First Sip

Circle of Compassion

2012-01-31T06:00:00.000-05:00

Human beings are a part of a whole, called by us “the universe,” a part limited in time and space. We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest — a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us.

Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security.

~ Albert Einstein

Real Happiness

2012-01-30T06:00:00.000-05:00

Happiness is not ever found in getting what we want. We've got the wrong formula. Real happiness and freedom come from learning to adapt the heart to the way things are.

~ Ajahn Amaro

Impermanence

2012-01-27T06:00:00.001-05:00

All is impermanent, like a star at dawn,
a flash of lightening in a summer cloud,
an echo, a bubble, a rainbow and a dream.

~ The Buddha

You Have Already Arrived

2012-01-26T06:00:00.000-05:00

All we have to do is be ourselves, fully and authentically. We don't have to run after anything. We already contain the whole cosmos. We simply return to ourselves through mindfulness, and touch the peace and joy that are already present within and all around us.

I have arrived. I am already home. There is nothing to do. Aimlessness, non attainment, is a wonderful practice.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Path With Heart

2012-01-25T06:00:00.000-05:00

Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think necessary. Then ask yourself alone, one question . . . Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good; if it doesn't, it is of no use.

~ Carlos Casteneda

Encircled

2012-01-24T06:00:00.000-05:00

Whenever you meet a stranger in winter,
whether you're shuffling through slush,
or slouched in a plastic seat on the bus,
lift up your gaze from below your cap
to look in his eyes for the tiny candle
that you've heard poets speak of,
some glimmer of humor or honeyed delight
that re-ignites when we greet each other,
spreading its light into concentric circles,
ever widening. Imagine a rush hour bus
aglow inside from the tiny candles in all of us,
each one relit by someone who dared to look up
and smile at another instead of just looking away -
seeing at last not another brown coat in a seat,
but a human, illuminated, a sliver of divinity.

~ Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

Free The Joy

2012-01-23T06:00:00.000-05:00

Now is the time to free the heart,
Let all intentions and worries stop,
Free the joy inside the self,
Awaken to the wonder of your life.

~ John O'Donohue

Gentleness and Strength

2012-01-20T06:00:00.000-05:00

Nothing is so strong as gentleness
and nothing is so gentle as real strength.

~ Ralph W. Sockman

Snowflake

2012-01-19T06:00:00.000-05:00

No snowflake ever falls in the wrong place.

~ Zen saying

Nature of Mind

2012-01-18T06:00:00.000-05:00

What is the nature of mind like?
Imagine a sky, empty, spacious,
and pure from the beginning;
its essence is like this.
Imagine a sun, luminous, clear,
unobstructed, and spontaneously present;
its nature is like this.
Imagine that sun shining out impartially
on us and all things, penetrating all directions;
its energy, which is the manifestation of compassion, is like this:
Nothing can obstruct it, and it pervades everywhere.

~ Sogyal Rinpoche

Hearth of Your Soul

2012-01-17T06:00:00.000-05:00

The blessings for which we hunger are not to be found in other places or people. These gifts can only be given to you by yourself. They are at home in the hearth of your soul.

~ John O Donohue

Shoveling Snow

2012-01-16T06:00:00.001-05:00

While I am out shoveling the drive
it is easy to love you. It is not because I
am pushing paths through the snow

and I see how things change so fast.
It is not because the falling snow
is so beautiful, though it is. It is because you

are not here. And it is easier that way,
sometimes, when you are somewhere
else, bouncing on your bed or singing very loud,

or tugging on your sister’s shirt
or accidentally tracking snow
through the house—and I can’t

see it. Instead, as I shovel, I think about the way
you called to me from across the room
while I was making breakfast and you

were playing trucks and you said to me,
Mom, I really love you. And about how
you came to the table wearing a paper crown

you had made yourself, and your smile
was so pure. And I remember how we
wore wigs and pretended you owned

a music store and I was your customer.
And I think about how you come into bed
in the morning and burrow under the covers

and kick me until I get out of bed and
in this moment, it makes me laugh. A lot.
And the snow is so beautiful as it falls

and fills in the straight spaces where my shovel
has been. And the riotous, unruly paths in my heart
where you have been stay wide, wide open.

~ Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

Impossible

2012-01-13T06:00:00.000-05:00

Life is basically impossible...

You do it every day.

~ Shunryu Suzuki

Action Plan

2012-01-12T06:00:00.000-05:00

Consider the yellow post-it pad
before the pen riddles it blue.
Blank. Stack of blank.
Stack of yellow blank with glue.
Pray that blank might stick to you.
Imagine you might enter rooms
with so little plan of your own.
To be the slate, not the list,
the void, not the litany of Things To Do.
To cultivate an emptiness.
To let whatever's next
come next.

~ Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

Our Days

2012-01-11T06:00:00.000-05:00

How we spend our days is, of course,
how we spend our lives.

~ Annie Dillard

Dear Ezra

2012-01-10T06:00:00.000-05:00

I have to confess:
there are abstractions
I no longer go in fear of.

Take loneliness.
I've started calling it solitude.
It feels so new and improved now,
I can honestly say it soaks up time
better than a sponge soaks up water.

The other day I actually washed this poem with it.

Ez, let me tell you,
aging is a Laundromat,
and eventually you find yourself
watching what you spurned
and dreaded for years
spread out in widening gyres,
like sheets fluffed in the dryer.

Life is quite a bit cozier
when you let all the bugaboos -
you know - say, sadness and fear
crawl into bed with you.

Pace them with your breathing
and they fall asleep
fast as a couple of kids.

The other night we huddled together
staring at the moon
as it slid past my window:
big-bellied sail on a wet black sea.

~ Eileen D. Moeller

Turn Toward Yourself

2012-01-09T06:00:00.000-05:00

How many times have you turned toward yourself with the love, care, and tenderheartedness that you would toward a child, a lover, best friend, or brother?

The answer could be never or I can hardly recall. Maybe today will be the day you begin.~ Susan Piver

Heart

2012-01-06T06:00:00.000-05:00

Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers,
but to be fearless in facing them.
Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain,
but for the heart to conquer it.

- Rabindranath Tagore

Peace in the Heart

2012-01-05T06:00:00.001-05:00

If there is to be peace in the world,
There must be peace in the nations.

If there is to be peace in the nations,
There must be peace in the cities.

If there is to be peace in the cities,
There must be peace between neighbors.

If there is to be peace between neighbors,
There must be peace in the home.

If there is to be peace in the home,
There must be peace in the heart.

~ Lao Tsu

No News At All

2012-01-04T06:00:00.000-05:00

Outside, the freezing desert night.
This other night inside grows warm, kindling.
Let the landscape be covered with thorny crust.
We have a soft garden in here.
The continents blasted,
cities and little towns, everything
become a scorched, blackened ball.
The news we hear is full of grief for that future,
but the real news inside here
is there's no news at all.

~ Rumi

New Year Resolve

2012-01-03T06:00:00.000-05:00

The time has come
to stop allowing the clutter
to clutter my mind
like dirty snow,
shove it off and find
clear time, clear water.
Time for a change,
let silence in like a cat
who has sat at my door
neither wild nor strange
hoping for food from my store
and shivering on the mat.
Let silence in.
She will rarely mew,
she will sleep on my bed
and all I have ever been
either false or true
will live again in my head.
For it is now or not
as old age silts the stream,
to shove away the clutter,
to untie every knot,
to take the time to dream,
to come back to still water.

~ May Sarton

Shine

2012-01-02T06:00:00.000-05:00

In the new year,
may you - and all beings - shine
with radiant health and happiness.

~ C. C.

Long Time Sun

2011-12-30T06:00:00.000-05:00

May the long time sun
shine upon you,
all love surround you,
and the pure light within you
guide your way on.

~ Kundalini Yoga Blessing

Every Step

2011-12-29T06:00:00.000-05:00

Treading along in this dreamlike, illusory realm,
Without looking for the traces I may have left;
A cuckoo's song beckons me to return home,
Hearing this, I tilt my head to see
Who has told me to turn back;
But do not ask me where I am going
As I travel in this limitless world,
Where every step I take is my home.

~ Dogen

Original Spirit

2011-12-28T06:00:00.001-05:00

Whatever an education is, it should make you a unique individual, not a conformist; it should furnish you with an original spirit with which to tackle the big challenges; it should allow you to find values which will be your road map through life; it should make you spiritually rich, a person who loves whatever you are doing, wherever you are, whomever you are with; it should teach you what is important, how to live.

~ John Taylor Gatto

Save All Things

2011-12-27T06:00:00.000-05:00

How do you save all things?
You save all things
by including them.

~ R. H. Blyth

Complete Happiness

2011-12-26T06:00:00.000-05:00

Right now, at this moment, we have a mind,
which is all the basic equipment we need
to achieve complete happiness.

