Spring is tantalising — teasing with crisp mornings, rainy days, and indecision …
Tag: Connection
To See, To Live
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.
~ Henry David Thoreau, Walden
But if you knew you might not be able to see it again tomorrow, everything would suddenly become special and precious, wouldn’t it?
~ Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
~ Image credit: Kristaps Ungurs on Unsplash
Return to Wonder
Do not look for signs. Do not look for experiences. Do not be so complicated. Become like a child. See everything with awe.
~ Robert Adams
Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit.
~ e. e. cummings
~ Image credit: Karl Fredrickson on Unsplash
Sitting Under A Tree
It is very important to go out alone, to sit under a tree, not with a book, not with a companion, but by yourself and observe the falling of a leaf, hear the lapping of water, the fisherman’s song, watch the flight of a bird, and of your own thoughts as they chase each other across the space of your mind. If you are able to be alone and watch these things, then you will discover extraordinary riches which no government can tax, no human agency can corrupt, and which can never be destroyed.
~ Jiddu Krishnamurti
~ Image credit: Kristaps Ungurs on Unsplash
Nature & Us
I believe in God, only I spell it nature.
~ Frank Lloyd Wright, from Truth Against the World
The Earth is what we all have in common.
~ Wendell Berry
The oxygen in our lives was recently inside a leaf.
~ Barbara Kingsolver, from Small Wonder
Do unto those downstream as you would have those upstream do unto you.
~ Wendell Berry
We share the earth, the air, the mountains and streams. To care for the Earth is to care for one another. The earth is not separate from us
~ Image credit: Leah_cric on Pixabay
When One Word Opens A Door
Be soft. Do not let the world make you hard. Do not let pain make you hate. Do not let the bitterness steal your sweetness.
~ Kurt Vonnegut
Tenderness is the resting place of love.
~ Unknown
A couple of years ago, I was listening to a meditation by Matt Young from Melbourne Meditation Centre. In the middle of it, he used the word tenderness. Suddenly I found myself awash with tears.
I sat with it. Why had this word affected me so deeply? Why not kindness? Why not gentleness?
Words matter. They cut differently. They land differently.
For me, tenderness carried something the others didn’t … a softness … a connection deep within.
It only takes one word to open a door.
~ Image credit: MiracleKilly on Pexels
What I See Now …
The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes but in having new eyes.
~ Marcel Proust
After decades on the go—raising children, working, rushing through days filled with purpose—life slowed me down. Not by choice; by necessity. The rhythm of my days changed five years ago, anchoring me firmly to home.
Over time, I’ve come to see things from a new perspective: clouds drifting across the sky, the way light shifts across flowers or along the fence. It’s not a scientific interest, just a quiet curiosity and appreciation for what’s around me.
There are gifts it seems, in this slower, simpler tempo of life.
~ Image credit: Alissa Nabiullina on Pexels
Curating Quietude 