the least we can do



“Beauty and grace are performed

whether or not we will or sense them.

The least we can do is try to be there.”

-Annie Dillard,

The Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

 

photo from Hawaiian Botanical Gardens

tulip haiku

It’s very grey in Sequim today, but yesterday was glorious.

I spent most of it in the garden, soaking up the sun, admiring the tulips.

 

 

So here’s a tulip haiku for you. 

*

Tulip Haiku

 

“Planted, Dormant, Fall.

First Bloomers in Springtime Sun.

Cups above the Stems.”

- Marie M. Daniels

*

 

Even Quan Yin was soaking up the sun:

 

 

While the biker gnome was imagining being on the road again:

 

 

 

remove the pot

“The solution is not to suppress our thoughts and desires,

 for this would be impossible;

it would be like trying to keep a pot of water from boiling

by pressing down tightly on the lid.

The only sensible approach is to train ourselves to observe our thoughts

without following them.

This deprives them of their compulsive energy & is therefore

like removing the pot of boiling water from the fire.”

-Lama Thubten Yeshi

 

I need a lot more practice at this!

I tend to follow my thoughts wherever they want to lead-

and it’s usually not to where I should go.

stillness

Stillness is what creates Love
Movement is what creates Life
To be still
Yet still moving -
That is everything.

Do Hyun Choe

"Stillness" by Aijung Kim

visit her website here.

watching autumn

This poem is from Joan Chittister's e-newsletter, Vision & Viewpoint.

It reminded me of a recent camping trip to Dosewallips during which

I sat silently with my husband in the forest on this bench,

watching and listening to the falling leaves.

A Leaf
by Bronislaw Maj

A leaf, one of the last, parts from a maple branch:
it is spinning in the transparent air of October, falls
on a heap of others, stops, fades. No one
admired its entrancing struggle with the wind,
followed its flight, no one will distinguish it now
as it lies among other leaves, no one saw
what I did. I am
the only one.

 

This photo is the trail we walked upon.

Such a lovely Autumn day it was.

Such an honor to be there to watch the leaves falling.

 

Cell Rage

No matter how mindful, holy, or present I can possibly be it all goes to hell in a handbasket after spending an hour and a half being transferred 6 times at Verizon Wireless.  Where is my compassion?  Well it flew out the window after the first hour of being told that my call was important and that the next available operator would take care of my needs.  Did I mention the 3 hang-ups?   I'd like to see His Holiness the Dalai Lama deal with a phone tree and keep his cool, know what I mean?

P.S. I have to admit the operator that is now helping me is wonderful and apologetic about all the transfers.  And yes, I am treating him kindly, which is always an amazing feat for an "8"........

Crossing the Threshold of 2010

"Many times today I will cross over a threshold.

I hope I will catch a few of those times.

I need to remember that my life is, in fact,

a continuous series of thresholds:

from one moment to the next,

from one thought to the next,

from one action to the next.

Help me appreciate how awesome this is.

How many are the chances to be really alive . . .

to be aware of the enormous dimension

we live within.

On the threshold the entire past

and the endless future

rush to meet one another.

They take hold of each other and laugh.

They are so happy to discover themselves

in the awareness of a human creature.

On the threshold the present breaks all boundaries.

It is a convergence,

a fellowship with all time and space.

We find You there.

And we are found by You there.

Help me cross into the present moment -

into wonder, into Your grace:

that "now-place," where we all are,

unfolding as Your life moment by moment.

Let me live on the threshold as threshold."

written by Gunilla Norris from Being Home p. 14-15

And so tonight we shall cross over the threshold of 2010 into 2011.

May we gather up all that we have experienced of God's love & light this year

and bring it with us into this new year, to give away to everyone we meet.

the joy of swerving

"If you stop to be kind,

you must swerve often

from your path."

-Mary Webb

Alone with God

"Grant me the ability to be alone.

May it be my custom to go

outdoors each day

among the trees and grasses,

among all growing things

and there may I be alone,

and enter into prayer

to talk with the one

that I belong to."

Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlav

photo of this sweet strolling child

was taken from here

she looks so pensive...

pay attention

"…And when Jesus comes along saying that the greatest command of all is

to love God and to love our neighbor, he too is asking us to pay attention.

If we are to love God, we must first stop, look, and listen for him

 in what is happening around us and inside us.

If we are to love our neighbors, before doing anything else

we must see our neighbors. With our imagination as well as our eyes,

that is to say like artists, we must see not just their faces

but the life behind and within their faces.

Here it is love that is the frame we see them in."

-Frederick Buechner, Whistling in the Dark

That I Might...

"Oh, that I might ever know

Your Presence in every face,

Your Pulse in every heart;

That I might ever feel

Your Breath in every breeze,

Your Touch in every raindrop;

That I might ever see

Your Smile in every bloom

Your might in each sunrise.

And, oh, please grant

That I might view

Life's beauty through

Your Eyes.

- Lynn L. Salata

Rita and Taco playing on beach @ Lake Crescent

goodbyes and hellos

Hey, where's everybody going?

Check out the migration patterns in America!

Manhattan: Young people move in, old marrieds move out.

 Detroit: Everyone out of the pool!

Seattle: So that's where everyone moved to!

Los Angeles: Last person out of Cali please turn off the lights!

(check out the other cities here)

"Why can't we get all the people together in the world that we really like

and then just stay together? I guess that wouldn't work.

Someone would leave. Someone always leaves.

Then we would have to say good-bye. I hate good-byes.

I know what I need. I need more hellos."

Charles M. Schulz

being here

"Being in the present moment is the point

where we make our contribution

to that phrase of the Lord's prayer:

"on earth as it is in heaven."

Brother David Steindl-Rast

i looked at many conceptualized views of 'being in the present moment'

but this one "Contemplation" from here grabbed my attention.

what's my name?

I was regretting the past

and fearing the future.

Suddenly God was speaking.

"My name is 'I am.'" I waited.

God continued,

"When you live in the past

with its mistakes and regrets

it is hard. I am not there.

My name is not 'I was.'

When you live in the future,

with its problems and fears, it is hard.

I am not there.

My name is not 'I will be.'

When you live in this moment,
it is not hard. I am here.

My name is 'I am.'

from Helen Mellicost (on the kitchen wall

of the Ranch Guesthouse of St. Benedict's

Monastery in Snowmass, Colorado.)
p. 51 "100 Graces - Mealtime Blessings"

image is from this artblog

which is curated by Meighan O'Toole.

How I miss her!

"While we have the gift of life,

it seems to me the only tragedy

is to allow part of us to die --

whether it is our spirit,

our creativity or

our glorious uniqueness."

- Gilda Radner

shoulda, woulda, coulda

"Orthograph #37 - Living in the Present Moment"

is from the always brilliant Pithless Thoughts

so if you stop living in the shoulda/woulda/coulda circles,

will 'your real life' circle expand?

Life explained with Music

I Spy

Our best spiritual teacher

is always the life

that is right in front of us;

our most important spiritual lessons

always come in the form

of our life experience.

– Susan Thesenga

when I first looked at this photo I thought it was a heart that had been carved into the wood. of course it wasn't - but i wanted to see a heart. can i truly see what is right in front of me?  only if i really stop and look.

Here, let me show you how to do it!

"The most difficult thing in the world is to know how to do a thing and silently watch someone else do it wrong." - T.H. White

Well, maybe not "the" most difficult thing in the world but this is an excellent spiritual practice. There is the very impatient part of me that would want to interupt the process and either just do it myself (that's my enneagram 8 'I must be in control' side) or in the case of wanting to build up my ego, there is that insecure piece within that would want to show off my expertise to the one that I'm supposedly "helping".

Indeed, this is a great spiritual practice - to not jump in but to breathe and wait and think about why I need to hold on so tightly to my way as being the "right" way....

Opening the Heart

"The Christian life is not about pleasing God the finger-shaker and judge. It is not about believing now or being good now for the sake of heaven later. It is about entering a relationship in the present that begins to change everything now. Spirituality is about this process: the opening of the heart to God who is already here." - Marcus Borg  (HT to Elly)