~ The Dalai Lama

Creed

2011-12-23T06:00:00.000-05:00

The candle flame stammers,
then sings through the pane,
pushing back the boundaries
of darkness, and night returns
to where it was. I believe in
night, in hand-dipped candles
that drip onto sills, in Orion,
in the frost that fills windows
and the sun that returns the
frost to the air. I believe in
Christmas, in moon, in stars
so bright that we follow them
to birthplaces, mothers who
love their children, children
who jump like live sparks
around the tree, and gifts
that can not be opened, only
received. These are the things
I would give you: this darkness,
this light, this all that is.

~ Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

Twas the Night

2011-12-22T06:00:00.001-05:00

Would you wait up all night
for a man who promised
to give you everything
you want?
All you have to do is be good.
You tell the children, "Please go to sleep,"
But propped up on couch pillows, you wait.
Would you recognize him
if you saw him?
Too soon the wait is over.
Sunlight squeezes through the window.
On the table
the four red sugar cookies
you set out for him.
One by one,
you eat them,
the sweetness sings in your mouth.
Hair unbrushed, squealing,
the kids run-tumble-skip down the stairs,
and you realize
you have everything
you want.

~ Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

Light

2011-12-21T06:00:00.000-05:00

However vast the darkness,
we must supply our own light.

~ Stanley Kubrick

Quiet Light

2011-12-20T06:00:00.001-05:00

There is a quiet light that shines in every heart. It draws no
attention to itself, though it is always secretly there.
It is what illuminates our minds to see beauty, our desire
to seek possibility, and our hearts to love life.

Without this subtle quickening our days would be empty and wearisome, and no horizon would ever awaken our longing. Our passion for life is quietly sustained from somewhere in us that is welded to the energy and excitement of life. This shy inner light is what enables us to recognize and receive our very presence here as blessing.

We enter the world as strangers who all at once become heirs to a harvest of memory, spirit, and dream that has long preceded us and will now enfold, nourish, and sustain us. The gift of the world is our first blessing.

~ John O'Donohue

Kind and Merciful

2011-12-19T06:00:00.000-05:00

Be kind and merciful.
Let no one ever come to you
without coming away
better and happier.

~ Mother Theresa

Sit Quietly

2011-12-16T06:00:00.000-05:00

All man’s miseries derive from not being
able to sit quietly in a room alone.

~ Blaise Pascal

Let Go

2011-12-15T06:00:00.000-05:00

We believe that it is difficult to let go, but in truth it is much more difficult and painful to hold and protect...

We do not let go in order to make ourselves impoverished or bereft. We let go in order to discover happiness and peace.

~ Christine Feldman

Natural Intimacy

2011-12-14T06:00:00.000-05:00

The highest goal of modern yoga is to point out how there is a natural intimacy embedded within everything no matter how large or how small, and when we forget this intimacy of which we are a part, we have practices to remind us again and again that everything we do makes a difference.

While modern technology like airplanes, indoor climate control and iPhones actually place the individual outside the natural cycles and responsibilities of life, coming back to our bodies and cultivating attentiveness can work to undo these stratifications within and around the human-built life.

Humanity is like the flora and fauna of the natural world, and we need to slow down and pay attention so that we don't continually forget the responsibilities that come with being part of such a vast community.

Nobody can simply act on his or her own behalf. The world is too deeply interconnected for any of us to continue full speed ahead with only egoic desires in mind. I find great comfort in knowing that we are never alone.

~ Michael Stone

Union

2011-12-13T06:00:00.000-05:00

Plunging
into the river of joy
diving deeper and wider
within this wraparound life
reborn in the body
as a smile
reborn
in the breath
as radiant light
reborn in the space
between pose and repose
rocking
in infinity -
embracing the union of all that is
and will be.

~ Leza Lowitz

Life With All Its Wonders

2011-12-12T06:00:00.001-05:00

The heart of Buddhist practice is to generate our own presence in such a way that we can touch deeply the life that is here and available in every moment. We have to be here for ourselves; we have to be here for the people we love; we have to be here for life with all its wonders. The message of our Buddhist practice is simple and clear: "I am here for you."

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Moonlight

2011-12-09T06:00:00.000-05:00

Unmoored
in midnight water,
no waves, no wind,
the empty boat
is flooded with moonlight.

~ Dogen

Love the Questions

2011-12-08T06:00:00.000-05:00

Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue.

Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. The point is, to live everything.

Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.

~ Rainer Maria Rilke

Curiosity

2011-12-07T06:00:00.000-05:00

There's a common misunderstanding among all the human beings who have ever been born on the earth that the best way to live is to try to avoid pain and just try to get comfortable. You can see this even in insects and animals and birds. All of us are the same.

A much more interesting, kind, adventurous, and joyful approach to life is to begin to develop our curiosity, not caring whether the object of our inquisitiveness is bitter or sweet.

