Tag Archives: spirituality

Questions

Posted on December 19, 2012 by ivonprefontaine

Questions, real questions, are scary. They need me to face the unknown. What don’t I understand? It is easy to chase real questions away and deal with the easy ones.

Each day I ask:

What is my question?”

What wonder is there?

Can I live curiously?

Can I touch my questions?

Be honest,

Be awake,

Open my heart.

Refuse false questions–

Those I obsessively chase,

Leave me unfulfilled,

Sullied and dirty.

Real questions raise turmoil—

They cause fear–

Am I ready?

Can I navigate turbulent,

Uncharted seas?

Can I delve deeper?

Lay a foundation–

Not on sand;

On rock;

Where I am grounded.

14 Comments

Posted in Leadership, Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments and tagged conversational journey, creativity, eloquent questions, leadership, Mindful Practice, poetry, spirituality, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

What Can I Do?

Posted on December 16, 2012 by ivonprefontaine

It has been an extraordinarily sad day and that was clear in the blogs I follow. A profound sense of sorrow and loss echoed through the digital world. What was extraordinary was the sense what has happened in Connecticut needs to end. This centred on the question: “What can I do?” I think we can do much, but the change begins with us and moves out. As I take my weekly pause, I want to give some thought to what can I do?

On a sombre day–

Grief and sorrow the order,

A message heard:

Change begins in me.

I am a catalyst

I look inside:

Call forth a gentle spirit–

Give it voice.

In light, love happens–

Resonates,

Reaches out its hand

Beckons others join.

Rings on clearest pond,

Ripples of love touch,

Right cascades forth,

Good people meet.

Good touches good,

Prayer meets prayer,

Love conquers hate

Join together.

Good people summoned–

Their tears catalyze,

Grieve and heal as one,

We are change.

Be a community–

It is not a distant loss:

It is our loss–

Feel it.

Small change is ours–

We each contribute,

Love multiplies:

Heals the world.

19 Comments

Posted in Community, Leadership, Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments, Sabbath, Social Justice and tagged community, creativity, eloquent questions, leadership, Mindful Practice, poetry, sorrow and loss, spirituality, stewardship, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

A Real Christmas Gift

Posted on December 14, 2012 by ivonprefontaine

I struggled to get the words together. I find I forget the message of this time of the year. Jesus was marginalized at birth, but I can imagine the regal presence and bearing of his parents. He was devoted to those in need. I think of Jesus as rebel as he helped the marginalized. He disagreed with political and religious leaders of the time and sought out those on the margins; those in the most need.

Along a dusty road–

A carpenter strode,

The expectant mother rode,

A donkey her only transport

Her regal carriage–

Back straight, head high

Refuge sought–

Turned away countless times.

Marginalized–

He arrived humbly

Born in a stable,

Cradled in a manger,

Welcomed by beasts,

Royal gifts showered upon us–

Without cost;

Priceless.

He only asks, “Can you open your heart?”

He returns each year–

Lights our way,

A source of strength,

Humbly receive gifts,

Restock spirits,

Replenish the soul.

34 Comments

Posted in Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments and tagged creativity, faith, servant-leadership, spirituality, stewardship, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

Lasting Change

Posted on December 12, 2012 by ivonprefontaine

I began writing this a couple of months ago. Each day, I feel increasingly certain lasting change begins and ends with me. I am unsure what that will mean, but am more able to hold the tension in the uncertainty that surrounds that certainty. This is the paradox of life.

I change–

Proceed patiently,

Wisely,

Prudently,

Trust new road signs

Set aside vanity,

Proceed without ego

One that demands others change

And the me remains unchanged.

Real change–

Change of substance–

Feels glacial,

Is worthwhile,

Invites me on the journey

Casts a new light

Softly, oh so gently

Shines outwards.

Be present in each moment.

What I seek finds me–

No search required;

Sit and await its arrival–

It will be on time

Cease the chase,

The hunt concludes–

Rest in this moment

Only its reality exists.

9 Comments

Posted in Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments and tagged creativity, Mindful Practice, poetry, spirituality, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

The Peace of Wild Things

Posted on December 5, 2012 by ivonprefontaine

I have parent-teacher interviews for the next two evenings. It limits the time available for posting my own words. I began thumbing through one of my many poetry anthologies and came across this wonderful Wendell Berry poem that echoed yesterday’s post, Children in ways. Two of his poems at the link are about mad farmers. Wendell Berry is a compassionate, opinionated person. When I grow up, I want to be similar.

