I found these picture of a small lake in the Crowsnest Pass when I was looking at the pictures I posted at A Time to Listen. Nature is a spectacular and paradoxical part of creation and I hope this is revealed in the following.
Green, aqua, granite
Nature draws from her palette
Drawing me to her.
Water cascading
Suddenly appears out of rock
Disappears again.
Calmness and chaos
Nature speaks in paradox
Harmony emerges.
Kathy and I travel. We spend time during the summer touring Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and adjoining American states. This summer we are revisiting Waterton Lakes National Park as part of my rehab. We travel through this area regularly and it brings back great memories.
On one trip, we stopped at a provincial park just above Lundbreck Falls. Recently, I went through pictures of the Crowsnest River downstream and it reminded of what I notice and don’t notice in life. Wendell Berry wrote a beautiful piece: The Impeded Stream is the One that Sings. I realized I heard the river before I saw it. I recalled the life around the river: cottonwood fluff flying, flowering wild rose, insects pollinating, and a musky smell perhaps of a bear recently by. The river is a living instrument sharing a song to others forming a web of life.
I read Wendell Berry’s words while reliving the picture and was inspired to write a Haiku.
Observe life’s current
Pausing, listening, caring
Present with my self.
Thomas Merton is one of my favourite authors and spiritual thinkers. He offered a radical definition of violence. This sounds like the opposite of multi-tasking, single-tasking. I hope I can do better as I move forward and take time to listen to the inner teacher and its wisdom.
Parker Palmer shared this with those of us who follow him on Facebook.
I subscribe to a daily meditation written by Father Richard Rohr. a Franciscan priest.I talk and write about the concept of common sense, which I understand as local and global. Father Rohr cast it from a theological perspective, I think the explanation provides an insight gained without reading Gadamer’s Truth and Method. I believe there is a universal truth or common sense (Vico called this sensus communis), something that makes us all brothers and sisters bringing us together in community. I think Father Rohr offers an explanation though his meditation on Father’s Day helping us to live in community each day. Certainly, Rilke does.
“It is this sense that founds community” (Gadamer, 1989, p. 19).
Gadamer, H-G. (1989). Truth and method. (J. Weinsheimer & D. G. Marshall, Trans.). New York: Continuum.
Catch only what you’ve thrown yourself, all is
mere skill and little gain;
but when you’re suddenly the catcher of a ball
thrown by an eternal partner
with accurate and measured swing
towards you, to your center, in an arch
from the great bridgebuilding of God;
why catching then becomes a power–
not yours, a world’s.
–Rainier Maria Rilke
Nothing worth its salt comes easy. I enjoy Wendell Berry and his reminders that the world is a better place if we live in it fully in the moment and mindful of this very moment and place.
If we will have the wisdom to survive,
to stand like slow-growing trees
on a ruined place, renewing, enriching it,
if we make our seasons welcome here,
asking not too much of earth or heaven,
then a long time after we are dead
the lives our lives prepare will live
here, their houses strongly placed
upon the valley sides, fields and gardens
rich in the windows. The river will run
clear, as we will never know it,
and over it, birdsong like a canopy.
On the levels of the hills will be
green meadows, stock bells in noon shade.
On the steeps where greed and ignorance
cut down
the old forest, an old forest will stand,
its rich leaf-fall drifting its roots.
The veins of forgotten springs will have
opened..
Families will be singing in their fields.
In the voices they will hear a music
risen out of the ground. They will take
nothing from the ground they will not
return,
whatever the grief at parting. Memory,
native to this valley, will spread over it
like a grove, and memory will grow
into a legend, legend into song, song
into sacrament. The abundance of this
place,
the songs of its people and its birds,
will be health and wisdom and indwelling
light. This is no paradisal dream.
Its hardship is its possibilities.
─Wendell Berry
When we discussed this poem, students understood that success is not always an easy journey. Some important aspects are the hard work and disappointments along the way. The word and phrase that caught their attention was “This is no paradisal dream. Its hardship is its possibilities.
I woke this morning
to several truths;
honouring
respecting
diversity
in wholeness
in parts
healing
wisdom
meaning
makes us stronger
me stronger
without weakening.
Community
thrives
each person
and truths
named
nurtured
watered
fed
valued
appreciated
strengthened
in healthy diversity.
with healthy diversity.
To begin the day in a quieter, peaceful, and wiser place, I meditate each morning. .Elizabeth Myhr commented about creativity in her writing. She “does not jump into creativity. Creativity bumps into her on its way through the world.” As I sat, I realized I was writing poetry in my mind. Words, phrases, and images were floating in a stream. I recognized I felt calmer and quieter in those moments.
Francesca Zelnick offered advice in a recent post. She suggested, when ideas emerge or bump up against me as I move through life, write them down. I did and edited later. Here is the product.
Sit quietly,
5:30
AM.
Can’t sleep
wait
listen
pay attention
be patient
meditate
contemplate
focus on breath.
Gently return
to a quiet space
solitude
like a river
single words
phrases form
metaphors arise
images appear
in the current.
Discover a gentle smile
on the corners of lips
face softens.
Fresh day
creates space
for voice
words observed
soul speaks
asks to be heard.
Tranquil,
bump into creative moment
Poetry written.
Enjoy!
Observational Poems : Touching the World : Deep Underground Poetry Community.
I was just surfing and came across this poem. Mindfulness is a universal concept and is not the sole domain of Buddhists or mystics. I find it ironic that the wave of scientific theory which pushed mindfulness out of the western practice was called the Enlightenment. Who or What did it enlighten? Mindfulness and scientific thought are complementary practices which make each other whole.
When Kathy and I were married we chose the Prayer of St. Francis as one of our readings in the ceremony that day. It remains an integral part, albeit sometimes overlooked, part of my daily life. St. Francis spoke in a transformational voice and as a change agent of his time. His message remains as important today as it when it was first presented.
ivonprefontaine