To lead a life that goes beyond pettiness and prejudice and always wanting to make sure that everything turns out on our own terms, to lead a more passionate, full, and delightful life than that, we must realize that we can endure a lot of pain and pleasure for the sake of finding out who we are and what this world is, how we tick and how our world ticks, how the whole thing just is. If we're committed to comfort at any cost, as soon as we come up against the least edge of pain, we're going to run; we'll never know what's beyond that particular barrier or wall or fearful thing.

~ Pema Chodron

Myth

2011-12-06T06:00:00.000-05:00

Do not be satisfied with the stories that come before you.
Unfold your own myth.

~ Rumi

Light the Lamp

2011-12-05T06:00:00.000-05:00

We have a lamp inside us, the lamp of mindfulness, which we can light anytime. The oil of that lamp is our breathing, our steps, and our peaceful smile. We have to light up that lamp of mindfulness so the light will shine out and the darkness will dissipate and cease. Our practice is to light up the lamp.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Winged Heart

2011-12-02T06:00:00.000-05:00

Wake at dawn with a winged heart and
give thanks for another day of loving.

~ Kahlil Gibran

Fear

2011-12-01T06:00:00.000-05:00

Nearly everything we are afraid will happen is going to happen anyway, so what’s to fear? There is no secure or underlying ground, so we make ourselves safe only when we see and accept the way life is. Utterly spontaneous and impermanent.

When it is time to laugh, we laugh. When it is time to weep, we weep. We are cheated of nothing in life except that from which we withhold ourselves by ego’s narrow bounds. These bounds were meant to break; indeed they must, if we ever hope to be whole again.

~ Karen Maezen Miller

All of It, Every Bit

2011-11-30T06:00:00.000-05:00

All those days you spent running away from yourself,

do not regret them. No matter how many miles you ran,

how many mountains you climbed, how many alleys
you ducked in, how many highways you drove, you

didn’t manage to get very far away from yourself, did you.
Here you are, and the girl that stole the lip gloss in fourth grade

and then lied about it out of shame, forgive her. The lip
gloss was so shiny, and the smell, like bubblegum, so sweet,

so unlike anything she’d ever had before.
And the woman who starved herself, who was afraid

even to eat an apple for fear it would make her fat,
forgive her. The world felt so wildly out of control,

and she took charge of the only thing she knew she
had charge of, her body. She did not mean any harm.

And the woman who stays up too late to write poems,
love her. Though she is so tired she drives past the school

on her way to pick up her son. She is doing what she thinks
she must to find out who she is. There is nothing here

to regret. Nothing is cause for shame. Say to yourself,
I am human. And say it again. Again. Even the Buddhist

monks eat meat one day of the year for humbling.
You are not perfect, you never were. Think of how far

you’ve run, you’ve limped, you’ve crawled, think of
how much you’ve lived to end up in this very here

where the wind is whipping the world into spring
and out of the blue, blue sky, it begins to snow.

~ Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

We Don't Know Anything

2011-11-29T06:00:00.000-05:00

When we think that something is going to bring us pleasure, we don’t know what’s really going to happen. When we think something is going to give us misery, we don’t know. Letting there be room for not knowing is the most important thing of all.

We try to do what we think is going to help. But we don’t know. We never know if we’re going to fall flat or sit up tall. When there’s a big disappointment, we don’t know if that’s the end of the story. It may be just the beginning of a great adventure.

Life is like that. We don’t know anything. We call something bad; we call it good. But really we just don’t know.

~ Pema Chodron

Miracles

2011-11-28T06:00:00.000-05:00

Around us, life is filled with miracles - a glass of water, a ray of sunshine, a leaf, a caterpillar, a flower, laughter, raindrops. If you live in awareness, it is easy to see miracles everywhere.

Each human being is a multiplicity of miracles. Eyes that see thousands of colors, shapes and forms; ears that hear a bee flying or a thunderclap; a brain that ponders a speck of dust as easily as the entire cosmos; a heart that beats in rhythm with the heartbeat of all beings.

When we are tired and feel discouraged by life's daily miracles, we may not notice these miracles, but they are always there.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Priceless Gifts

2011-11-25T06:00:00.000-05:00

An empty day without events.
And that is why
it grew immense
as space. And suddenly
happiness of being
entered me.

I heard
in my heartbeat
the birth of time
and each instant of life
one after the other
came rushing in
like priceless gifts.

