Tag Archives: nature

Our True Heritage

Posted on April 22, 2017 by ivonprefontaine

I am reading The Art of Communicating by Thich Nhat Hanh to remind myself of to listen mindfully to others. When I am fully present to the other, I show compassion and understanding for their suffering.

Thich Nhat Hanh writes beautiful poetry, which reminds me to see the extraordinary in the ordinary. This poem reminds me that, when I am present, I experience the cosmos and its precious gems with all my senses.

In the busyness of living, I miss hearing birds singing, the pines chanting, and smiles of those around me. When I am happy, I share that with the world.

The cosmos is filled with precious gems.

I want to offer a handful of them to you this morning.

Each moment you are alive is a gem,

shining through and containing earth and sky,

water and clouds.

It needs you to breathe gently

for the miracles to be displayed.

Suddenly you hear the birds singing,

the pines chanting,

see the flowers blooming,

the blue sky,

the white clouds,

the smile and the marvelous look

of your beloved.

You, the richest person on Earth,

who have been going around begging for a living,

stop being the destitute child.

Come back and claim your heritage.

We should enjoy our happiness

and offer it to everyone.

Cherish this very moment.

Let go of the stream of distress

and embrace life fully in your arms.

19 Comments

Posted in Community, Mindful Life, Nature in All Its Glory, Poetry, Reflective Moments, Sabbath, teacher as transformer and tagged community, conversational journey, creativity, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, nature, Our True Heritage, poetry, reflecting, teacher as transformer, Thich Nhat Hanh. Bookmark the permalink.

Welcoming Spring

Posted on April 12, 2017 by ivonprefontaine

On my walk today, I saw my first robin. It appeared perplexed and it might have good reason for feeling that way. It is supposed to get cool with snow, possibly accumulating over the next days.

I imagine food is at a premium for robins now, unlike the magpie I saw a few steps further along the path.

A sign of spring–

A robin walks someone’s fence,

Anxious and tentative.

It moves cautiously,

Not taking flight

Less concerned with me, than food.

Winter ground cold,

No food in the hardpan–

No earthworms tilling the soil.

Image from All About Birds © Christopher L. Wood

15 Comments

Posted in Mindful Life, Nature in All Its Glory, Poetry, Reflective Moments, teacher as transformer and tagged creativity, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, nature, poetry, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

Longing for the Mountains of Solitude

Posted on April 11, 2017 by ivonprefontaine

Kathy and I enjoy driving to and through the mountains. Where Kathy grew up, the Rockies are visible in the distance. We try to make a trip once a year, but have not this past year, with my finishing the dissertation. I say “a trip” as we have access to several routes.

Today, I came across this poem by Za Paltrül Rinpoche. I could not find a link to the poet, but the words spoke to me. Although I am terrified of heights, mountains invite me to find ways to safely explore them, finding peace and solitude in safe ways.

Kathy took this picture on the Going to the Sun Highway in Glacier National Park in Montana.

This is Mount Robson, BC. It is the highest point in the Canadian Rockies at almost 4, 000 metres (almost 13, 000). Due to its height, the top is not always visible. I took this picture on one of our many trips past Mount Robson. It is one of those views that never disappoints. One year we walked along Robson River for several kilometres.

Fooled in samsara town—

the endless cycle of countless chores,

preoccupations of a delusory world—

this boy’s mind longs for mountains of solitude.

Hassled by monastery life—

the hustle of duties and communal dues,

pursuits of pointless distraction—

This boy’s mind longs for mountains of solitude.

Whomever I look at, I see at death’s threshold;

whatever I think on, I sense denial of dying,

grasping at the deathless; in this courtyard of death,

this boy’s mind longs for mountains of solitude.

Whomever I meet with manifests clinging and repulsion;

whomever I talk to brings deception and lies;

faced by companions without virtuous conduct,

this boy’s mind longs for mountains of solitude.

Behold, beings in the three realms are fooled by afflictions;

the beings of the six realms are led astray;

delusion engenders the birth of suffering for all;

this boy’s mind longs for mountains of solitude.

By the blessings of the undeceiving guru and the [Three] Jewels,

may I attain and persevere in solitude;

by the force of a place of seclusion,

may I attain a mystic’s isolation

of body, speech, and mind.

May I be blessed by the mountains of solitude.

12 Comments

Posted in Mindful Life, Nature in All Its Glory, Photography, Poetry, Reflective Moments, teacher as transformer and tagged Glacier National Park MT, Going to the Sun Road, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, Mount Robson, mount robson provincial park, nature, poetry, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

Periphery

Posted on April 6, 2017 by ivonprefontaine

Last summer, I attended a retreat in Wisconsin. Each morning, I went for a walk on the wonderful paths they had at the retreat centre. One morning, I felt I was being watched. I tried to only use my peripheral vision and not change my pace and gait.

