Reflections
Have you ever?
by Dennis Merritt Jones, From The Art of Being
Have you ever spent time allowing your mind to wander and wonder?
Have you ever thought about how incredible it is that you can read and
decipher these words and draw meaning from them? Have you ever contemplated
in amazement how your body works, maintaining itself to a large degree
without any help from you?
Have you taken time to contemplate what causes your heart to beat and what
turned the breakfast you had this morning into skin, fingernails, and hair?
Have you ever taken just a few moments to simply stare at a beautiful flower
and notice the incredible patterns and colors that not even the greatest
artist could re-create?
Have you ever looked up at the stars and planets at night and been in awe of
the expansiveness of it all, perhaps even wondering if there might be some
other being on some distant planet looking back at ours at the same time,
wondering the same thing?
Have you ever thought about what holds the planets and stars in place?
Have you ever gazed into a newborn baby's eyes and seen the infinite
presence of pure spirit looking back at you and been in awe of the fact that
this being holds the absolute essence, God?
How can you or I do any of these things and not feel like an intricate and
significant part of something far greater and grander than the "little me"?
I have done all these things, and I can tell you that, in part, it is what
keeps me sane, grounded, and spiritually connected to God, life, and purpose
when the world seems to be getting more and more crazy each day.
This also includes those times when I tend to get too enmeshed in my own
personal trauma dramas. Life is always manifesting purpose; all we need to
do is think about the miracle of it all.
So, the next time you feel as if you are getting caught up in the frenzy of
the world or your personal life begins to look like a bad soap opera, take
some time and consider some of the above questions.
Give yourself the gift of a sacred moment in the now. With great and clear
intention, contemplate and connect with the miracle of life, where God is
always present.
Celebrate your unity with God...and truly be in awe. The word "awe" is the
root from which the word "awesome" comes...and that is what you really are.
Not because I say so but because God is awesome, and what God is, so too,
are you.
It's just a matter of taking time to think about the wonder of it all.
Spring shows what God can do with a drab and dirty world.
Virgil A. Kraft
There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature~
the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after the winter.
Rachel Carson
Sitting quietly, doing nothing, spring comes, and the grass grows by itself. ~Zen Proverb
Everything is blooming most recklessly; if it were voices instead of colors,
there would be an unbelievable shrieking into the heart of the night.
Ranier Maria Rilke
Over lowland, over snow and tundra
span arches, raised by the rising sun.
See: the light is winning!
And the stream is streaming
towards open minds
and towards seeds dreaming
of growth.
Einar Skjaeraasen, The Nordic Light