~ Anna Swir

Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T06:00:00.000-05:00

More than these greens tossed with toasted pecans,
I want to serve you the hymn I sung into the wooden bowl
as I blended the oil and white vinegar. More than honey ice cream
beside the warm pie, I want to serve you the bliss in the apples' flesh,
how it gathered the sun and carried its luminousness to this table.
More than the popovers, the risen ecstasy of wheat, milk and eggs,
I want to serve you the warmth that urged the tranformation to bread.
Blessings, I want to serve you full choruses of hallelujah, oh so wholly
here in this moment. Oh so holy here in this world.

~ Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

Love

2011-11-23T06:00:00.000-05:00

Love is all we have,
the only way
that each can
help the other.

~ Euripides

Worry

2011-11-22T06:00:00.000-05:00

Now that all your worry has proved
such an unlucrative business,
why not find a better job?

~ Hafiz

Your True Home

2011-11-21T06:00:00.001-05:00

Your true home is in the here and the now. It is not limited by time, space, nationality or race. Your true home is not an abstract idea; it is something you can touch and live in every moment.

With mindfulness and concentration, the energies of the Buddha, you can find our true home in the full relaxation of your mind and body in the present moment.

~Thich Nhat Hanh

Falling Asleep

2011-11-18T06:00:00.000-05:00

I yawn,
I stretch,
I stretch out,
I stretch all over
in my body
as in a large, luxurious sleeping bag.

And then I fall
down,
down
to the bottom of happiness

~ Anna Swir

Many Wonders

2011-11-17T06:00:00.000-05:00

Life is filled with suffering, but it is also filled with many wonders, like the blue sky, the sunshine, the eyes of a baby.

To suffer is not enough. We must also be in touch with the wonders of life. They are within us all around us, everywhere, any time.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

More Opening To Do

2011-11-16T06:00:00.000-05:00

There is always
more opening to do,
especially beside the river
when the sun is low,
or especially in the kitchen
when the hum of the fridge
ohms through the ache
that rides the belly,
or when speaking
of love the voice breaks
and the heart breaks
and more love pours in.
There is always more
opening, especially now
when I am no longer a thin green shoot.
Grace, says my friend,
grace and nature, that
is all there is, and I
could not explain to you
what she meant, but
I knew sure as the luminous
moon that I will never reach,
sure as a morning glory
opens to the sun
that it was true.

~ Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

What You Are

2011-11-15T06:00:00.000-05:00

Do not wish to be anything
but what you are
and try to be that perfectly.

~ St Francis de Sales

Perfection

2011-11-14T06:00:00.000-05:00

If you could call it perfection
what would it look like?
How would you know it,
feel it,
be it?

Wherever you are now
call it perfection
and know
that in this moment
it is really enough.

~ Leza Lowitz

Filled with Love

2011-11-11T06:00:00.000-05:00

Develop a mind so filled with love it resembles space.

~ Buddha

Room For All

2011-11-10T06:00:00.000-05:00

Things falling apart is a kind of testing and also a kind of healing. We think that the point is to pass the test or to overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don’t really get solved.

They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It’s just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.

~ Pema Chodron

Infinite Gifts

2011-11-09T06:00:00.000-05:00

You have made me endless,

Such is your pleasure.

This frail vessel you empty again and again,

And fill it ever with fresh life.

This little flute of a reed you have carried

Over hills and dales and

Have breathed through it melodies eternally new.

At the immortal touch of your hands,

My little heart loses its limits in joy

And gives birth to utterance ineffable.

Your infinite gifts come to me

Only on these very small hands of mine.

Ages pass, and still you pour,

And still there is room to fill.

~ Rabindranath Tagore

Praise Song

2011-11-08T06:00:00.000-05:00

What dies in autumn comes up in spring,
because this way of saying "No"
becomes, in spring, your praise-song, "Yes."

~ Rumi

Shine

2011-11-07T06:00:00.000-05:00

Stop.
Soften.
Relax.
Breathe.

Trust.
Open.
Smile.
Shine.

~ C. C.

That Would Really Be Something

2011-11-04T06:00:00.000-04:00

I would like to make nothing
a verb. I nothing. You nothing.

We nothing. That second person
plural is my favorite conjugation.

Imagine. Both of us not hinging together.
Where? I don't care. The garden.

The alley. The canyon. The floor.
More nothing. Oh, it's nothing.

Nothing is sacred, anymore.
And there, on the altar of air

our minds and bodies rest. They unfold
in the hollow, the gaps. Though

when nothing happens, that's
all I want to talk about. I thrill

at nothing. I love nothing.
Nothing's perfect. Nothing's easy.

The grass continues to grow.
Nothing to do. Nothing to say.

Let's do nothing together all day.

~ Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

Creative Artist

2011-11-03T06:00:00.000-04:00

If your daily life seems of no account, don't blame it; blame yourself that you are not poet enough to call forth its treasures. For the creative artist there is no impoverishment and no worthless place.

