“You rose into my life like a promised sunrise, brightening my days with the light in your eyes.”
-Maya Angelou
“Take bread away from me, if you wish, take air away, but do not take from me your laughter.”
-Pablo Neruda
Like a promised sunrise, your laughter and the light in your eyes….
“…as long as I can walk up the trail behind the house, or as long as I can go out into the yard and look up at the stars, I’ll never be unhappy, never. Not just count my blessings, but shout them.”
-Rick Bass, Winter (notes from Montana)
“How can you buy or sell the sky, the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us.
If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them?
Every part of this earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every clearing and humming insect is holy in the memory and experience of my people. The sap which courses through the trees carries the memories of the red man.
The white man’s dead forget the country of their birth when they go to walk among the stars. Our dead never forget this beautiful earth, for it is the mother of the red man. We are part of the earth and it is part of us. The perfumed flowers are our sisters; the deer, the horse, the great eagle, these are our brothers. The rocky crests, the juices in the meadows, the body heat of the pony, and man — all belong to the same family.”-Chief Seattle
“He said, ‘You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.'”
-Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit
“The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.”
– Hans Hofmann
The necessary?
Food, shelter, safety, beauty, Love.
What else do we truly need? If we are quiet enough, we can hear the real, the raw and the necessary.
“In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous. ”
–Aristotle
Is it enough to be you, as you are right now? Is it enough to be present and not consumed by doing? Is it enough not to need anything?
This video by “The Mrs” examines self image, and the book I just finished, “The Map of Enough” ponders what it may look like to be satisfied with now – with where you live, what you have and who you are…
As the New Year of 2015 moves closer, I am examining this concept of enough.
Thankful for all that is and being present to this gratitude is enough more and more of the time.
The fullness comes from the inner gifts, never from outer appearances. From the wildness and completeness of nature, and not from those things that are contrived. From present moments and not busyness. From awareness. From taking a long sweet breath of life, as it is, now.
“If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath.”
― Amit Ray, Om Chanting and Meditation“The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it.”
― Thích Nhất Hạnh, Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life“There is only now. And look! How rich we are in it.”
― Vanna Bonta, Shades Of The World“The only true thing is what’s in front of you right now.”
― Ramona Ausubel, No One is Here Except All of Us
“The reason old souls enjoy spending time alone,
is because they never really are.”
-MJ Rose
Welcome Back the Sun!!
On this beautiful winter solstice day the myriad gifts of the warm and nurturing Sun are acknowledged.
There is thankfulness for the grace in the giving. Appreciation too for the countless ways we are sustained and lifted up by the radiance.
Now, even as winter settles in, the hours of sunlight grow longer and we have the potential with each day for more luminance and warmth, accelerating inner growth and deepening.
Roots reach for depths unexplored.
The knowledge that the sun lengthens its shining each day allows for a serene, restful absorption of the season. No need to yearn for Spring. It is coming. .. In the meantime, the present of winter is to be savored. Deep snow and long nights. Love and light. Dark mornings by candlelight. Warm fires. Good books. Snowshoe walks. Life.
“The day will be what you make it,
so rise,
like the sun,
and burn.”
-William C. Hannan
“…the Persian savior Mithra, who, as an incarnation of eternal light, was born on the night of winter solstice.”
-Joseph Campbell
