Tag Archives: sabbath

Parable

Posted on November 17, 2013 by ivonprefontaine

As I check out for Sabbath, I came across this playful poem by Richard Wilbur. Some days, it is nice to allow the horse to find the way home. It would our personal quixotic and random journey on that given day.

I found this poem n a book about reading and writing poetry called Rules for the Dance by Mary Oliver. The great poets have an eye for great poetry. Life is a dance that brings its own rules.

I read how Quixote in his random ride

Came to a crossing once, and lest he lose

The purity of chance, would not decide

Whither to fare, but wished his horse to choose.

For glory lay wherever he might turn.

His head was light with pride, his horse’s shoes

Were heavy, and he headed for the barn.

5 Comments

Posted in Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments, Sabbath and tagged creativity, Don Quixote, Mary Oliver, Mindful Practice, Parable, poetry, Richard Wilbur, sabbath, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

The Blessing

Posted on October 10, 2013 by ivonprefontaine

I begin an extended Sabbath tomorrow morning with a three-day retreat. It has been a productive week and it feels good to take a break from the reading and writing.

I came across this poem by James Wright yesterday. It speaks about the gifts and blessings I miss when I are not attentive. Part of the progress has been a result of good conversations which, at every turn, seem to add something new to the thinking needed to move forward. By looking at what is there, I find what I search for and blossom.

Just off the highway to Rochester Minnesota,

Twilight bounds softly forth on the grass.

And the eyes of those two Indian ponies

Darken within kindness.

They have come gladly out of the willows

To welcome my friend and me.

We step over barbed wire into the pasture

Where they have been grazing all day, alone.

They ripple tensely, they can hardly contain their happiness

That we have come.

They bow shyly as wet swans. They love each other.

There is no loneliness like theirs.

At home once more,

They begin munching the young tuffs of spring in the darkness.

I would like to hold the slenderer one in my arms,

For she has walked over to me

And nuzzled my left hand.

She is black and white,

Her mane falls wild on her forehead,

And the light breeze moves me to caress her long ear

That is as delicate as the skin over a girl’s wrist.

Suddenly I realize

That if I stepped out of my body I would break

Into blossom.

21 Comments

Posted in Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments, Sabbath and tagged creativity, James Wright, Mindful Practice, poetry, sabbath, teacher as transformer, The Blessing. Bookmark the permalink.

A Day so Happy

Posted on September 22, 2013 by ivonprefontaine

Czeslaw Milosz wrote this beautiful poem that segues me into my Sunday Sabbath. It was a busy and productive week. Some poetry is finding its way to the surface, but I find the weeks I have classes it is more difficult to move those thoughts from my mind and heart to the paper. When we are able to find what makes us whole, we can find forgiveness in our heart. It is like a fog lifts and we can see the beauty of the world that beckons.

A day so happy.

Fog lifted early, I walked in the garden.

Hummingbirds were stopping over

honeysuckle flowers.

There was no thing on earth I wanted to possess.

I knew no one worth envying him.

Whatever evil I had suffered, I forgot.

To think that I was once the same man

did not embarrass me.

In my body I felt no pain.

When straightening up, I saw the blue sea and sails.

22 Comments

Posted in Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments, Sabbath and tagged A Day so Happy, creativity, Czeslaw Milosz, Mindful Practice, poetry, sabbath, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

What Ties Me to the Earth Is Unseen

Posted on August 17, 2013 by ivonprefontaine

This was a busy day. We head out for the evening shortly to spend time with friends. We ran around to get ourselves organized a good part of the day.

Mark Nepo wrote this lovely poem which is a reminder of the need to slow down and find the silent space of sabbath. The lake offers me a place to light down similar to the heron and find the quiet needed to rejuvenate the spirit. This quiet finds its way into my life without a full awareness sometimes. It just appears and I embrace it as it helps me weave my life together.

My heart was beating like a heron awakened

in the woods, no room to move. Tangled

and surprised by the noise of my mind,

I fluttered without grace to the center

of the lake which humans call silence.

I guess, if you would ask, peace

is no more than the underside

of tired wings resting on the lake

while the heart in its feathers

pounds softer and softer.

11 Comments

Posted in Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments, Sabbath, Uncategorized and tagged creativity, Mark Nepo, Mindful Practice, poem, sabbath, spirituality, teacher as transformer, What Ties Me to the Earth Is Unseen. Bookmark the permalink.

I Believe in All That Has Never Yet Been Spoken

Posted on August 10, 2013 by ivonprefontaine

I am getting back into a groove after my first full week home. I let things flow a bit this week. Rilke suggested letting go or not contriving in this poem. When I don’t over plan, I find I am more open and accept the flow of things much like the beginner’s mind of a child. Watching children engrossed in play is a reminder that can happen for me as an adult and, as it does, the river widens and flows in every widening channels. Life becomes somehow larger, but not in an explainable way.

Posting images of our trip through Glacier National Park is believing in all that has never yet been spoken. Nature allows me to speak without using words. It is a palette of creation which speaks without speaking and shares without words. It just is and teaches through its presence.

The role of sabbath is to rest on the swelling and ebbing currents and rest in each moment. Perhaps, as I do, I take an expanded mind and soul into next week.

I believe in all that has never been spoken.

I want to free what waits within me

so that what no one has dared to wish for

may for once spring clear

without my contriving.

If this is arrogant, God, forgive me,

but this is what I need to say.

May what I do flow from me like a river,

no forcing and no holding back,

the way it is with children.

Then in those swelling and ebbing currents,

these deepening tides moving out, returning,

I will sing you as no one ever has,

streaming through widening channels

into the open sea.