~ Rainer Maria Rilke

Wonder of Being Here

2011-11-02T06:00:00.001-04:00

Throw off the bonds of your conditioning and fear and celebrate the wonder of being here. Experience this moment as it is, connected by breath and essence to the whole. You couldn't be separate if you tried.

Live this day as if the earth exhales blessings in your direction, as if trees speak their deepest secrets in your ear, as if bird songs can lift you outside your ordinary state of ind and bring you into truth.

Be the creative juice flowing through the universe. Be compassion in action and wholeness in motion. Be silence and stillness, the ocean of love so palpable that not one cell of you disputes the truth that you are that.

~ Danna Faulds

All Backwards

2011-11-01T06:00:00.000-04:00

Life is tough.

It takes a lot of your time,

All your weekends,

And what do you get at the end of it?

Death, a great reward.

I think the life cycle is all backwards.

You should die first, get it out of the way.

Then you live twenty years in an old-age home.

You are kicked out when you’re too young.

You get a gold watch, you go to work.

You work forty years until you’re

Young enough to enjoy your retirement.

You go to college,

You party until you’re ready for high school.

You become a little kid, you play,

You have no responsibilities.

You become a little boy or girl,

You go back into the womb

You spend your last nine months floating.

And you finish off as a gleam in someone’s eye.

~ Unknown

Blossom

2011-10-31T06:00:00.000-04:00

How strange that the nature of life is change,
yet the nature of human beings is to resist change.
And how ironic that the difficult times we fear might ruin us,
are the very ones that can break us open and
help us blossom into who we were meant to be.

~ Elizabeth Lesser

Everything

2011-10-28T06:00:00.000-04:00

We already have everything we need.
There is no need for self-improvement.

~ Pema Chodron

Testament

2011-10-27T06:00:00.000-04:00

Dear relatives and friends, when my last breath
Grows large and free in air, don't call it death --
A word to enrich the undertaker and inspire
His surly art of imitating life; conspire
Against him. Say that my body cannot now
Be improved upon; it has no fault to show
To the sly cosmetician. Say that my flesh
Has a perfect compliance with the grass
Truer than any it could have striven for.
You will recognize the earth in me, as before
I wished to know it in myself: my earth
That has been my care and faithful charge from birth,
And toward which all my sorrows were surely bound,
And all my hopes. Say that I have found
A good solution, and am on my way
To the roots. And say I have left my native clay
At last, to be a traveler; that too will be so.
Traveler to where? Say you don't know.

~ Wendell Berry

The Buddha's Last Instruction

2011-10-26T06:00:00.000-04:00

“Make of yourself a light,”
said the Buddha,
before he died.
I think of this every morning
as the east begins
to tear off its many clouds
of darkness, to send up the first
signal – a white fan
streaked with pink and violet,
even green.
An old man, he lay down
between two sala trees,
and he might have said anything,
knowing it was his final hour.
The light burns upward,
it thickens and settles over the fields.
Around him, the villagers gathered
and stretched forward to listen.
Even before the sun itself
hangs, disattached, in the blue air,
I am touched everywhere
by its ocean of yellow waves.
No doubt he thought of everything
that had happened in his difficult life.
And then I feel the sun itself
as it blazes over the hills,
like a million flowers on fire –
clearly I’m not needed,
yet I feel myself turning
into something of inexplicable value.
Slowly, beneath the branches,
he raised his head.
He looked into the faces of that frightened crowd.

~ Mary Oliver

Learning to Ask for Help

2011-10-25T06:00:00.000-04:00

When the baby girl is crying on your hip
(it is quite past nap time)

and you’re trying to open a door while
carrying her, lugging several canvas grocery bags,

and ignoring the cell phone ringing in your pocket,
and someone asks, “Do you need help?” and gestures

that they will hold the door open for you,
then you say, “Yes.” Even though

you would never ask for help. Even though
the first word that rises to the lips out of habit

is “No,” even though you have been valiantly trying
to pretend that you can handle it, that

in fact you could also have a cast on one leg,
and your elbow, have a surgery scheduled for your thyroid

the next day, and have your dog tugging
on a leash attached to your wrist and still

you could open that door for yourself.
There are no directions in English

for how to learn to ask for help.
You must feel it with your whole body,

how eventually you collapse
into accepting things as they are,

which is to say that you are tired, too,
that you would love a nap, and you’d love,

thank you very, very much,
for someone else to open for you the door.

~ Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

A Hearty Yes

2011-10-24T06:00:00.000-04:00

The big question is whether you are going to
be able to say a hearty yes to your adventure.

