LIGHT THE WAY FOR LOVE by Susan Frybort (from Open Passages: Doors and Windows to the Soul)
They say beauty comes from a spirit that has weathered many hardships in life and somehow continues with resilience. Grace can be found in a soul who ages softly, even amid the tempest.
I think the loveliest by far is the one whose gentle heart bears
a hundred scars from caring, yet still finds a way to pick up the lamp, one more time, to light the way for love.
“O setting sun! though the time has come, I still warble after you, if none else does, unmitigated adoration.”
-Walt Whitman
“There’s a sunrise and a sunset every single day, and they’re absolutely free. Don’t miss so many of them.”
-Jo Walton
“A sunset is the sun’s fiery kiss to the night.”
-Crystal Woods
“To walk quietly until the miracle in everything speaks is poetry, whether we write it down or not.”
~ Mark Nepo
“I looked in temples, churches and
mosques; but I found the Divine within
my heart.”~ Rumi
In Winter it is easier to find the way between voice and presence where information flows. Ah … the disciplined silence found in the world of snow…
“There is a way between voice and presence
where information flows.
In disciplined silence it opens.
With wandering talk it closes.”
-Rumi
“I have lots of things to teach you now, in case we ever meet, concerning the message that was transmitted to me under a pine tree in North Carolina on a cold winter moonlit night.
It said that Nothing Ever Happened, so don’t worry. It’s all like a dream. Everything is ecstasy, inside. We just don’t know it because of our thinking-minds. But in our true blissful essence of mind is known that everything is alright forever and forever and forever. Close your eyes, let your hands and nerve-ends drop, stop breathing for 3 seconds, listen to the silence inside the illusion of the world, and you will remember the lesson you forgot, which was taught in immense milky way soft cloud innumerable worlds long ago and not even at all. It is all one vast awakened thing. I call it the golden eternity. It is perfect.”
-Jack Kerouac
Christmas at Midlife by Mary Anne Perrone
“I am no longer waiting for a special occasion; I burn the best candles on ordinary days.
I am no longer waiting for the house to be clean; I fill it with people who understand that even dust is Sacred.
I am no longer waiting for everyone to understand me; It’s just not their task
I am no longer waiting for the perfect children; my children have their own names that burn as brightly as any star.
I am no longer waiting for the other shoe to drop; It already did, and I survived.
I am no longer waiting for the time to be right; the time is always now.
I am no longer waiting for the mate who will complete me; I am grateful to be so warmly, tenderly held.
I am no longer waiting for a quiet moment; my heart can be stilled whenever it is called.
I am no longer waiting for the world to be at peace; I unclench my grasp and breathe peace in and out.
I am no longer waiting to do something great; being awake to carry my grain of sand is enough.
I am no longer waiting to be recognized; I know that I dance in a holy circle.
I am no longer waiting for Forgiveness. I believe, I Believe.
-Mary Anne Perrone
“Do not overlook the little joys!”
-Hermann Hesse
Yellowstone. Majestic earth workings of every sort. Power. Everlasting change and evolution. Steaming water, geysers, grand waterfalls, canyons, a deep and wide lake, fumaroles, mud pots, elk, bighorn sheep, grizzlies, black bear, cats, moose, and wolves!! Nine packs of wolves vying for dominance and survival, taking care of their families, broadening their empires. What a vision of nature’s overwhelming diversity and drive for balance. Life continuing in all its exuberance. There is never enough time to take it all in. I want to return and spend weeks in the Lamar Valley, getting to know the wolves and the landscapes. To become part of it, to know it. Undiminished by the island it has become, it is still becoming. So alive, so magnificent. Mysterious and overwhelmingly powerful.
“A thousand Yellowstone wonders are calling, ‘Look up and down and round about you.”
-John Muir, 1898
“There is nothing so American as our national parks…. The fundamental idea behind the parks…is that the country belongs to the people, that it is in process of making for the enrichment of the lives of all of us.”
– President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Click onto any image below to view a full size version – click arrows on full size to view all in full size
|
|
Wild turkey picture taken from home…
|
