A Design So Vast » quotations and poetry http://www.adesignsovast.com Fri, 17 May 2013 13:36:25 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 this need to kneel http://www.adesignsovast.com/2013/05/this-need-to-kneel/ http://www.adesignsovast.com/2013/05/this-need-to-kneel/#comments Fri, 17 May 2013 07:23:37 +0000 admin http://www.adesignsovast.com/?p=12216 I know this happiness is provisional:

the looming presences -
great suffering, great fear -

withdraw only
into peripheral vision:

but ineluctable this shimmering
of wind in the blue leaves:

this flood of stillness
widening the lake of sky:

this need to dance,
this need to kneel:

this mystery.

- Denise Levertov, Of Being


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]]> http://www.adesignsovast.com/2013/05/this-need-to-kneel/feed/ 1 Holiness http://www.adesignsovast.com/2013/05/holiness-2/ http://www.adesignsovast.com/2013/05/holiness-2/#comments Fri, 10 May 2013 07:40:33 +0000 admin http://www.adesignsovast.com/?p=12210 We live in all we seek.  The hidden shows up in too-plain sight.  It lives captive on the face of the obvious – the people, events, and things of the day – to which we as sophisticated children have long since become oblivious.  What a hideout: Holiness lies spread and borne over the surface of time and stuff like color. – Annie Dillard, For the Time Being


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]]> http://www.adesignsovast.com/2013/05/holiness-2/feed/ 0 Surrender to what is http://www.adesignsovast.com/2013/04/surrender-to-what-is/ http://www.adesignsovast.com/2013/04/surrender-to-what-is/#comments Fri, 26 Apr 2013 07:33:57 +0000 admin http://www.adesignsovast.com/?p=12023 “Always say “yes” to the present moment. What could be more futile, more insane, than to create inner resistance to what already is? what could be more insane than to oppose life itself, which is now and always now? Surrender to what is. Say “yes” to life — and see how life suddenly starts working for you rather than against you.” -Eckhart Tolle

Yet again, I found this marvelous passage on Patti Digh’s blog, 37 Days.


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]]> http://www.adesignsovast.com/2013/04/surrender-to-what-is/feed/ 8 to walk on earth http://www.adesignsovast.com/2013/04/to-walk-on-earth/ http://www.adesignsovast.com/2013/04/to-walk-on-earth/#comments Fri, 19 Apr 2013 07:31:00 +0000 admin http://www.adesignsovast.com/?p=12004 People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth.

Every day we are engaged in a miracle we don’t even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the curious eyes of a child, our own two eyes.

All is a miracle.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Another beautiful passage that I was reminded of by Claudia’s gorgeous blog, A First Sip.  Thich Nhat Hanh has been a favorite of mine since I read Peace is Every Step in college.  My children like his work too.  After Monday’s events in Boston, the notion of walking [running] on earth being a miracle resonates particularly deeply with me (this had been set as my quote for this day for weeks, but of course I read it differently now)


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]]> http://www.adesignsovast.com/2013/04/to-walk-on-earth/feed/ 3 to recognize the gods in me and the gods in other men and women http://www.adesignsovast.com/2013/04/to-recognize-the-gods-in-me-and-the-gods-in-other-men-and-women/ http://www.adesignsovast.com/2013/04/to-recognize-the-gods-in-me-and-the-gods-in-other-men-and-women/#comments Fri, 12 Apr 2013 08:11:25 +0000 admin http://www.adesignsovast.com/?p=11942 “This is what I believe: That I am I. That my soul is a dark forest. That my known self will never be more than a little clearing in the forest. That gods, strange gods, come forth from the forest into the clearing of my known self, and then go back. That I must have the courage to let them come and go. That I will never let mankind put anything over me, but that I will try always to recognize and submit to the gods in me and the gods in other men and women. There is my creed.”

-D.H. Lawrence

Thank you to Patti Digh’s beautiful blog, 37 Days, for reminding me of this beautiful passage.


