A deer poses
Momentarily safe,
Human memories stir.
Calm Within the Turbulence
I awake each morning
Smile into the day
Soak in each moment.
Pause
Find calm
Let calm find me
Amidst the turbulence.
Transform
Since arriving home, it has been a slow process. I resist the routine or rut I was in when we left for Spokane. It is hard work, but one thing I noted today, I am not alone in my travails. It seems universal and I am glad for company. As I went through blogs I recognized transformation is a patient process, a slow process, and a personally purposeful process. I looked at the pictures we took on our travels and for all of nature’s ability to change rapidly, most change is slow and transformational.
I wait
Often impatient
Desire for something better
Lean into my steps
Transform
Slow, patient, with purpose
Without plan
An invisible blueprint.
Journey
With one’s self
Often with companions
Break bread together.
Trust
Moments of devotion
To each another
Change together.
Embrace
No need to explain
Words sometimes fail
A smile assures.
Turn back
A worn path emerges
Look ahead
Share paths.
The Woodcarver
When I walk in nature and see the panoramic creation, I recall this is a gift. Each day I am present and stop to meet what is there, is a day I move beyond my ego. I am grateful for simply being . It is the greatest gift.
The Woodcarver
Khing, the master carver, made a bell stand
Of precious wood. When it was finished,
All who saw it were astounded. They said it must be
The work of spirits.
The Prince of Lu said to the master carver:
“What is your secret?”
***
Khing replied: “I am only a workman:
I have no secret. There is only this:
When I began to think about the work you commanded
I guarded my spirit, did not expend it
On trifles, that were not to the point.
I fasted in order to set
My heart at rest.
***
After three days fasting,
I had forgotten gain and success.
After five days
I had forgotten praise or criticism.
After seven days
I had forgotten my body
With all its limbs.
***
“By this time all thought of your Highness
And of the court had faded away.
All that might distract me from the work
Had vanished.
I was collected in the single thought
Of the bell stand.
***
“Then I went to the forest
To see the trees in their own natural state.
When the right tree appeared before my eyes,
The bell stand it also appeared in it, clearly, beyond doubt.
All I had to do was to put forth my hand
And begin.
***
“If I had not met this particular tree
There would have been
No bell stand at all.
“What happened?
My own collected thought
Encountered the hidden potential in the wood;
From this live encounter came the work.
Which you ascribe to the spirits.”
***
Palmer, P. J. (2004). A hidden wholeness: The journey toward an undivided life. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Parker Palmer attributed his source as The Way of Chuang Tzu by Thomas Merton and published by The Abbey of Gethsemani in 1965.
Sabbaths by Wendell Berry
What do I gain from taking a break; disconnect to reconnect? I think this poem speaks volumes. Jay F. Smith contributed the idea for this poem along with a brief reflective essay in Leading from Within.
In his essay, Rev. Smith indicated the Sabbath mood is “a mood resulting from a deep sense of knowing that no matter what the immediate visible, tangible, measurable ‘results’ may be, [something bigger than me] God is at work in the world” (p. 114).
Whatever is foreseen in joy
Must be lived out from day to day.
Vision held open in the dark
By our ten thousand days of work.
Harvest will fill the barn; for that
The hand must ache, the face must sweat.
And yet no leaf or grain is filled
By work of ours; the field is tilled
And left to grace. That we may reap,
Great work is done while we’re sleeping.
When we work well, a Sabbath mood
Rests on our day, and finds it good.
Berry, W. (2007). Sabbaths. In S. M. Intrator and M. Scribner (Eds.), Leading from within: Poetry that sustains the courage to lead (pp. 115). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Sabbath’s Circle
Have a great 23rd of July, 2012.
A virtuous circle
Begins at the end
Ends at the beginning.
A source of refuge
Moments of discovery within
No urgency
Besides just breathing.
Just be
With all nature’s cycles
Brings wholeness
Sabbath liberates.
I find life events are increasingly filled with synchronicity. When I posted the poem Auditory Illusion, I had listened to a thunderstorm chase itself in and out of the Spokane area. It thundered overhead, moved off, and returned several times circling in and out of the area for about an hour. After the post, I reflected on life’s circularity as it is and scribbled some thoughts down before going to bed last night.
I heard the rain differently than it was. It sounded like the storm was over, yet, when I got up, it was raining hard. The eaves of the building had tempered the sound. Today, in Wayne Muller’s Sabbath, he wrote about the etymological roots of the words absurd and obedient. Absurd is from the Latin surdus which means deaf and obedient from the Latin to listen. Yesterday, listening or mislistening to the storm and its intensity reminded me of the frequency I misunderstand parts of life and its relationships. Wayne Muller was friend of Henri Nouwen and said he was “a fiercely astute observer of our worried, overfilled lives [and that] … the noise of our lives made us deaf, unable to hear when we are called, or from which direction” (p. 84). I am commited to daily moments of silence and a weekly Sabbath to help me listen when called.
Wayne Muller concludes each short chapter with a brief reflection for Sabbath. The chapter Let it Be is also the title of my favourite Beatles’ songs. Today, the reflection was from Brother David Steindl-Rast an Austrian monk.
“Let the silence drop like a pebble right into the middle of the day and send its ripples out over its surface in ever-widening circles” (p. 86).
Muller, W. (1999). Sabbath: Restoring the sacred rhythm of rest. New York: Bantam Books.
The Auditory Ilusion
Drops of water
No rhythm
Fall from eaves.
Seemingly,
Out of tune
An orchestra warms ups
Occasionally, silence breaks out.
The aftermath
Thunder chased itself in and out
Lightning lit the mid-day sky.
Now, a steady rain
With a different view
More than sound
More than intermittent drops
From the protected, artificial eave.
When I laid down, an afternoon thunderstorm had just started to move into the area. I listened and it sounded quite different from what I saw when I got up. Now, I am up on the fifth floor, or the penthouse, so it might sound quite different at street level.
I wonder what other illusions we have based on position and perspective on life?
Haiku Haven
Last year, I found I was tired and often in pain and began to look for ways to deal with these issues. Cautiously, I examined the concept of meditation and a mindful practice. This morphed into more, as I began to read about the topics and I completed an individual and directed study as part of my doctoral process. I am provided with an opportunity to explore the self who teaches and lives this life during these quiet moments. I discovered a need for a mindful life, where I was fully present and meditation serves me well.
Each morning, I get up and begin my day with a quiet, mindful space:
Each morning’s practice
I fall awake into day
Embrace the calmness.
Most days, I walk to the local coffee shop where everybody knows my name and continue my practice. Even in the noise of the place, I mindfully read and drink my tea. Part of it is the walk.
With each of life’s steps
Earth receives me graciously
And we become one.
Each afternoon, I try lay down for an hour. I rarely sleep. My neck and shoulders ache and they are asking for a break. I focus on my breath and let thoughts flow by on my stream of consciousness.
Embodied mind speaks
Rest the mind and body
Take refuge, sabbath.
Take care and have a great 21st of July, 2012.
ivonprefontaine
Teacher as Transformer 