Tag: seeing

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On the horizon

“The season of Advent means there is something on the horizon the likes of which we have never seen before … What is possible is to not see it, to miss it, to turn just as it brushes past you. And you begin to grasp what it was you missed, like Moses in the cleft of the rock, watching God’s [back] fade in the distance. So stay. Sit. Linger. Tarry. Ponder. Wait. Behold. Wonder. There will be time enough for running. For rushing. For worrying. For pushing. For now, stay. Wait. Something is on the horizon.” Jan L. Richardson, Night Vision

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Invite wonder

“What if you bowed before every dandelion you met and wrote love letters to squirrels and pigeons who crossed your path? What if scrubbing the dishes became an act of single reverence for the gift of being washed clean, and what if the rhythmic percussion of chopping carrots became the drumbeat of your dance? … There are two ways to live in this world: As if everything were enchanted or nothing at all.”
― Christine Valters Paintner, The Soul of a Pilgrim

What shall it be?

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Stillness

Stillness opens our hearts to a sense of wonder, allowing us to discover the presence of God in the unexpected and ordinary.

What do you notice in stillness?

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Open hearts

“We must meet each moment as open-heartedly and clear-eyed as possible and listen for what is called for in that moment. Sometimes it means we will fall apart and sometimes it means we will summon our inner sovereign and find our power emerging out of the devastation. It is not that one is better than the other, the response emerges from what is happening.”

— Christine Valters Paintner

How do you stay open to the moment?

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Essence

“As autumn gave way to winter, those bare limbs, stretched black against the sky, revealed the essence of trees and the way that death can open us to the essence of life. I was able to see the trees in a different way and came to appreciate the beauty of sparseness.” Christine Valters Paintner, The Soul’s Slow Ripening

How do you appreciate beauty in sparseness?

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Autumn beauty

“I think it makes a huge difference, when you wake in the morning and come out of your house, … whether you are emerging out into a landscape that is just as much, if not more, alive as you, but in a totally different form, and if you go towards it with an open heart and a real, watchful reverence, that you will be absolutely amazed at what it will reveal to you.” John O’Donohue

What is the landscape of this season revealing to you?