I ask myself, if I mattered – what would I do?
If it mattered that I connect with The Divine, what would I do?
If it were vital to make other people feel like they matter, what would I do?
– Mastin Kipp
http://thedailylove.com
Ever meet someone who immediately fits right into your bones? Someone you just want to talk to for 5-10-unlimited days straight, just to see where the conversation could take you? Someone who speaks your language, makes you laugh AND gives you chill bumps in that brief encounter? sigh…I hope you have…cause it’s really good!
Friendship is like a garden. -Al
Never put a period where God put a comma… – Al
Let us be grateful to people who make us happy;
they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.
-Marcel Proust
Dead leaves crackle and shout their praise,
shake their shakers and noisemakers,
applauding in gratitude
for all the green that has gone,
all the life, the breathing in and out,
the shade, the birds sheltered
and bugs fed, air cleansed,
the nations healed, the earth renewed.
Give thanks
for the gifts offered, the gifts surrendered,
the mistakes made, the afternoons spent.
Give thanks for the nights
when even the leaves rested.
Give thanks for ourselves, finely veined,
the chewed edges of grief, love given,
our letting go and arriving.
Kick the leaves.
It was good, it was good.
Give thanks for the welcoming earth,
receiving life and death with open arms,
making of our words and hands
a compost for others.
Give thanks that it all settles
into the dark, into the moist mystery,
already, under scumbling clouds
devoted to the green rising.
Kick up for joy the heart’s dry husk,
this blessed sackcloth, future’s bones,
the peace of doing without,
this rustling flesh, this loss.
The white oak, the red oak, the hickory,
the maple, the beech, the ash, all praise,
the grasses, the dry grasses praise.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
http://www.unfoldinglight.net
As we express our gratitude,
we must never forget that the highest
appreciation is not to utter words,
but to live by them.
-John F. Kennedy
Give thanks to the Lord, call upon His name,
make known His deeds among the people.
Glory you in His holy name;
let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord.
-1 Chronicles 16:8,10
Maritta Terrell
Thoughts are also posted at:
http://thoughtsaday.blogspot.com/
❤️ photo by Fisherman Dan @ Branford, CT
In the Breach
Wander wonder restless
Amidst the novels
Autobiographies
Travel and Mystery
Search seek anxious
Through aisles of Philosophy
Religion, Science Fiction
Table nooks filled with laptop fingertips typing
Comfy chairs hold readers’ captivated eyes
Where do I belong?
(Do I belong?)
A solitary empty table, alone, waiting
Waiting for my laptop fingertips and captivated eyes,
Waiting for my restless anxiety
Waiting for dress-up dreams
And therapy themes
The only open space here-
-here with Maya, Rumi, Berry and Bertoldt Brecht, Love Poems.
Poetry, of course,
For (I’ve been told) I am a poet.
I settle scatter my stuff
(Stuff stuff, soul stuff)
Upon this table
Organically absorb the whimsy, truth, courage
Filling all these crisp closed silent
pages, pages, pages….
in book after book after book….
shelf, shelf, shelf… self
Shhh…they whisper nudge, silent
while, in the breach,
Jackson Browne sings.
~ro, 11/18/14
Jane Hirshfield has a line of poetry which has been tweeted all over the world which reminds us –
How fragile we are between the few good moments.
I think somehow we have been sold the idea that life should be all thrill. That, if every moment isn’t exciting, we are somehow failing at life. I have learned, over the past 18 years, that the real wonder of life is not in the passing thrilling moments, but in the recognition of the simple and divine in the every day ordinary.
Andy Rooney says it like this –
For most of life, nothing wonderful happens. If you don’t enjoy getting up and working and finishing your work and sitting down to a meal with family or friends, then the chances are you’re not going to be very happy. If someone bases his/her happiness on major events like a great job, huge amounts of money, a flawlessly happy marriage or a trip to Paris, that person isn’t going to be happy much of the time. If, on the other hand, happiness depends on a good breakfast, flowers in the yard, a drink or a nap, then we are more likely to live with quite a bit of happiness.
The world is full of wonder! Happiness and joy are available to all who open their senses to the beauty of the unexpected sources carried in every breath we take.
Asking, seeking and knocking are all that’s required to begin!
Young souls lean on science.
Mature souls lean on faith.
And old souls prefer long walks and short talks; whistling to hip-hop, country, or rock; and on occasion, tree spotting.
There! On the horizon! Oak!
————————————————
The Universe
http://www.tut.com
Love unites all, whether created or uncreated. The heart of God, the heart of all creation, and our own hearts become one in love. That’s what all the great mystics have been trying to tell us through the ages. Benedict, Francis, Hildegard of Bingen, Hadewijch of Brabant, Meister Eckhart, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Dag Hammarskjöld, Thomas Merton, and many others, all in their own ways and their own languages, have witnessed to the unifying power of the divine love. All of them, however, spoke with a knowledge that came to them not through intellectual arguments but through contemplative prayer. The Spirit of Jesus allowed them to see the heart of God, the heart of the universe, and their own hearts as one. It is in the heart of God that we can come to the full realisation of the unity of all that is, created and uncreated.
– Henri Nouwen
http://www.henrinouwen.org
Never say there is nothing beautiful in the world anymore. There is always something to make you wonder in the shape of a tree, the trembling of a leaf. –Albert Schweitzer
Photos by Fisherman Dan @ Branford, CT
What if this road, that has held no surprises
these many years, decided not to go
home after all; what if it could turn
left or right with no more ado
than a kite-tail? What if its tarry skin
were like a long, supple bolt of cloth,
that is shaken and rolled out, and takes
a new shape from the contours beneath?
And if it chose to lay itself down
in a new way; around a blind corner,
across hills you must climb without knowing
what’s on the other side; who would not hanker
to be going, at all risks? Who wants to know
a story’s end, or where a road will go?
What If This Road by Sheenagh Pugh
life: acoustic & amplified 
