Reading

“One or Two Things”
Don’t bother me....
I’ve just been born.

The butterfly’s loping flight
carries it through the country of the leaves delicately, and well enough to get it where it wants to go, wherever that is, stopping here and there to fuzzle the damp throats of flowers and the black mud;
up and down it swings, frenzied and aimless; and sometimes for long delicious moments it is perfectly lazy, riding motionless in the breeze on the soft stalk
of some ordinary flower.
The god of dirt came up to me many times and said so many wise and delectable things, I lay on the grass listening to his dog voice,
crow voice, frog voice; now, he said, and now, and never once mentioned forever,
which has nevertheless always been, like a sharp iron hoof,
at the center of my mind.
One or two things are all you need
to travel over the blue pond, over the deep roughage of the trees and through the stiff flowers of lightning — some deep memory of pleasure, some cutting knowledge of pain.
But to lift the hoof!
For that you need
an idea.
For years and years I struggled
just to love my life. And then the butterfly rose, weightless, in the wind.
“Don’t love your life
too much,” it said,
and vanished into the world.
~Mary Oliver

Reading

Love is what we are born with. Fear is what we learn. The spiritual journey is the unlearning of fear and prejudices and the acceptance of love back in our hearts. Love is the essential reality and our purpose on earth. To be consciously aware of it, to experience love in ourselves and others, is the meaning of life. Meaning does not lie in things. Meaning lies in us.
~Marianne Williamson

Reading

There are endless reasons why someone or some situation might be “bad for you.” Subtle-but-perpetual criticism, toxic complaining, disconnection, narcissistic energy suckers, sheer boredom… Take your pick of vibes that you’d rather not be around. But a key reason that situations can be bad for you isn’t necessarily because of what a person or circumstance does “to you” — it’s how you will have to conform to the situation. The hurt happens when you shrink. You will have to say... less, dull your shine, pull in your power. You will play smaller, act dumber, mince your words. You will restrain your magnificence — out of fear, or out of logic, or out of the intelligence to survive. So it’s not about them, it’s about your response to them. The next opportunity to meet, to work, to dine, to interact, to kiss, to speak, to spend, to serve (no matter how shiny, sexy, lucrative, coveted, necessary, obligatory or useful it may seem), ask yourself this: Will I have to shrink to make this work? Or Is this a place where I can expand? Check your logic and call on your courage. Your heart’s intelligence will guide you. Hang out where you can unfurl.
~Danielle LaPorte

Reading

Everything you take for granted is a blessing.
Everything you fear is a friend in disguise.
Everything you want is a part of you.
Everything you hate you hate about yourself.
Everything you own does not define you. ...
Everything you feel is the only Truth there is to know.
Everything you wish for is already on its way to you.
Everything you think creates your life.
Everything you seek for you will find.
Everything you resist will stick around.
Everything you let go of stays if it’s supposed to.
Everything you need is right where you are.

Every time you bless another your bless yourself.
Every time you blame another you lose your power.
Every time you think you can, you can.
Every time you fall you must get up and try again.
Every time you cry you’re one tear closer to joy.
Every time you ask for forgiveness, all you have to do is forgive yourself.
Everyone you see is your reflection.
Everyone you know mirrors you.
Everyone wants to be happy.
Everyone wants to live in joy.
Everyone seeks a higher purpose.
Everyone breathes the same breath.
Everyone needs love to survive.
Everyone has a purpose to fulfill.
Everyone’s the same as everyone else.
We just get caught up in labels, names, skin color and religion.
Everyone’s the same as everyone else.
No one wants to feel the pain.
Everyone’s the same as everyone else.
Everyone is dying for love to remain.”
- Jackson Kiddard

Reading

"You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running,
to work by working; and just so, you learn to love by loving."
~Saint Francis De Sales

Reading

Why I Wake Early
Hello, sun in my face. Hello, you who made the morning and spread it over the fields and into the faces of the tulips and the nodding morning glories, and into the windows of, even, the miserable and the crotchety best preacher that ever was, dear star, that just happens to be where you are in the universe to keep us from ever-darkness, to ease us with warm touching, to hold us in the great hands of light –good morning, good morning, good morning.
Watch, now, how I start the day in happiness, in kindness.
~ Mary Oliver ~

Reading

The Guest House
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,...
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor. Welcome
and entertain them all! Even if they're a
crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep
your house empty of its furniture, still,
treat each guest honorably. He may be
clearing you out for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing, and invite
them in. Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent as a guide
from beyond.
~ Rumi ~

Reading

Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers,
but to be fearless in facing them.
Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain,
but for the heart to conquer it.
...

