Tag Archives: Uplifting Words

Sweet Breathing

On Being Enlightened

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Searching, absorbing teachings, reading the masters, sitting in meditation, being with nature… all in the quest for “enlightenment”.

The seeking for the deepest truths is a lifelong quest, but the journey to enlightenment finds us right where we started… in this very moment, being truly and uniquely who we are.  Knowing the creative potential in the moment, with focused, savoring, attention on the be-ing-ness of living, takes me as close as I think I’m going to get to enlightenment – and it is enough.

 

As the quote goes:

New Mexico, Taos Square & Clouds“Before enlightenment; chop wood, carry water.  After enlightenment;  chop wood, carry water.”

-Zen Proverb

 

 
Sweet Breathing

Love Thyself

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“As I begin to love myself, I freed myself of anything that is no good for my health – food, people, things, situations, and everything that drew me down and away from myself.  At first I called this attitude a healthy egotism.  Today I know it is love of oneself.”

-April 16, 1959,  Charlie Chaplin, (on his 70th birthday)

“Something inside you emerges….an innate, indwelling peace, stillness, aliveness. It is the unconditioned, who you are in your essence. It is what you had been looking for in the love object. It is yourself.”
– Eckhart Tolle

Today I surround myself with Good things.  Nature, my dog, nurturing food, lovely wine, home, books to grow from, flowers, big green trees, quiet, earth magic.

Love!

All drawing me into myself, not away.

Rain Drops, Single Purple Flower Waterton Clouds Rainbow, WatertonBooksLittle Bear with Sun RaysMother's Day, Wine before the BalletCherries at Cherry Tree Cottage

Sweet Breathing

Life’s Energy

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Deepening into a simple life can help expand the complexity of the inner world exponentially.  Creative juices flow freely.  Self dialogue is more limited and the experience of life’s energy more pronounced.  Frequency and vibration are elevated. A quiet, calm, attentive, absorptive state of being prevails.

Peaceful. Connected.Avalanche Boardwalk, Ferns

Take a moment, a long sweet breathing moment, and feel the energy moving and becoming, spreading beyond all boundaries.  Feel the interplay.  Divine!

Stalks

“Love the moment and the energy of the moment will spread beyond all boundaries.”

-Sister Corita Kent

 

“And what is man without energy?  Nothing – nothing at all.”

-Mark Twain

“If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.”

-Nikola Tesla

 

Sweet Breathing

Through the Eyes of a Child

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On this day that we celebrate Fathers (and those that Father the land, the four legged, all children and adults who need it), we acknowledge that to do this well, renewal of the awe and wonder of each experience, as if seen for the first time, helps immeasurably in the communion and understanding of the little ones.

Seven days with a one and a half year old renews and teaches again this moment to moment seeing with eyes that see wonder!  This is  a joyful, revelation inducing, wisdom centered existence of be-ing in this world.  May we all remember to see through the eyes of a child…

Liam PointingLiam with Rock

 

“To speak truly, few adult persons can see nature.  Most persons do not see the sun.  At least they have a very superficial seeing.  The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the eye and heart of the child.  The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each otheTiny Blue Flowerr; who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood.”

  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

 

“The great man is he who does not lose his child’s-heart.”

  ~Mencius, Book IV

Liam Looking at Owl

 

“It is a happy talent to know how to play.”

  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Liam in Yellow Jacket, Lake McDonald

 

 

Sweet Breathing

What Do You See?

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What do you see?  What is left out, not acknowledged, missed?  In recent posts I’ve focused on the small wonders – tiny flowers and sparkling raindrops.  Taking time with these wonders have reignited my passion for seeing with the heart.  Taking the time, focusing the attention, allowing feelings to inform the seeing, engaging the heart, will always deepen the experience.Raven Child Portrait

In taking the extra time, focus and attention is there a feeling just under the surface of sight?  A whole huge world can unfurl and unfold in that moment of heart seeing.

Carlos Castenada in his studies with the Yaqui sorcerer Don Juan, learned the definition of “seeing” as: “perceiving energy directly as it moves through the universe”.   (He certainly was taking “seeing” to a whole new level of awareness!).

It is possible to feel the energy moving through the universe and to increase our depth of seeing and feeling our world. Taking a long sweet breath, go out to this day, this one and only new day, and see what’s new and what’s been there all along…see with the heart.

Dandelion with blue background

“One day with life and heart is more than time enough to find a world.”

-James Lowell

 

 

Sweet Breathing

Idle and Blessed

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Deer Napping in the Yard“…I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?”

-Mary Oliver (from “A Summer’s Day”)

Hammock & Feet

Sweet Breathing

That’s How the Light Gets In

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“Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.”

-Leonard Cohen

Idaho Storm4

It’s all about the light. As a photographer and lover of all the wonder, I look for light continually.  It is there to be found.  We naturally gravitate to it, we revel in it, we bathe in its warmth,       dance in its radiance, savor its luminance of all the wonders around us.

When darkness comes, light a candle, sit close and peer into the flame-light.   Wait for the sunshine.  We can trust that it will come, through the cracks and around the obstacles.  Until then, “ring the bells that still can ring, and forget your perfect offering!”

Sweet Breathing

What People Don’t Forget

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Maya2

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said,                people will forget what you did,                                                             but people will never forget                                                                   how you made them feel.”

-Maya Angelou

Bryce, First Sun RaysMaya Angelou will live on.  Her passion, poetry, and powerful resonate voice are deeply instilled.  Such depth there, hard won, and strength. I am deeply grateful for the many gifts she brought to the world.

Still I Rise! Maya!

*click on the link below to hear Maya read her “Still I Rise”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&list=RD7HiE4lt_DUY&v=7HiE4lt_DUY

“Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the moments that take our breath away.”

-Maya Angelou

Bird, Maya Angelou

“Life is pure adventure and the sooner we realize that, the quicker we will be able to treat life
as art.”

-Maya AngelouStalks