28 Comments

Posted in Blogging, Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments, Sabbath and tagged blogging, creativity, Glacier National Park, learning, Mindful Practice, nature, poetry, Rainer Maria Rilke, sabbath, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

Wild Geese

Posted on May 25, 2013 by ivonprefontaine

I want to let my imagination seek out the world I live in and my place in it. Mary Oliver shared the wonderful idea that we are but one in the greater world we live in. Take care and enjoy a wonderful Sabbath.

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 about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

6 Comments

Posted in Community, Mindful Life, Nature in All Its Glory, Poetry, Reflective Moments, Sabbath and tagged community, creativity, Mary Oliver, Mindful Practice, nature, sabbath, spirituality, teacher as transformer, wild geese. Bookmark the permalink.

Fishing in the Keep of Silence

Posted on May 12, 2013 by ivonprefontaine

I crave a certain quiet and solitude each week. Linda Gregg wrote this remarkable poem about God taking a break as well. I am glad to hear that God is enjoys poetry. I suspect God takes a sabbath to renew the poetic and artistic energies required for the continued unfolding of the universe and for it to go ahead beautifully. In the silence, we fish for the wisdom that keeps our lives unfolding and proceeding beautifully.

There is a hush now while the hills rise up

and God is going to sleep. He trusts the ship

of Heaven to take over and proceed beautifully

as he lies dreaming in the lap of the world.

He knows the owls will guard the sweetness

of the soul in their massive keep of silence,

looking out with eyes open or closed over

the length of Tomales Bay that the herons

conform to, whitely broad in flight, white

and slim in standing. God, who thinks about

poetry all the time, breathes happily as He

repeats to Himself: There are fish in the net,

lots of fish this time in the net of the heart.

14 Comments

Posted in Mindful Life, Nature in All Its Glory, Poetry, Reflective Moments, Sabbath and tagged creativity, Fishing in the Keep of Silence, Linda Gregg, Mindful Practice, poetry, sabbath, solitude, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

Reach into the Heart

Posted on April 6, 2013 by ivonprefontaine

I arrive at the end of another busy, fruitful week. I begin the digital sabbath and spend time looking in, reading quietly, writing, and reflect on what is revealed. What is my heart’s purpose?

I gently reach into my heart,

A space not easily entered–

It resists busyness–

Asks for something different.

Here, at heart’s door

I listen carefully,

Patiently,

Then, a faint whisper.

Tenderly emerges…

Here, in delicate quietness;

Here, in exquisite solitude;

Here, in rich frailty;

Here, in soft strength

But, only when I listen

My inner teacher speaks.

What do I hear?

I am uncertain–

It is the soul that speaks

It speaks differently–

Not in human terms–

In spiritual terms.

Wisdom discerned…

Revealed slowly…

In that patience and calmness…

Life animated…

This way

Life’s fruit borne.

15 Comments

Posted in Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments, Sabbath and tagged creativity, eloquent questions, inner teacher, Mindful Practice, Reach into the Heart, sabbath, spirituality, teacher as transformer, wisdom. Bookmark the permalink.

A Path for Warriors

Posted on February 9, 2013 by ivonprefontaine

I commented I finished Margaret Wheatley‘s book, So Far From Home. She concluded with a beautiful poem. It reminded how importance quiet and mindful moments are. I was less rushed these last couple of days and it was like a digital sabbath.

Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk, wrote: “The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of its innate violence. To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything is to succumb to violence. More than that, it is cooperation in violence. The frenzy of the activist…destroys his own inner capacity for peace. It destroys the fruitfulness of his own work, because it kills the root of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful.”

My mother used to teach us about being Soldiers of Christ. We walk in the “same steps as Christ” (2 Corinthians 12:18, 1 Peter 2:21). We “[pray] always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit” (Ephesians 6:18), and “open your mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel” (Ephesians 6:19). Soldiers, in this context, seek peace from within and quiet the mind so their actions and words parallel each other.

We are grateful to discover our right work and happy to be engaged in it.

We embody values and practices that offer us meaningful lives now.

We let go of needing to impact the future.

We refrain from adding to the aggression, fear and confusion of this time.

We welcome every opportunity to practice our skills of compassion and insight, even very challenging ones.

We resist seeking the illusory comfort of certainty and stability.

We delight when our work achieves good results yet let go of needing others to adopt our successes.

We know that all problems have complex causes. We do not place blame on any one person or cause, including ourselves and colleagues.

We are vigilant with our relationships, mindful to counteract the polarizing dynamics of this time.

Our actions embody our confidence that humans can get through anything as long as we’re together.

We stay present to the world as it is with open minds and hearts, knowing this nourishes our gentleness, decency and bravery.

We care for ourselves as tenderly as we care for others, taking time for rest, reflection and renewal.

We are richly blessed with moments of delight, humor, grace and joy.

We are grateful for these.

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Posted in Leadership, Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments, Sabbath and tagged human-rights, inner wisdom, leadership, Margaret Wheatley, Mindful Practice, poetry, sabbath, So Far From Home, soldiers of christ, spirituality, teacher as transformer, Thomas Merton. Bookmark the permalink.

Stone

Posted on January 13, 2013 by ivonprefontaine

I spent today catching up. Most of it was digital. It is interesting how much email built up, but I was productive today. This poem by Charles Simic spoke to me. Children wonder and hold the world in awe. Adults lose track of the beauty of mystery. I am not sure what next week holds. Perhaps, I will write poetry. Although I relied on the words of others, noted that many of these poets were new to me and that was transformative. I spent time wisely.

Go inside a stone

That would be my way.

Let somebody else become a dove

Or gnash with a tiger’s tooth.

I am happy to be a stone.

From the outside the stone is a riddle:

No one knows how to answer it.

Yet within, it must be cool and quiet

Even though a cow steps on it full weight,

Even though a child throws it in a river;

The stone sinks, slow, unperturbed

To the river bottom