Where the wind blows,
light dances
and shadows meander.
The trees sway and grass grows.
Raindrops fall.
The heart beats.
The body feels.
The mind rambles.
Quiet calls.
Stillness and movement reconcile.
This is where grace lives
and love persists.
Blockages provide
the pause necessary
to consider
another way.
To look more slowly,
to be grateful for the path that led here,
and not need to make any further progress.
Opening to opportunities
with strength,
creativity
and courage.
Exercising ingenuity.
Obstacles are not a sign of worth.
They are an invitation to become.
Grounded in lightness.
Free to expand.
Confident in choice.
Clear in direction.
Comfort in stillness.
Peace in the quiet.
Steady in heart.
Content in this breath.
Learning to step
without overstepping,
or stepping back.
Learning to care
without caring
about results.
Learning to feel
with feeling
instead of thought.
Learning to differentiate
between true joy
and fleeting excitement.
Cultivating peace
over emptiness
in the stillness.
Learning that love
is a state of being.
Grounded in lightness.
Free to expand.
Confident in choice.
Clear in direction.
Comfort in stillness.
Peace in the quiet.
Steady in heart.
Safe in this breath.
Recognizing without conforming.
Allowing without absorbing.
Flowing effortlessly between the inner and outer world.
Uniquely connected.
Discerning without differentiating.
Stepping out of the rigid container of familiar and safe
to freely exercise vulnerability and authenticity.
Curious.
Open to the new and opposing.
Existing within this thin permeable membrane.
Maintaining sense of self.
Living deeply and authentically.
Replacing effort and trying
with releasing and allowing.
Engaging discipline.
Acknowledging capacity.
Values aligned.
Curiously listening.
Intuitively informed.
Soft not weak.
Strong not righteous.
Clear and present.
I’m not always going to get my way,
but I’m always going to get what’s right for me.
When I let go of forcing outcomes,
stop relying on others for my happiness,
and see obstacles not as a sign of my worth but of my courage and strength,
even what seems like a paralyzing blockage
can be an invitation to take a different path,
go a different way,
or sit right where I am for a moment
and reflect
on the beauty,
awe,
and opportunity
that exists right here,
right now,
just the way things are.
Much gratitude to Shari Irby for contributing this photo.
Where does it end,
the light from the sun
the light of the moon,
the dark of the shadows
the vastness of the sky,
cold of winter,
unfurling of spring?
Where is the line
that separates joy
from sorrow,
excitement
from fear?
What fills the space between earth and sky?
Is it my heart?
My body?
My breath?
In my mind I struggle
to find a separation,
an either or,
a division,
a moment,
where one exists without the other.
I cannot
and therefore
I cannot regret.
I cannot long.
I cannot judge,
right or wrong.
I cannot reject sorrow
or long for joy.
I cannot suffer in darkness or immerse myself fully in light.
I am made of it all.
It is all in me.
Or is none of it?
I am the space that fills
the space between.
I am the end of light,
the beginning of dark.
I am all of the joy and filled with sorrow.
I am the convergence of earth and sky.
I am the meeting place for it all.
I am the “and.”
Bursting with excitement.
Tempted by fear.
To hold back.
To bring less of my
intelligence,
beauty,
creativity,
power
so as not to overwhelm them.
But they feel it anyway.
They want it.
And there is a good chance they won’t be able to handle it.
But that shouldn’t stop me
from being all that I am.
My allness
is ready
to bloom,
in all
of
its
magnificence.
Monday Mindfulness 