“Do not be dismayed by the brokenness of the world. All things break. And all things can be mended. Not with time, as they say, but with intention. So go. Love intentionally, extravagantly, unconditionally. The broken world waits in darkness for the light that is you.”
From the introduction page to Mark Nepo’s Seven Thousand Ways to Listen:
“At a gathering in San Francisco, I met Marco, a careful and patient photographer from Santa Clara. When asked what surprised him during the last year, his voice began to quiver. He’d witnessed two breaths that had changed his life. His daughter’s first breath. Then his mother’s last breath. As his daughter inhaled the world, it seemed to awaken her soul on Earth. As his mother exhaled her years, it seemed to free her soul of the world. These two breaths jarred Marco to live more openly and honestly. He took these two breaths into his own daily breathing and quickly saw their common presence in everyone’s breathing. Is it possible that, with each inhalation, we take in the world and awaken our soul? And with each exhalation, do we free ourselves of the world, which inevitably entangles us? Is this how we fill up and empty a hundred times a day, always seeking the gift of the two breaths? Perhaps this is the work of being.”
“Every spring is the only spring – a perpetual astonishment.” -Ellis Peters
“Can words describe the fragrance of the very breath of Spring?” – Neltje Blanchan
“Come with me into the woods where Spring is advancing, as it does, not matter what, not being singular or particular, but one of the forever gifts and certainly visible.” – Mary Oliver
Click into any image to see a full scale version and to start a slideshow…
“Every day
I see or hear
something
that more or less
kills me
with delight,
that leaves me
like a needle
in the haystack
of light.
It was what I was born for –
to look, to listen,
to lose myself
inside this soft world –
to instruct myself
over and over
in joy,
and acclamation.
Nor am I talking
about the exceptional,
the fearful, the dreadful,
the very extravagant –
but of the ordinary,
the common, the very drab,
the daily presentations.
Oh, good scholar,
I say to myself,
how can you help
but grow wise
with such teachings
as these –
the untrimmable light
of the world,
the ocean’s shine,
the prayers that are made
out of grass?”
“Breathing in I Feel Gratitude…
Breathing out I Give Thanks…
Breathing in I Feel Joyful…
Breathing out I Celebrate…
Breathing in I Know Compassion…
Breathing out I Am Compassion…
Breathing in I Feel Loved
Breathing out I Offer Love…
Breathing in I Am Still…
Breathing out I Am At Peace…
Breathing in I am Enough… “
-Aunty Nania, Molokai
Sweet breathing indeed!
*The photo at the top of this post is of Nanaistako, Chief Mountain, a most sacred place of the Blackfeet Nation. It radiates power and masculinity for miles and is quite beautiful in myriad ever changing light blessings and in every season. Love spending time with the Chief.
“Let us love winter
“Breathing in I Feel Gratitude…
