Mornings

Every morning
the world
is created. 
Under the orange 

sticks of the sun
the heaped
ashes of the night
turn into leaves again 

and fasten themselves to the high branches ---
and the ponds appear
like black cloth
on which are painted islands 

of summer lilies. 
If it is your nature
to be happy
you will swim away along the soft trails...

~ Mary Oliver, Morning Poem

Transforming

Most of us need to be reminded that we are good, that we are lovable, that we belong. If we knew just how powerfully our thoughts, words, and actions affected the hearts of those around us, we’d reach out and join hands again and again.

Our relationships have the potential to be a sacred refuge, a place of healing, and awakening. With each person we meet, we can learn to look behind the mask and see the one who longs to love and be loved. We can remember to say our blessings out loud.

―Tara Brach

Just Be

Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.

Just keep going. No feeling is final.

-Rainer Maria Rilke

to be like water...

Water does not resist. Water flows. When you plunge your hand into it, all you feel is a caress. Water is not a solid wall, it will not stop you.

But water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing in the end can stand against it. Water is patient. Dripping water wears away a stone. Remember that, my child.

Remember you are half water. If you can’t go through an obstacle, go around it. Water does.

—Margaret Atwood, from "The Penelopiad."

Fluent

I would love to live

Like a river flows

Carried by the surprise

Of its own unfolding.

—John O’Donohue