Tag Archives: paradox

Rhythms of Living

Posted on October 28, 2020 by ivonprefontaine

In the poem, The Uses of Not, Lao Tzu reminds me there is often an empty space that completes something and, for that matter, someone. A wheel needs spokes, a clay pot the hole in the clay to hold things, and rooms need doors and windows.

In life, I find myself trying to fill gaps and holes. When I am mindful, I recall to make something (w)hole it has gaps and holes embedded in it. The gaps and holes serve as spaces for energy to enter and exit. Without energy exchanges, I can grow stagnant and stale.

This poem was about the busyness of life. At times it seemed to overwhelm me when I taught. I tried to do more, rather than stepping back and finding space that served to heal and make me whole again.

Filling holes–

Plugging gaps–

Digging holes in water–

Seeking to be whole;

In the end, futile.

Remaining indivisible–

Complementing one another–

Completing one another–

Beauty reflecting one another;

Emerging in paradox.

Inviting, calling–

Opening life’s arms–

In its embrace–

Discovering loving space;

Living in life’s healing rhythms.

I opted for this video, as, despite the fact they are struggling, Tommy and Gina have each other. It is what makes them whole; that and living on a prayer.

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Posted in Blogging, Community, Education, Leadership, Mindful Life, music, Poetry, Reflective Moments, servant-leadership, teacher as transformer, Writing and tagged beauty, Bon Jovi, Lao Tzu, life, life is beautiful, living, Living on a Prayer, music, paradox, poetry, The Uses of Not, video, writing, writing poetry. Bookmark the permalink.

Warrior’s Quest

Posted on October 26, 2020 by ivonprefontaine

Sometimes, I make sense of the life and the worl in paradox. With questions I can deepen conversations. I serve questions. Father Richard Rohr says maturity leads us to stop chasing certainty. In this way, I seek eloquent questions without ready answers: and invite others into dialogue.

After I read Chögyam Trungpa‘s Shambhala:The Path of the Sacred Warrior, I realized a warrior combats his/her own self-ignorance, moving towards being a human with a brave mind and ethical impulse. I cannot attain these qualities, but they are always worth questing towards and they do not come without struggle. Shunryu Suzuki and Thomas Merton used the analogy of a meadow to explore how we each can meditate, contemplate, and pray.

Warrior’s quest;

Resting in paradox–

Seemingly incompatible;

Space inviting space,

Forming spacious meadow.

Deepening dialogue;

Lacking pre-formed answers–

Questioning with eloquences;

Remaining open,

Experiencing wonder.

Lightening load;

Being grateful for gifts–

Even suffering,

Serving the journey;

The questing.

Emerging path;

Readying to step–

Understanding it is meant,

Fulfilling its rightness;

Knowing only it is unknown.

The warrior’s quest is much like standing at the base of a mountain. It is exhilirating and creates a sense of wonder: What is there on that mountain? On the other sides? I took this picture of Mount Robson on one of our many trips to visit family and friends.

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Posted in Blogging, Community, Leadership, Mindful Life, Nature in All Its Glory, Photography, Poetry, Reflective Moments, servant-leadership, teacher as transformer, Writing and tagged Chogyan Trungpa, contemplation, Dialogue, eloquent questions, Ethics, meditation, Mount Robson, mountains, nature, paradox, poetry, prayer, questions, Richard Rohr, Shunryu Suzuki, Thomas Merton, warrior, writing, writing poetry. Bookmark the permalink.

The Real Work

Posted on June 12, 2017 by ivonprefontaine

I was laid up for the last few days. I have allergies and this time of the year is always a challenge. I think I picked up a bug to give me a double-whammy. I slept a good part of Friday and Saturday and, on Sunday, was upright for most of the day.

I am not sure if I will post later. While sitting upright and not doing much else on Sunday, this Wendell Berry poem kept poking at me.

Living is paradoxical. Parker Palmer described how this creates tension in living. Just as we think everything is as it should be, something pokes at us and unsettles us, calling on us to begin our real work and commencing the real journey. Being mindful and attentive remind us to be still and look below the surface of what is happening.

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.

This is Athabasca Falls. The river upstream is quite wide and as it comes around the corner suddenly narrows. In Wendell Berry’s poem, it is impeded and creates a great force that carves out solid granite.

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Posted in Mindful Life, Nature in All Its Glory, Photography, Poetry, Reflective Moments, teacher as transformer and tagged athabasca falls, conversational journey, creativity, Hermeneutic Phenomenology, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, nature, paradox, Parker Palmer, photography, poetry, teacher as transformer, The Real Work, Wendell Berry. Bookmark the permalink.

also

Posted on March 21, 2017 by ivonprefontaine

Source: also.

The link is to a Mary Oliver quote. We often say one thing and qualify it with something that is an “also.” In this case, it is a being kind and being mischievous.

Who we each are is a rich amalgam of paradox and contradiction that points out the essential nature of differences between each of us. Differences make a difference. It is in them we discover and explore the rich tapestry of our lives and those of people we come in contact with, near and far.

By being attentive and mindful to the differences between us and paradoxes, we can experience richness in life that is unending. We discover and explore questions that have no fixed answers and invite us into vibrant conversations with each other.

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Posted in Community, Education, Mindful Life, Reflective Moments, teacher as transformer, Uncategorized and tagged community, conversational journey, creativity, differences make a difference, eloquent questions, I didn't have my glasses on, Mary Oliver, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, paradox, spirituality, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

The Opening of Eyes

Posted on March 16, 2013 by ivonprefontaine

I arrive at the end of another week. It was a quiet week in many ways. Next week includes parent-teacher interviews and will be more hectic. When I reflected, I thought of the Marcel Proust quote: “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” I need the quiet and the solitude which allows me to achieve one glimpse at a time.

I found my way to this David Whyte poem which proposed a similar message. The poet echoed Proust in the second stanza. As I open my eyes, my heart and mind open in astonishment as the wonder of silence finds a new world that was always there, a paradox.

That day I saw beneath dark clouds
the passing light over the water
and I heard the voice of the world speak out,
I knew then, as I had before
life is no passing memory of what has been
nor the remaining pages in a great book
waiting to be read.

It is the opening of eyes long closed.
It is the vision of far off things
seen for the silence they hold.
It is the heart after years
of secret conversing
speaking out loud in the clear air.

It is Moses in the desert
fallen to his knees before the lit bush.
It is the man throwing away his shoes
as if to enter heaven
and finding himself astonished,
opened at last,
fallen in love with solid ground.

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Posted in Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments, Sabbath and tagged creativity, David Whyte, Marcel Proust, Mindful Practice, paradox, poetry, teacher as transformer, The Opening of Eyes. Bookmark the permalink.

Rhythm of Life

Posted on November 21, 2012 by ivonprefontaine

I started out with Hole in the Doughnut as a title for this poem. That had played in the recesses of my mind off and on all day. But as the poem wrote itself, I realized that might too trite even if it seemed accurate. Who has eaten a doughnut without a hole? The hole completes the doughnut. Without the hole the doughnut is a bagel.

Busy trying to fill a hole–

Plug a gap

But to no avail–

So futile;

Go dig a hole in the ocean.

Hole and whole indivisible;

Not just a play on words–

Are complete only together

Beauty in paradoxical relationship.

It invites

Calls to us

Embraces fully