“One attraction in coming to the woods to live was that I should have leisure and opportunity to see the Spring come in.”
-Henry David Thoreau
“Sit quietly, doing nothing, spring comes, and the grass grows by itself.”
-Zen Saying
“The force of Spring – mysterious, fecund, powerful beyond measure.”
-Michael Garofalo
Tag Archives: Simple Life
Walking Meditation
Walking, rambling, wandering in nature, creates an absorbing meditative state. Interconnections are felt as a natural presence and awareness is sharp but relaxed and calm.
Cultivating a mindful state too while walking is restful and peaceful. A day begun in this way sets the energy for all that will follow.
In this calm, meditative state there is also stimulating brain benefits.
Your brain after a walk!
“Wildmind” provides resources for walking meditation. Learn the “how to do it” and the “whys” of walking meditation’s benefits by checking out the link below:
http://www.wildmind.org/walking/why
“In beauty may I walk.
All day long may I walk.
Through the returning seasons may I walk.Beautifully will I possess again.
Beautifully birds . . .
Beautifully joyful birdsOn the trail marked with pollen may I walk.
With grasshoppers about my feet may I walk.
With dew about my feet may I walk.With beauty may I walk.
With beauty before me, may I walk.
With beauty behind me, may I walk.
With beauty above me, may I walk.
With beauty below me, may I walk.
With beauty all around me, may I walk.In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, lively, may I walk.
In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, living again, may I walk.It is finished in beauty.
It is finished in beauty.”A Navajo Indian Prayer of the Second Day of the Night Chant (anonymous)
May you walk in beauty and calm attention today, breathing sweetness and wonder with every step.
Enjoy the Passage of Time
“The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time.”
-James Taylor
The hurry sickness has left me. The ease of the morning to contemplate life, nature, the day, fulfills a longing to sit with the purity of being here now. Hearing those words, there is a knowing, a real knowledge, that being fully present, attentive, focused, and aware truly does bring peace. The gift of life is acknowledged in these moments – and these moments expand to hours and inform the days.
The house still needs to be cleaned, bills paid, the plants tended… with the awareness of the morning extended, these small tasks take on a sacred feeling. Every movement a prayer. This is not a constant state of course – for me. The periods of time though are extended more and more…. I need so much less to feel full. Less activity, less doing, more be-ing is a grace filled way.
“Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.”
-John Lennon
Get Into the Forest Again
The forest is a sanctuary, a temple of contemplation, connection and peace. Serenity surrounds with a warm cohesiveness – an encasing womb. Comfort, meditation, life expressing itself, all waiting for our immersion. Honest and raw. Inviting and absorbing. A sweet embrace.
When you can, get into the forest again!
“When we get out of the glass bottle of our ego and when we escape like the squirrels in the cage of our personality and get into the forest again, we shall shiver with cold and fright. But things happen to us so that we don’t know ourselves. Cool unlying life will rush in.”
D.H. Lawrence
“The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.”
-John Muir
“We must not always talk in the market-place of what
happens to us in the forest.”
-Nathaniel Hawthorne
“A forest bird never wants a cage.”
-Henrik Ibsen
“When the oak is felled the whole forest echoes with its fall, but a hundred acorns are sown in silence by an unnoticed breeze.”
-Thomas Carlyle
Night Music
There are places where you can love the night. Under the big sky, when cares are far away, as calm peace absorbs the day. Stars to get lost in, time does not work as when sunshine warms. Alone with yourself. The dog breathing. The stars and night breathing too. And the trees. The moon hidden.
Night wonders deep and satisfying.
“I want to live my life so that my nights are not full of regrets.”
-D.H. Lawrence
“What hath night to do with sleep?”
-John Milton – Paradise Lost
“Late, by myself, in the boat of myself,
no light and no land anywhere, cloudcover thick
I try to stay
just above the surface,
yet I’m already under
and living with the ocean”
-Mewlana Jalaluddin Rumi
“Life is grace. Sleep is forgiveness. The night absolves. Darkness wipes the slate clean, not spotless to be sure, but clean enough for another day’s chalking.”
-Frederick Buechner, The Alphabet of Grace
“The world rests in the night. Trees, mountains, fields, and faces are released from the prison of shape and the burden of exposure. Each thing creeps back into its own nature within the shelter of the dark. Darkness is the ancient womb. Nighttime is womb-time. Our souls come out to play. The darkness absolves everything; the struggle for identity and impression falls away. We rest in the night.”
-John O’Donohue, Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom
Here’s to the night and the promise of a new day dawning…
(written at 3am!)
May Day!
Singing with the flowers, feeling the forest’s music, listening for raven song. Seeing connections large and small. May is sure to be filled with simple pleasures that are deeply fulfilling.
Unfolding, evolving, expanding, deep breathing earth mirrors our own journey through the season.
A “cross-quarter day” of importance in Celtic festivals this day was also the first day of Summer in early European history. An important marking of time is this day!
Dances, singing and cake are part of the official celebration of this first day of May, May Day, across our planet – a spring holiday for many, I hope you too will celebrate Spring, flowers, nature, life and connections with cake, singing and dancing!
“Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things”
-Robert Brault
“May you live all the days of your life.”
-Jonathan Swift
Awareness
“Earth’s crammed with heaven…
But only he who sees, takes off his shoes.”
–Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh
“Truth is not something outside to be discovered,
it is something inside to be realized.”
–Osho
“Thought can organize the world so well that you are no
longer able to see it.”
-Anthony de Mello
I See Wonders Everywhere!
I see wonders everywhere! From tiny stills in the forest, to the incomprehensible star majesty, these gifts surround us, asking nothing but our attention. Power, calm, wind, clouds, big trees, rocks, the creatures… so much – just so very much, to mesh with us and take in. In gratitude and with a long sweet breath, the day is embraced, the wonders absorbed…
“There are only two ways to live your life.
One is as though nothing is a miracle.
The other is as though everything is a miracle.”
–Albert Einstein-Albert Einstein
“The world is full of magic things,
patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.”
-W.B. Yeats
May your day and night be filled with wonder, miracles and magic!
There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. – See more at: http://www.awakin.org/read/view.php?tid=255#sthash.OmLEQKAd.dpuf
There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. – See more at: http://www.awakin.org/read/view.php?tid=255#sthash.OmLEQKAd.dpuf
What a Wonderful World
Indeed! What a truly, wonderful, spectacular world!!
From the BBC, Lonely Planet, this video has beautiful photographs of the planet’s wonders with David Attenborough’s voice reading the words from “What A Wonderful World”.
Enjoy your World!!
“What A Wonderful World” (Song Lyrics),
Written by: George David Weiss, George Douglas and Bob Thiele
I see trees of green,
red roses too.
I see them bloom,
for me and you.
And I think to myself,
what a wonderful world. I see skies of blue,
And clouds of white.
The bright blessed day,
The dark sacred night.
And I think to myself,What a wonderful world.The colors of the rainbow,
So pretty in the sky.
Are also on the faces,
Of people going by,I see friends shaking hands.
Saying, “How do you do?”
They’re really saying,
“I love you”. I hear babies cry,
I watch them grow,
They’ll learn much more,
Than I’ll ever know.
And I think to myself,
What a wonderful world. Yes, I think to myself,
What a wonderful world.Oh yeah.
May It Be A Good Day
The video below provides ten minutes of beautiful images, wisdom filled words, and a simple and profound perspective that may change your days. Take a minute (well, ten minutes). I promise it will be worth it…
Time and a sense of wonder. Amazing what depth they bring to your hours and your sense of gratitude.
Time and wonder – I hope you can give those gifts to yourself today.