Noticing

The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice.  And because we fail to notice that we fail to notice there is little we can do to change until we notice how failing to notice shapes our thoughts and deeds.

~ Daniel Goleman

Winter has been teaching me about itself this year, putting on all kinds of displays that I might never have noticed without this commitment to go outside every day.  I am grateful to finally be noticing, and for the lessons and the gifts I’ve received as a result of noticing.

This everything dance

I like to live in the sound of water, in the feel of the mountain air.  A sharp reminder hits me:  this world still is alive; it stretches out there shivering toward its own creation, and I’m part of it.  Even my breathing enters into this elaborate give-and-take, this bowing to sun and moon, day and night, winter, summer, storm, still — this tranquil chaos that seems to be going somewhere.  This wilderness with a great peacefulness in it.  This motionless turmoil, this everything dance.

~ William Stafford

lotus leaves

on lotus leaves
this world’s dewdrops
are warped

-Issa, 1819

A lovely horse

(Looking into the eye of a horse.)

A lovely horse is always an experience…  It is an emotional experience of the kind that is spoiled by words.

~ Beryl Markham

Under the willow

The foliage has been losing its freshness through the month of August, and here and there a yellow leaf shows itself like the first gray hair admist the locks of a beauty who has seen one season too many.

~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

Growing clouds

How to Grow Clouds

It takes a lot of work:  it is necessary to weed very carefully, to toss out muck and small stones by hand, to kneel on the earth, bend over, dig about in the soil, water profusely, collect caterpillars, exterminate aphids, loosen the ground and serve the earth; when your back hurts from all this and you straighten up and look at the sky, you will have the prettiest clouds.

~ Karel Capek

green earth

The miracle is not to walk on water.  The miracle is to walk on the green earth, dwelling deeply in the present moment and feeling truly alive.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

The love of wilderness

… the love of wilderness is more than a hunger for what is always beyond reach; it is also an expression of loyalty to the earth, the earth which bore us and sustains us, the only home we shall ever know, the only paradise we ever need — if only we had the eyes to see.  Original sin, the true original sin, is the blind destruction for the sake of greed of this natural paradise which lies all around us — if only we were worthy of it…  No, wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives as water and good bread.  A civilization which destroys what little remains of the wild, the spare, the original, is cutting itself off from its origins and betraying the principle of civilization itself.

~ Edward Abbey (1927-1929), American writer

Paying attention

(Everlasting Pea growing beside a granite boulder.)

The little things?  The little moments?  They aren’t little.

~ Jon Kabat-Zinn

Summer flowers

a butterfly deigns
to come and dance…
summer flowers

~ Issa, 1806