Yes, love does come in the door in many ways.
Seeing the beauty of creation in all the wild ones, knowing every life is a gift –
how can you not?
“Your growing antlers,’ Bambi continued, ‘are proof of your intimate place in the forest, for of all the things that live and grow only the trees and the deer shed their foliage each year and replace it more strongly, more magnificently, in the spring.”
― Felix Salten, Bambi’s Children
The morning stars were resplendent as this new day unfolded.
Remembering that we all live in creation’s dawn is rejuvenating, exhilarating and liberating! We can always start anew bringing our best and most creative selves to this newest dawn.
“…I also live in ‘creation’s dawn.’
The morning stars still sing together,
and the world,
not
yet half made,
becomes more
beautiful every day.”
-John Muir
“Morning has broken like the first morning, blackbird has spoken like the first bird. Praise for the singing! Praise for the morning!”
–Morning Has Broken (Song Lyrics, Cat Stevens)
“Every morning the world is created. Under the orange sticks of the sun the heaped ashes of the night turn into leaves again and fasten themselves to the high branches—and the ponds appear like black cloth on which are painted islands of summer lilies. If it is your nature to be happy you will swim away along the soft trails for hours, your imagination alighting everywhere. And if your spirit carries within it the thorn that is heavier than lead—if it’s all you can do to keep on trudging—there is still somewhere deep within you a beast shouting that the earth is exactly what is wanted—each pond with its blazing lilies is a prayer heard and answered lavishly, every morning, whether or not you have ever dared to be happy, whether or not you have ever dared to pray.”
-Morning Poem, Mary Oliver
“Even after All this time
The Sun never says
To the Earth
“You owe me.”
Look
What happens
With a love like that.
It lights the
Sky.”-Hafiz
April!
Full of rain showers and promise, budding possibilities, growth in every molecular moment!
The earth is singing of new life. Trees radiating their energy. Water flowing. Melting, absorbing, being….
Time to get immersed in the wonders all around.
Uncomplicate. Be amazed. Feel the majesty.
“Maintaining a complicated life is a great way to
avoid changing it.”
-Elaine St. James
“There are years that ask
questions and years that answer”
-Zora Neale Hurston
“Keep walking, though there is no where to get to.
Don’t try to see through the distances.
That’s not for human beings.
Move within, but don’t move the way that fear makes you move”
-Rumi
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the
things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw
off the bowlines. Sail away from safe har
bor. Catch the trade
winds in your sails.
Explore. Dream.
Discover.”
-Mark Twain
Bright sun shining day!
In northwest Montana, Spring comes slowly – a gradual awakening, full of fits and starts. Beautiful warmth in the daytime, back to freezing at night. Comfortable transition. Exciting anticipation. The earth waking up, baby critters on the way, red buds on shrubs by the river, cottonwoods showing bright yellow…
Yes! Here Comes The Sun, and I say, “It’s all right!”
Peter Gomes, a Harvard theologian, writes:
“There is in Celtic mythology the notion of ‘thin places’ in the universe where the visible and the invisible world come into their closest proximity. To seek such places is the vocation of the wise and the good — and for those that find them, the clearest communication between the temporal and eternal. Mountains and rivers are particularly favored as thin places marking invariably as they do, the horizontal and perpendicular frontiers. But perhaps the ultimate of these thin places in the human condition are the experiences people are likely to have as they encounter suffering, joy, and mystery.”
Mountains and Rivers and
Mysteries as the clearest communicators between the temporal and the eternal – yes, for me, absorbed in those sacred places in nature and contemplating the Great Mystery, the visible and invisible are almost merged. The veil is thin and the feeling is of a wondrous oneness.
What a lovely way to start the new morning – Dan Fogelberg……..
(the photography in the video accompanying the song is just stunning, click below to hear the song and/or just look at the photos – it’s such an inspiring collection of images)
“To The Morning” (Lyrics, Dan Fogelberg)
Watching the sun…watching it come
Watching it come up over the rooftops
Cloudy and warm…maybe a storm
You can never quite tell from the morning
(Chorus)
And it’s going to be a day
There is really no way to say no to the morning
Yes it’s going to be a day
There is really nothing left to say but come on morning
Waiting for mail
Maybe a tale from an old friend or even a lover
Sometimes there’s none
But we have fun thinking of all who might have written
(Chorus)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=RxClQ_pInzc
And maybe there are seasons
And maybe they change
And maybe to love is not so strange
The sounds of the day
Now they hurry away
Now they are gone until tomorrow
When day will break and you will wake
And you will rake your hands across your eyes and realize
That it’s going to be a day
There is really no way to say no to the morning
Yes it’s going to be a day
There is really nothing left to say but come on morning
And maybe there are seasons and maybe they change
And maybe to love is not so strange
There is so much wonder and mystery in the world… and so much we can never know. We desperately want the “knowing” of answers to life’s big questions and work toward that end with studying and learning. Because we are seekers, the continuing unknowns and mysteries can be unnerving – all those big questions are pressing to be solved.
I believe though that there can be calm in the face of the unknown. Peace even within the space of all that can’t be understood. Safety in what comes next. Trust in the process of life’s unfolding. Where there is connection and a oneness it is enough. There can be sanctuary in the midst of the mystery.
As the Lakota say, “When you see Mystery, call it Mystery”.
The more these words are contemplated, the more they seem to be the most respectful and honoring of the possible ways to celebrate the enormity of all that can’t be known or named or understood. It is all just too big to be contained in human constraints. Feeble attempts to find words for these wonders make them small and limited. Better to let the power remain unnamed; call it mystery and feel the awe.
There is peace in the surrender to not knowing. Not knowing and still trusting. Loving without explaining. Feelings without words. Falling into the wonder…
“Once again I accept that life is uncertain and that the goal is not to become more certain about anything but to relax more into the mystery of not knowing what will come next.”
-Elizabeth Lesser
“Great Mystery, teach me how to trust my heart, my mind, my intuition, my inner knowing, the senses of my body, the blessings of my spirit. Teach me to trust these things so that I may enter my sacred space and love beyond my fear, and thus walk in balance with the passing of each glorious sun.”
― American Indian Lakota Prayer
“Life is an unanswered question, but let’s still believe in the dignity and importance of the question”
― Tennessee Williams
Enjoy the Ride!
The video was made by the safety council in Perth. It speaks eloquently of slowing down, breathing deeply and taking time for life’s exquisite moments.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=rRwfwyaHXDk
Living in the woods, our little town proves itself a nearby haven of good food, community, gatherings, parades, celebrations, galleries, farmer’s markets, the Depot, and even night life! It is a sweet, rustic, western, town that provides a warm, lively, hub of activity for locals and visitors alike. For me, the simple life is tremendously enhanced by this small town, so full of unique personality.
A few black and white photographs of Whitefish at night are in the gallery below (slideshow will load below).
“In the great cities we see so little of the world, we drift into our minority. In the little towns and villages there are no minorities; people are not numerous enough. You must see the world there, perforce. Every man is himself a class; every hour carries its new challenge. When you pass the inn at the end of the village you leave your favourite whimsy behind you; for you will meet no one who can share it. We listen to eloquent speaking, read books and write them, settle all the affairs of the universe…..
― W.B. Yeats, The Celtic Twilight: Faerie and Folklore