- Joseph Campbell

By The Earth

2011-10-21T06:00:00.000-04:00

By the earth we fall down,

By the earth we stand up.

~ Shunryu Suzuki

Right There

2011-10-20T06:00:00.000-04:00

You shouldn’t chase after the past
or place expectations on the future.
What is past is left behind.
The future is as yet unreached.
Whatever quality is present
you clearly see, right there.
Not taken in; unshaken.
That’s how you develop the heart.

~ The Buddha

Rooted in Oneness

2011-10-19T06:00:00.000-04:00

The man who sees me in everything
and everything within me
will not be lost to me, nor
will I ever be lost to him.

He who is rooted in oneness
realizes that I am
in every being; wherever
he goes; he remains in me.

When he sees all beings as equal
in suffering or in joy
because they are like himself,
that man has grown perfect in yoga.

~ Bhagavad Gita

Whatever Comes Next

2011-10-18T06:00:00.000-04:00

Now are the rough things smooth, and the smooth things stand in flickering slats, facing the slow tarnish of sun-fall.

Summer is over, or nearly. And therefore the green is not green anymore but yellow, beige, russet, rust; all the darknesses are beginning to settle in.

And therefore why pray to permanence, why not pray to impermanence, to change, to – whatever comes next. Willingness is next to godliness.

~ Mary Oliver

Prepare for Peace

2011-10-17T06:00:00.000-04:00

If we desire peace, we must prepare for peace.
The most important thing is to build a culture of peace.

~ Anwarul Chowdhury

Joyful Sorrow

2011-10-14T06:00:00.000-04:00

If you really want to help this world, what you will have to teach is how to live in it.

And that no one can do who has not themself learned how to live in the joyful sorrow and sorrowful joy of the knowledge of life as it is.

~ Joseph Campbell

Perfect Home

2011-10-13T06:00:00.000-04:00

Inside the body,
the sound
of rain falling.
Outside the body,
rain falling.

In the gap,
all things die
and are reborn.

Between in-breath
and out-breath
an endless pilgrimage
to Being.

Today,
be thankful
for this
liminal space.
In it you'll find
a perfect home.

~ Leza Lowitz

It Is Love

2011-10-12T06:00:00.000-04:00

The six-year-old boy
does not know
the question,

but in blue pen
on a paper scrap
he writes,

It is Love.

~ Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

Limitless Possibilities

2011-10-11T06:00:00.000-04:00

How are we going to spend this brief lifetime? Are we going to strengthen our well-perfected ability to struggle against uncertainty, or are we going to train in letting go? Are we going to hold on stubbornly to “I’m like this and you’re like that?"

Or are we going to move beyond that narrow mind? Could we start to train as a warrior, aspiring to reconnect with the natural flexibility of our being and to help others do the same? If we start to move in this direction, limitless possibilities will begin to open up.

~ Pema Chodron

Trust the Universe

2011-10-10T06:00:00.000-04:00

Walk in the rain,
smell flowers,
stop along the way,
build sandcastles,
go on field trips,
find out how things work,
tell stories,
say the magic words,
trust the universe.

~ Bruce Williamson

Busy Life

2011-10-07T06:00:00.001-04:00

Beware the barrenness of a busy life.

~ Socrates

Eyes Open

2011-10-06T06:00:00.000-04:00

I know more or less
how to live through my life now.
But I want to know how to live what's left
with my eyes open and my hands open;
I want to stand at the door in the rain
listening, sniffing, gaping.
Fearful and joyous,
like an idiot before God.

~ Kerry Hardie

Belonging

2011-10-05T06:00:00.000-04:00

You must learn one thing:
The world was made to be free in.
Give up all the other worlds
Except the one to which you belong.

Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet
Confinement of your aloneness to learn
Anything or anyone
That does not bring you alive
Is too small for you.

~ David Whyte

The Way of the Sun

2011-10-04T06:00:00.000-04:00

I have wanted to love you
in the way of the sun -
constant. Radiant. Warm.
Here whenever you turn
toward me. Here when you
turn away. Give you my energy.
Light whichever path you choose.
Now I will do what the sun
can’t do. Let you go.

~ Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

Open Your Eyes

2011-10-03T06:00:00.000-04:00

I don’t want to live a small life. Open your eyes,
open your hands. I have just come
from the berry fields, the sun

kissing me with its golden mouth all the way
(open your hands) and the wind-winged clouds
following along thinking perhaps I might

feed them, but no I carry these heart-shapes
only to you. Look how many small
but so sweet and maybe the last gift

I will bring to anyone in this
world of hope and risk, so do
Look at me. Open your life, open your hands.

