When we arrive at the door of sorrow, our hearts grieve what is lost and awaken to what is before us as we sit in the narrow wedge we call home.
Let us come alive to all life, all being, as we navigate rough waters, and wish to enter morning dawn unharmed.
Let go of safety to be in the stream. Let go of secure to ride the wave. The risk is before us with the choice to sit safe or move into form.
Let go, let life arise. It is our choice. Our hearts response. Our one crazy ride.
Image is mine
“Taking risks doesn’t mean shirking responsibility but embracing possibilities.”
-Vick Hope
“Some of us think holding on makes us strong; but sometimes it is letting go.”
-Hermann Hesse
“Trust yourself. Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life. Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement.”
I walked into the bedroom on the first floor facing the front gardens and the street that curves like a river. There, outside the window, at 9 o’clock in the morning, not 10 feet away, beneath the Amur Maple, was a deer lying on the ground in repose.
I felt awe of her trusting peacefulness as she gazed at me and I at her. She appeared young, maybe a year or two, all alone and so uncharacteristically calm and trusting. Then my heart recognized her as the recently born fawn who had come up to me in my garage braying desperately for her mama. A smile spread across my face and heart as I remembered our encounter a couple of years ago.
Now, after our gentle gazing, she rose and walked to the shade garden. Looking back at me she allowed me a photo and a wave of peaceful presence in this moment. A reminder that amid world turmoil, mass shootings, war, and all manner of injustice, we turn to the natural world and rest in the splendor before us.
Do I dare call you friend?
We never had a discussion
nor a hug or touch
only a cry for help from you
as you stood at my feet looking up
then later a penetrating gaze
recognizing something familiar
known only within my heart and yours
.
I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order.
John Burroughs
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
Albert Einstein
There’s a whole world out there, right outside your window. You’d be a fool to miss it.
Charlotte Ericksson
Ongoing Resource List: Books for the Mind and the Heart
The Gene Keys: Emracing Your Higher Purpose by Riuchard Rudd
Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Inform Us by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross
A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle
Energy Speaks: Messages from Spirit on Living, Loving, and Awakening by Lee Harris
Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself: How to Lose Your Mind and Create an New One by Dr. Joe Dispenza
The Women by Kristin Hannah
Cosmogenesis: An Unveiling of the Expanding Universe by Brian Thomas Swimme
The Mastery of Love, Don Miguel Ruiz
Change Your Thoughts—Change Your Life: Living the Wisdom of the Tao, by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer
God of Love: A Guide to the Heart of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, by Mirabai Starr
The Four Agreements: A Toltec Book of Wisdom by Don Miguel Ruiz
Mindfulness and Grief by Heather Stang
How We Live Is How We Die by Pema Chödron
The Bhagavad Gita, Translated by Eknath Easwaran
St Francis of Assisi: Brother of Creation by Mirabai Starr
Wild Wisdom Edited by Neil Douglas-Klotz
Earth Prayers From Around The World, Ed by Elizabeth Roberts & Elias Amidon
The Tao of Relationships by Ray Grigg
Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom by John O’Donohue
Unconditional Love and Forgiveness by Edith R. Stauffer, Ph.D.
Keep Going: The Art of Perseverance by Joseph M. Marshall III
Art & Fear by David Bayless & Ted Orland
Quantum-Touch by Richard Gordon
The Van Gogh Blues: The Creative Persons Path Through Depression by Eric Maisel, PhD
The Faraway Nearby by Rebecca Solnit
Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith by Kathleen Norris
Forever Ours: Real Stories of Immortality and Living by Janis Amatuzio
Personal Power Through Awareness by Sanaya Roman
Violence & Compassion by His Holiness the Dahlai Lama
Teachings on Love by Thich Nhat Hanh
Devotions by Mary Oliver
To Bless the Space Between Us by John O’Donohue
Meditations From the Mat by Rolf Gates and Katrina Kenison
The House of Belonging: poems by David Whyte
Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain and Illness, by Jon Kabat-Zinn
The Faraway Nearby by Rebecca Solnit
Soul an Archaeology Edited by Phil Cousineau
A Path With Heart by Jack Kornfield
Listening Point by Sigurd Olson
I Sit Listening to the Wind by Judith Duerk
Dancing Moons by Nancy Wood
The Soul of Rumi, Translations by Coleman Barks
Keep Going by Joseph M. Marshall III
Arriving at your own Door by Jon Kabat-Zinn
The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer
The Hidden Secrets of Water by Paolo Consigli
Conquest of Mind by Eknath Easwaran
Color: A Natural History of the Palette by Victoria Finlay
Peace is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh
I Thought It Was Just Me (But It Isn’t) by Brene Brown
Practicing Peace in Times of War by Pema Chodron
When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chodron
On Death and Dying by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
Unattended Sorrow by Stephen Levine
Joy in Loving, Mother Theresa
The Joy of Living by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche
Let Your LIfe Speak by Parker Palmer
Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet by Thich Nhat Hanh
The Essence of the Upanishads by Eknath Easwaran
Welcoming the Unwelcome by Pema Chodron
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Medicine Cards: The Discovery of Power Through The Ways Of Animals by Jamie Sams and David Carson