After the rabbit slipped into the underbrush, I wondered what else I might miss in the hubbub of daily living. When I returned to the retreat centre, I jotted thoughts down and this is the result, several months later.

On my morning walk,

A slight movement on my periphery

I am being watched.

I move my eyes;

I try keeping my pace

I don’t.

I see it,

A rabbit

I am not on its periphery.

As it slips away,

I wonder

What do I miss in what I call living?

14 Comments

Posted in Mindful Life, Nature in All Its Glory, Poetry, Reflective Moments, teacher as transformer and tagged creativity, eloquent questions, Mindful Practice, nature, poetry, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

I look into your eyes and see the universe not yet born.. &.. Gözlerinin içine bakıyorum ve henüz doğmamış kainatı görüyorum. – Rumi

Posted on April 3, 2017 by ivonprefontaine

Source: I look into your eyes and see the universe not yet born.. &.. Gözlerinin içine bakıyorum ve henüz doğmamış kainatı görüyorum. – Rumi

Rumi had a wonderful way with words that touched the soul. Semra Polat shared two quotes in this post. When I read them, I easily understand as speaking about another person who means the world to me. As well, Rumi might have spoken about God, as a divine entity I experience by looking into the majesty of what God created.

In each moment, I witness what was created. I come to imagine the universe not yet born as I look into God’s eyes. In those moment, I am mindful and attentive to who and what I encounter and experience.

2 Comments

Posted in Community, Mindful Life, Nature in All Its Glory, Poetry, Reflective Moments, teacher as transformer, Uncategorized and tagged community, creativity, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, nature, poetry, Rumi, Semra Polat, spirituality, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

Pueblo Blessing

Posted on March 27, 2017 by ivonprefontaine

Source: Pueblo Blessing

I find it is simple often taken-for-granted things that bring the greatest joy in life. This post from WordVerseUniverse underscores that sentiment. It is the handful of dirt and the tree that stand beside me, which seen in a new light can bring great joy. The dirt reminds me of a place that I call home. The tree reminds me of the life that surrounds me.

As well, some things are more complex. How do I hold someone’s hand when they we are apart?

The Pueblo Blessing at the link reminds me I live in community with sentient and non-sentient beings. It is in the animate and inanimate that I find ways to hold on. In community, we discover the richness of living.

Being mindful and present to who and what is with me, near and distant, is essential to living life to the fullest.

8 Comments

Posted in Community, Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments, teacher as transformer, Uncategorized and tagged community, creativity, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, nature, poetry, Pueblo Blessing, spirituality, teacher as transformer, WordVerseUniverse. 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.

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.

The Shadow

Posted on February 6, 2017 by ivonprefontaine

Last night, as I posted, the words of a paragraph began to take shape as a poem and Mary Oliver’s words echoed for me.

Today, I took those words and echoes and finished the poem. It has been some time since I wrote a poem. Perhaps, without the urgency of writing a dissertation, this just happened. As well, the break without a need to read and write may have helped and freshened my desire to write differently.

There is no sense of urgency.

Here, I am in the shadow of nature

It uplifts, holding me close.

Nature reminds of less mechanical ways and times;

Of just being and living in the moment.

Pelicans dive bomb the surf in an instinctive search,

Oblivious to me, they bob on the waves.

At night, stars fill darkness and stillness,

They wait to be touched.

Oxen pull a plow across the hardpan soil,

They follow a deep-rooted instinct lost on me

The horse trotts a path, familiar to it

I sway, recalling greater comfort the last time I rode.

I recall days past.

I unsmother moments, days and experiences

My dreams call out to me;

They breathe life into my being.

Here, I sense what it might mean to live and just be.

Without urgency, there is a lightness in my gait.

9 Comments

Posted in Community, Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments, Sabbath, Synchronicity, teacher as transformer, Writing and tagged community, creativity, Mary Oliver, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, nature, poetry, teacher as transformer, The Shadow. Bookmark the permalink.

The world offers itself to your imagination ~ Mary Oliver

Posted on December 3, 2016 by ivonprefontaine

“You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. Tell me a…

Source: The world offers itself to your imagination ~ Mary Oliver

Mary Oliver is one of my many favorite poets. The poem Wild Geese, which is the poem these lines are from, comes from Poetry Showcase.

In the poem, Mary Oliver reminds us that we are part of a larger family and are being called home. When we are mindful, we can hear who and what calls us and we can imagine what that means to each of us. Even in the busyness of our living, there is something calling us to awaken and listen more closely.