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]]> http://www.adesignsovast.com/2013/04/to-recognize-the-gods-in-me-and-the-gods-in-other-men-and-women/feed/ 2 Let Go http://www.adesignsovast.com/2013/04/11896/ http://www.adesignsovast.com/2013/04/11896/#comments Fri, 05 Apr 2013 07:13:54 +0000 admin http://www.adesignsovast.com/?p=11896 Let go of the ways you thought life
would unfold; the holding of plans
or dreams or expectations – Let it
all go. Save your strength to swim
with the tide.

The choice to fight what is here before
you now will only result in struggle,
fear, and desperate attempts to flee
from the very energy you long for.

Let go. Let it all go and flow with the
grace that washes through your days
whether you receive it gently or
with all your quills raised to defend
against invaders.

Take this on faith: the mind may never
find the explanations that it seeks, but
you will move forward nonetheless.

Let go, and the wave’s crest will carry
you to unknown shores, beyond your
wildest dreams or destinations. Let it
all go and find the place of rest and
peace, and certain transformation.

~ Danna Faulds

Another wonder from A First Sip.  A year or so ago I wrote, on twitter and Facebook, that “I truly believe that all our suffering comes from our attachment to how we thought it would be.”  I also wear the words Let Go around my neck.  This poem speaks to me.


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]]> http://www.adesignsovast.com/2013/04/11896/feed/ 10 Only that. But that. http://www.adesignsovast.com/2013/03/only-that-but-that/ http://www.adesignsovast.com/2013/03/only-that-but-that/#comments Fri, 29 Mar 2013 07:15:43 +0000 admin http://www.adesignsovast.com/?p=11767 Prayer

 

Whatever happens. Whatever

what is is is what

I want. Only that. But that.

-Galway Kinnell

 

I found this beautiful poem, which I can’t believe I hadn’t ever seen before, on Patti Digh’s wonderful blog, Thirty Seven Days.


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]]> http://www.adesignsovast.com/2013/03/only-that-but-that/feed/ 1 the one line already written inside you http://www.adesignsovast.com/2013/03/the-one-line-already-written-inside-you-2/ http://www.adesignsovast.com/2013/03/the-one-line-already-written-inside-you-2/#comments Fri, 22 Mar 2013 10:47:00 +0000 admin http://www.adesignsovast.com/?p=11932 Above the mountains
the geese turn into
the light again

Painting their
black silhouettes
on an open sky.

Sometimes everything
has to be
inscribed across
the heavens

so you can find
the one line
already written
inside you.

Sometimes it takes
a great sky
to find that

small, bright
and indescribable
wedge of freedom
in your own heart.

Sometimes with
the bones of the black
sticks left when the fire
has gone out

someone has written
something new
in the ashes of your life.

You are not leaving
you are arriving.

- David Whyte, The Journey


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]]> http://www.adesignsovast.com/2013/03/the-one-line-already-written-inside-you-2/feed/ 6 All that I ever hope to say http://www.adesignsovast.com/2013/03/all-that-i-ever-hope-to-say/ http://www.adesignsovast.com/2013/03/all-that-i-ever-hope-to-say/#comments Fri, 15 Mar 2013 07:07:54 +0000 admin http://www.adesignsovast.com/?p=11785 All that I hope to say in books, all that I ever hope to say, is that I love the world.

- E. B. White


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]]> http://www.adesignsovast.com/2013/03/all-that-i-ever-hope-to-say/feed/ 6 The treasure that you are http://www.adesignsovast.com/2013/03/the-treasure-that-you-are/ http://www.adesignsovast.com/2013/03/the-treasure-that-you-are/#comments Fri, 08 Mar 2013 07:42:53 +0000 admin http://www.adesignsovast.com/?p=11721 Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me learn from you, love you, bless you before you depart.  Let me not pass you by in a quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow.  Let me hold you while I may, for it may not always be so.  One day I shall dig my nails into the earth, or bury my face in the pillow, or stretch myself taut, or raise my hands to the sky and want, more than all the world, your return.  – Mary Jean Iron


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