Let me not crave in anxious fear to be saved,
but hope for the patience to win my freedom.
~Rabindranath Tagore

Reading

When I ask you to listen to me and you start giving me advice, you have not done what I asked. When I ask you to listen to me and you begin to tell me why I shouldn’t feel that way, you are trampling on my feelings. When I ask you to listen to me and you feel you have to do something to solve my problem, you have failed me, strange as that may seem. Listen! All I ask is that you listen. Don’t talk or do – just hear me. Advice is cheap; 20 cents will get you both Dear Abby and... Billy Graham in the same newspaper. And I can do for myself; I am not helpless. Maybe discouraged and faltering, but not helpless. When you do something for me that I can and need to do for myself, you contribute to my fear and inadequacy. But when you accept as a simple fact that I feel what I feel, no matter how irrational, then I can stop trying to convince you and get about this business of understanding what’s behind this irrational feeling. And when that’s clear, the answers are obvious and I don’t need advice. Irrational feelings make sense when we understand what’s behind them. Perhaps that’s why prayer works, sometimes, for some people – because God is mute, and he doesn’t give advice or try to fix things. God just listens and lets you work it out for yourself. So please listen, and just hear me. And if you want to talk, wait a minute for your turn – and I will listen to you.
~Gary Jones

Reading

The real reason that some people are bad for you. There are endless reasons why someone or some situation might be “bad for you.” Subtle-but-perpetual criticism, toxic complaining, disconnection, narcissistic energy suckers, sheer boredom… Take your pick of vibes that you’d rather not be around. But a key reason that situations can be bad for you isn’t necessarily because of what a person or circumstance does “to you” — it’s how you will have to conform to the situation. The ...hurt happens when you shrink. You will have to say less, dull your shine, pull in your power. You will play smaller, act dumber, mince your words. You will restrain your magnificence — out of fear, or out of logic, or out of the intelligence to survive. So it’s not about them, it’s about your response to them. The next opportunity to meet, to work, to dine, to interact, to kiss, to speak, to spend, to serve (no matter how shiny, sexy, lucrative, coveted, necessary, obligatory or useful it may seem), ask yourself this: Will I have to shrink to make this work? Or Is this a place where I can expand? Check your logic and call on your courage. Your heart’s intelligence will guide you. Hang out where you can unfurl.
~Danielle LaPorte

Reading

Paradox
The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints.
We spend more, but have less.
...

We buy more, but enjoy less.
We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time.
We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.
We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.
We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values.
We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.
We’ve learned how to make a living, but not a life.
We’ve added years to life not life to years.
We’ve been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor.
We conquered outer space but not inner space.
We’ve done larger things, but not better things.
We’ve cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul.
We’ve conquered the atom, but not our prejudice.
We write more, but learn less.
We accomplish less.
We’ve learned to rush, but not to wait.
We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.
These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships.
These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes.
These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill.
It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom.
A time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just hit delete.
~Jeff Dickson

Reading

Limitless

Sun says, “Be your own
illumination.” Wren says,
“Sing your heart out,...
all day long.” Stream says,
“Do not stop for any
obstacle.” Oak says,
“When the wind blows,
bend easily, and trust
your roots to hold.”
Stars say, “What you see
is one small slice of a
single modest galaxy.
Remember that vastness
cannot be grasped by mind.”
Ant says, “Small does not
mean powerless.” Silence
says nothing. In the quiet,
everything comes clear.
I say, “Limitless.”
I say, “Yes.”
~Danna Faulds

Reading

Allow
There is no controlling life....
Try corralling a lightening bolt,
containing a tornado. Dam a
stream and it will create a new
channel. Resist, and the tide
will sweep you off your feet.

Allow, and grace will carry
you to higher ground. The only
safety lies in letting it all in -
the wild and the weak; fear,
fantasies, failures and success.
When loss rips off the doors of
the heart, or sadness veils your
vision with despair, practice
becomes simply bearing the truth.
In the choice to let go of your
known way of being, the whole
world is revealed to your new eyes.
~Dana Faulds

Reading

"Darkness”
- The Necessity of Darkness
The next time you are feeling spiritually dark, remember that our hearts started beating in the darkness of the womb, seeds germinate in the darkness of the earth, and the earth rests in the darkness of winter so that spring can return. We all need fallow time. Darkness is a gift – it’s a great open space in which anything can happen. Surrender to it and the light will return.
~Mary Oliver

Reading

The Healing Time
Finally on my way to yes,
I bump into all the places where I said no to my life
all the untended wounds
the red and purple scars ...
those hieroglyphs of pain
carved into my skin, my bones,
those coded messages
that send me down
the wrong street
again and again
where I find them
the old wounds
the old misdirections
and I lift them
one by one close to my heart
and I say holy, holy.
~Pesha Joyce Gertler