This silence has been waiting for me.
I will be open to all it has to say.
All posts by Joyce
The Art of Nature
“Were I called upon to define, very briefly, the term art, I should call it the reproduction of what the senses perceive in nature through the veil of the mist.”
-Edgar Allan Poe
“The joy of looking and comprehending is nature’s most beautiful gift.”
-Albert Einstein
Snow & Radiant Frost
“I love snow, snow, and all the forms of radiant frost.”
-Percy Shelley
Radiance
There is radiance here
in these unfolding years.
Simplicity deepens.
Alone-ness widens perspective.
Solitude forms a presence.
In the quietness the trees share their secrets
and the ravens tell their tales.
The mountains form the foundation of everything,
while the big sky holds them in a warm embrace.
The stilled mind cascades into wonder.
That is where the radiance lies, shimmering in that wonder.
I stay there now as often as I can.
Thank You!
A Blade of Grass
“Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.”
-Leonardo da Vinci
“The moment one gives close attention to any thing, even a blade of grass it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.”
The Universe is Your Echo
“How you vibrate is what the universe echoes back to you in every moment.”
-Panache
The Poor, The Poets and Monks
“I stand before you tonight to represent the people who do not count: The poor, the poets, and monks. As long as there are people who are trying to realize the divine in themselves, there shall be hope in the world.”
—Thomas Merton
Thomas Merton distills the experience of being human in this life. He was a Trappist monk of the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky.
As a writer, poet, activist and continual student of comparative religion, he wrote timeless words that continue to resonate and teach. The quote above is from the closing he gave to an interfaith conference in Calcutta in 1968. Thomas Merton transitioned from this life a few days after he spoke these words.
I Notice
At 3am I feel these words spilling out,
Soft moonlight on the newly fallen snow.
I notice these moments with you, they do not fly by. Lingering in them, I feel the sweetness.
Stitched together time, a history together.
Little big moments of a life shared.
There are many riches: the fire in the hearth, your warmth and sincerity, the kindnesses each day, music, books, Little Bear, watching the snow fall, the leaves turn, the summer unfold, the new earth awaken in spring, feeling you with me, loving you.
This is our life, savored and noticed. I am overwhelmed by the beauty of our days together…
Trees are Temples & Forests are Cathedrals
“When you enter a grove peopled with ancient trees, higher than the ordinary, and shutting out the sky with their thickly inter-twined branches, do not the stately shadows of the wood, the stillness of the place, …and the doomed cavern then strike you with the presence of a deity?”
– Seneca
“Going to the woods is going home.”
-John Muir
“My roots are in the depths of the woods.”
– Galle
To me, nature is sacred; trees are my temples and forests are my cathedrals.”
– Mikhail Gorbachev