When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and children’s lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief. I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars

waiting with their light. For a time

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

18 Comments

Posted in Education, Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments and tagged creativity, education, Mindful Practice, nature, poetry, spirituality, teacher as transformer, Wendell Berry. Bookmark the permalink.

Medicine Wheel

Posted on November 30, 2012 by ivonprefontaine

Medicine wheels are part of many First Nations’ cultures. They serve to connect people to the environment and reflect our interdependence with nature and each other. They signal the need for balance required in our lives and ground us with and in our world. I took the picture on Bowen Island and began to write the poem.

I feel welcomed–

At home,

I found my way–

Linked to the universe,

With each being

Inseparably bound–

I could not lose my way

A voice gently beckons,

“Cross the hearth.”

Bask in its warmth–

Refresh with its water–

Breathe its sweet air–

Let the earth ground–

Replenish here;

No magic–

Only magical.

23 Comments

Posted in Mindful Life, Photography, Poetry, Reflective Moments and tagged creativity, environment, Mindful Practice, nature, photography, poetry, spirituality, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

How do I listen?

Posted on November 24, 2012 by ivonprefontaine

I commented on a re-blog, Here’s an Idea that Mimi‘s post coincided a PBS show about a branch of neuroscience called Contemplative Mindfulness. Rudolph Tanzi is central in this work which has grown from other recent research by Richard Davidson, Ellen Langer, and Jon Kabat-Zinn. Mindful practices have been with us for centuries and are found in Christ’s, the Buddha’s and Mohammed’s teachings. Mindful listening begins with me, moves outward, and is eloquently described by Hafiz, a Sufi poet. Mindful listening requires humility those teachers emulated in their lived practice as the servant as leader.

How

Do I

Listen to others?

As if everyone were my Master

Speaking to me

His

Cherished

Last

Words.

Stay human friends.

25 Comments

Posted in Community, Leadership, Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments, Sabbath and tagged conversational journey, eloquent questions, Hafiz, mindful listening, Mindful Practice, poetry, servant-leadership, spirituality, sufi poet, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

A Child Sits

Posted on November 22, 2012 by ivonprefontaine

Several years ago, during a lively family discussion about war, I was asked where I stood. Peace is simple, yet apparently unachievable. I am opposed to war on the grounds there is a Commandment: “Thou shall not kill!” This underpins all Abrahamic traditions which guide Judeo-Christian and Islamic faiths. Furthermore, this premise is central to the Golden Rule which is universal. Who suffers? Inevitably, it is the weakest, the most vulnerable.

A child sits–

Shivers

Is it the cold?

Hunger

Loneliness, fear

So fragile and weak

In desperate need.

Amidst war’s carnage–

No refuge

Only chaos

Military heroes wreak havoc

Who is the toughest?

The biggest bully?

Kick sand in a child’s eyes.

There is no right side

Real courage

Begs and pleads?

Stop

Wanton, senseless

Violence and death!

Who gains?

It does not take a hero to order bombs lobbed into civilian areas of cities. Nor does it take a hero to hide behind women and children when bombs are lobbed. Last night, I heard a talking head on TV ask who has the moral high ground. Is there really one when the objective of both sides is to punish the most vulnerable. What a silly question. There is no moral high ground in war only criminality.

22 Comments

Posted in Leadership, Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments, Social Justice and tagged creativity, eloquent questions, human-rights, leadership, Mindful Practice, poetry, politics, religion, senseless violence, social justice, spirituality, teacher as transformer, war. 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

Adds welcome tension–

The rhythm of life lived.

7 Comments

Posted in Mindful Life, Poetry, Reflective Moments and tagged creativity, Mindful Practice, paradox, poetry, spirituality, teacher as transformer. Bookmark the permalink.

Warrior’s Quest

Posted on November 17, 2012 by ivonprefontaine

I sat today and was going to post a Lao Tzu poem, The Uses of Not. I typed a short preamble and realized it was a Sabbath poem. Sometimes it is in paradox I find the most sense. It is in questions that I deepen conversations. I am in service of the questions. Earlier this week, I said I spent much of my life chasing answers. This is an echo of Father Richard Rohr who says maturity leads us to stop chasing certainty. I seek eloquent questions with no ready answers: and invite others into conversations. I might have used pirate, but I began reading Shambhala:The Path of the Sacred Warrior by Chögyam Trungpa recently and it offered a new understanding, for me, of the word warrior.

Paradox–

Seemingly incompatible tempest

Space invites space

Forms a spacious meadow.

Deepen conversations–

Without ready answers;

But, eloquent questions

Be open, surprised.

A warrior’s quest–

Lighten the load

Be grateful and receive the gifts

Serve the journey.