… watching for the brushstrokes of God
On a recent morning I was enjoying my coffee on the porch when I noticed a tree across the street. Forsythia was done blooming, what yellow blooming tree could this be? No tree I discovered as the yellow dots flew away two by two — eight goldfinches!
With what splash of color has nature caught you by surprise?
Who can pray who does not make time for staring out windows?
~ Murray Bodo OFM
A world without a sabbath would be like a [person] without a smile, a summer without flowers, a homestead without a garden. ~ Henry Ward Beecher
How would you describe a world without sabbath?
I will be the gladdest thing
under the sun!
I will touch a hundred flowers
and not pick one.
I will look at cliffs and clouds
with quiet eyes,
watch the wind bow down the grass,
and the grass rise. ~ Edna St. Vincent Millay
How do you settle into contentment?
Both the monk and artist are edge dwellers, ones who commit to living in fertile border spaces and who call the wider community to alternative ways of being beyond the status quo… Living on the edges means recognizing those places and experiences that do not offer easy answers, those fierce edges of life where things are not as clear as we hope them to be. ~ Christine Valters Paintner, Abbey of the Arts
How do you hold mystery and questions?
My work is loving the world,
here are the sunflowers, there the hummingbird —
equal seekers of sweetness.
Here are the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.
Here the clam deep in the speckled sand. ~ Mary Oliver
How do you learn to be astonished?
With the Eyes of the Heart 