Tag Archives: spirituality

quotation: Henry David Thoreau (above morality by points)

Posted on October 13, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

quotation: Henry David Thoreau (above morality by points).

Thoreau provided great insights in living off the grid long before we thought seriously about that idea. Living life based on a checklist of moral behaviour is nearly impossible. Living a life that we are good at is a growing experience.

We cultivate our lives like farmers and gardeners when we pay attention to our work, our living. It is in the moment that we realize and recognize the ethical needs. Certainly, there are rules to live by i.e. The Ten Commandments and The Three Universal Truths of Buddhism. When we live life and include those rules and truths, it is in living that we become who we are. It is in living we become good for something.

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Posted in Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments and tagged creativity, education, Educational Leadership, eloquent questions, Mindful Practice, spirituality, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

The Road Less Travelled….

Posted on October 11, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

The Road Less Travelled…..

“Once suffering is completely accepted, it ceases in a sense to be suffering” M. Scott Peck

The link provides a short summary of Peck’s wonderful work in “The Road Less Traveled.” His thinking ranks with James Hillman in examining spiritual growth as an essential aspect of living. Living is the continuous unfolding of character, who we are, and it is not predictable hence a title similar to Robert Frost’s The Road not Taken.

Life is not easy, although at times it can be. It is always about accepting responsibility for decisions we make as adults. Taking time and pausing at the junctions of decisions requires discipline and mindfulness that many struggle to find in a busy world. In those moments, when we pause, listen closely to our spirit, we build new disciplines that help us overcome the busyness to some extent. It is not perfect, but it is in imperfections we travel the road less traveled.

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Posted in Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments, Sabbath and tagged creativity, James Hillman, M. Scott Peck, Mindful Practice, mindfulness, poetry, Robert Frost, spirituality, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

“Your daily life is your temple and your religion…”(Khalil Gibran)

Posted on October 10, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

“Your daily life is your temple and your religion…”(Khalil Gibran).

The quote from Kahlil Gibran is a wonderful reminder that daily life when attended to and tended to is our temple and religion. Do we choose to make daily life sacred? That is a question with no answer, because one is always being negotiated in living our lives in the moment.

The word religion shares the root with ligaments and suggests religion not as a divisive institution, but a way of living that binds us together in our humanness, humanity, and humaneness. We are more alike than we are different although we lose sight of that.

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Capturing The Moment — Papilio multicaudata Butterfly

Posted on October 8, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

Capturing The Moment — Papilio multicaudata Butterfly.

The image and the short verse in the link are spectacular. Martin Buber wrote complex prose which was poetic. His central point in his seminal work I and Thou was we become who we are in relationship with ourselves, others, and the world. He has a beautiful section about our relationship with trees. In our relationships, we become unique. We are not duplicates of anyone else.

We are who we are because of our relationships, the impact they have on us, and the sense we make of them. Sometimes, more often than not I imagine, the relationships go unnoticed and are taken-for-granted just as our uniqueness is. We become whats in the world rather than a particular who in the world. We might even fall victim to seeing ourselves as whats, as products, rather than that unique person who is only expressed in our particular whoness.

In a world driven by standardization and conformity to standards, it is difficult to find one’s voice and express one’s self through that voice.

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Accept Yourself

Posted on October 7, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

Accept Yourself.

In a highly materialistic and competitive world, it is hard sometimes to accept who we are. My reading and writing has taken me on a detour through this as I explore what teaching means to teachers in their forming identities. There is an essential part of who we are that often goes unexplored. We often reduce to what we do, how we do it, and why we do it, but rarely let the who be revealed.

It is almost Seuss-like with the question “Who is the who that teaches or lives this life?” When we slow down and move from moment to moment, it allows us to speak to our self and listen more deeply. This conversation is a rich and deep requiring stillness and mindfulness that the busyness of daily life often prohibits. When we slow down, we touch the essential spirit of who we are without completely knowing the answer. The questions we ask open space for living and creativity.

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Oneness of Being

Posted on October 4, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

Oneness of Being.

The article linked contains a quote from Khalil Gibran about the importance of other people in our lives. Emmanuel Levinas capitalized Other in his writing emphasizing the point.

We are incomplete without others in our lives. However, we do not always see their importance until they are out of our lives. The world and others complete who we are. We are always in relationship with someone and something.

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Be a Player, not a Victim

Posted on October 1, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

Be a Player, not a Victim.

We use the words responsibility and accountability interchangeably, as if they mean the same thing. Certainly, the two words are connected in ways, but providing a response and being responsible are internal emerging from the person. Acc0untability is external. Someone else makes a judgement about our words and actions.

Accountability also connects as we give an account of our self. We describe who we are in giving this account. We take responsibility for who we are, what we say, and what we do. We take responsibility for how we are living in both telling and living our personal story.

Accountability suggests someone is more expert than we are in living our lives. It also suggests that there is a certainty about this expertise.

Machado wrote “Wanderer, your footsteps are the road, and nothing more; wanderer there is not road, the road is made by walking.” We accept responsibility for walking the road one step at a time in the company of others.

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Personal Legend: Life Lessons from Dancing

Posted on September 30, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

Personal Legend: Life Lessons from Dancing.

The link begins with a quote from Paulo Coehlo about finding meaning in life. It becomes our personal legend when we find those things that add to our lives. We are remembered for dancing, teaching, singing, etc; whatever brings us and others joy.

The linked article ends with a poem from Joseph Campbell. He began the poem with “follow your bliss.” When we do, we find our voice and speak through our lives.

Parker Palmer and Thomas Merton pointed out voice and vocation are linked in etymology. They come from a place deep within us. We don’t even have to chase it. We only have to sit, be still, be quiet and our voice finds us. When it finds us, we dance as our voice accompanies us finding what brings meaning and joy in our lives and the lives of those we dance with.

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Clever or Wise?

Posted on September 29, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

Clever or Wise?.

I spent two days on a break of sorts. I intended to post something late Saturday afternoon, but spent the day and good portion of the evening being a minion to our 5 month old grandson.

He is getting to the age where he can play games i.e. peek-a-boo and he recalls that he has played the game with you. When I walked into the house on Sunday, he smiled and wanted to play.

Small things and children help us grow and become wise. We want to change our self because it is the best way to change the world we come in contact with. We blend the passion for life with compassion, because without the integration we are incomplete.

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Live in Wonder

Posted on September 24, 2014 by ivonprefontaine

Live in Wonder.

The world is a place of wonder. It is poetry in its most indefinable ways and that is why we need pauses between the words. It is in those pauses that the wonder soaks in and we can live in wonder. If the world had no spaces and only noise, we would be overwhelmed. The spaces are an inviting into the most precious relationships we can possibly have with the world, those we share the world, and all matter that matters.

When we pause and listen in the stillness and quiet, we are present to all that is holy and real. The world is made whole in those moments.