~ Mary Oliver

Holiness in Anything

2011-09-30T06:00:00.000-04:00

Older now,
you find holiness in anything
that continues,
dream after dream.

~ Naomi Shihab Nye

Domestic Poem

2011-09-29T06:00:00.000-04:00

Nightfall I sink
into dishwash meditation
steaming china prayer wheels
crystalline bells of the lost horizon
crockery mandalas
chanting din and lull of running water
breathing slows
moist heat muscles soften
zen poems drip from silverware
my air humming out
in a cleansing melody
washing the frantic stew of a whole day
down the drain
along with the suds
those transient rainbow things
with the thin skin of
a passing instant.

~ Eileen D. Moeller

Sweet As a Peach

2011-09-28T06:00:00.000-04:00

If you are in the garden, I will dress myself in leaves.
If you are in the sea I will slide into that
smooth blue nest, I will talk fish, I will adore salt.
But if you are sad, I will not dress myself in desolation
I will present myself with all the laughters I can muster.
And if you are angry I will come, calm and steady, with
some small and easy story.

Promises, promises, promises! The tongue jabbers, the heart
strives, fails, strives again. The world is perfect.
Love, however, is an opera, a history, a long walk, that
includes falling and rising, falling and rising, while
the heart stays as sweet as a peach, as radiant and
grateful as the deep-leaved hills.

~ Mary Oliver

Listen

2011-09-27T06:00:00.000-04:00

Standing in the garden,
left hand laden
with ripe strawberries. The sun

beams off the glassy
backs of flies. Three
birds in the birch tree.

They must have been there
all year.

My mother, my grandmother,
stood like this
in their gardens,

I am 43.
This year I have planted my feet
on this ground

and am practicing
growing up out of my legs
like a tree.

~ Linda Lancione Moyer

Weaving a Work

2011-09-26T06:00:00.000-04:00

Pay attention to the ones
who find happiness in their work,
who know how to sift pure gold
from the slag-heap of days,
who work with a purpose,
and without haste -

like the diligent spider
who slips along her slender thread,
spooled from the cave
of her dexterous body. See
how she casts her gossamer
and dangerous net
into her ocean of sky, weaving
a work as if she had but one day
to live - and as if she had
a thousand years.

~ Pamela Cranston

What Moves All Else

2011-09-23T06:00:00.000-04:00

Willing to die,

You give up

Your will, keep still

Until, moved

By what moves

All else, you move.

~ Wendell Berry

Rest

2011-09-22T06:00:00.000-04:00

Sometimes the most important thing in a whole day
is the rest we take between two deep breaths.

~ Etty Hillesum

Beginning

2011-09-21T06:00:00.000-04:00

Do not wait until the conditions are perfect to begin.
Beginning makes the conditions perfect.

~ Alan Cohen

The Heart

2011-09-20T06:00:00.000-04:00

When the heart truly understands,
it lets go of everything.

~ Ajahn Chah

Perfection of the Universe

2011-09-19T06:00:00.001-04:00

Here is a day,
dawn to dark,
a string of moments
small enough to
ignore or notice,
a stretch of time
between awakening
and sleep to be
savored, or brushed
aside in the rush
to some distant
destination. Here
is a day, different
from any other,
with it's own flavor
to be tasted. The
golden glow just
before the sun
rose held such
promises as I
knew must be kept -
knew beyond even
the nagging whisper
of doubt were true -
that this very day
the whole perfection
of the universe can
be inhaled like the
scent of fallen leaves,
the heady fragrance
of trees returning what
was never theirs to keep.

~ Danna Faulds

Done

2011-09-16T06:00:00.001-04:00

By letting it go
it all gets done.

~ Lao Tzu

Astonishing Light

2011-09-15T06:00:00.000-04:00

I wish I could show you when
you are lonely or in darkness
the astonishing light of your own being.

~ Hafiz

New and Fresh

2011-09-14T06:00:00.001-04:00

The essence of life is that it's challenging. Sometimes it is sweet, and sometimes it is bitter. Sometimes your body tenses, and sometimes it relaxes or opens. Sometimes you have a headache, and sometimes you feel 100 percent healthy.

From an awakened perspective, trying to tie up all the loose ends and finally get it together is death, because it involves rejecting a lot of your basic experience. There is something aggressive about that approach to life, trying to flatten out all the rough spots and imperfections into a nice smooth ride.

To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest. To live fully is to be always in no-man's-land, to experience each moment as completely new and fresh. To live is to be willing to die over and over again. From the awakened point of view, that's life.

~ Pema Chodron