”I thank you God for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, and for the blue dream of sky and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes.”
—-E.E. Cummings
joy
Amazement
”Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement. ….get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed.”
—-Abraham Joshua Heschel
Morning Trip (365)
“Don’t put off till tomorrow what can be enjoyed today.”
—-Josh Billings
Morning Trip (343)
”From the center of my life, there came a great fountain…”
—Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat Pray Love (Used a line of poem from Louise Gluck)
Another Aries Ponder
Sat down hoping to locate a nice quote for being joyfully incorrect. Nothing. Crickets.
Tried the music and sound motivation and located something fantastic to go along with the intent of joyfully incorrect, wrong. Video appeared with Revenge on the opening view. I chuckled and thought how fortuitous this was. Shoved to write my own and FEAR! Now a spiritual eye roll occurred. Haven’t written in a very long time. Streams of running energy and thoughts, how do I do it to please all of you. Ha! Another spiritual eye roll.
Paused a moment and thoughts of Getting to wake up this morning. To suit up and to show up. My plan had me irritated, agitated on such a beautiful morning. I then resented the loss of my idea of what ought to happen. The inner itty-bitty-shitty committee was awake and having a party veering toward the poor me pity party. And then…. I got to see the outcome of what happened instead! Nearly empty store, safer for me, deathly allergic me…who cannot get a COVID vaccine, yet. Got food I needed! Cleaned fridge, meal planned, prepped, portioned, peace and enoughness, before 8 am!
My perception, sometimes I call it a disease of perception, my way is can be full of wrong judgement, wrong thinking, wrong actions. It can lead me into a hot mess, in my mind, quicker then the blink of my eye. No matter, the truth of the situation right there in the midst of all the false, the reactions I have.
It is fantastic to see, in hindsight, the outcomes I sought to control, end up simpler, or better than what I imagined. Even those ones that appear to be OMG you will have Nothing to eat for a week, you will just DIE, can be very, very wrong.
With my old way of thinking, I’d ruminate and fester and weave all of these wrongs I had, into resentment, and plots of revenge. I’d call them fixing situations. Good management. Resiliency around obstacles. HA!!
This morning I got to be JOYFULL about being incorrect. The more I can pause before that resentful and fear-based catastrophizing (think I made up a word) and the longer I can hold the pause to see what happens next before taking a drink of fear and anger and anxiety, the more I can hear my heart beating. I can remember the feeling of grounding and keep it. I can joyfully see the outcome. No need for that revenge.
The music when I listen, I can feel that beat, unfalteringly showing me the way of the grace of that steady pause and trust that It remains. I get to choose to weave resentment and revenge OR I get to choose to weave JOY! What a choice, seems difficult maybe (insert sarcastic tone). Leaping into the joy of experience freer from my clouded thoughts, every day.
Morning Trip (332)
“Surely there is grandeur in knowing that in the realm of thought, at least, you are without a chain; that you have the right to explore all heights and all depths; that there are no walls nor fences, nor prohibited places, nor sacred corners in all the vast expanse of thought; that your intellect owes no allegiance to any being, human or divine; that you hold all in fee and upon no condition and by no tenure whatever; that in the world of mind you are relieved from all personal dictation, and from the ignorant tyranny of majorities. Surely it is worth something to feel that there are no priests, no popes, no parties, no governments, no kings, no gods, to whom your intellect can be compelled to pay a reluctant homage. Surely it is a joy to know that all the cruel ingenuity of bigotry can devise no prison, no dungeon, no cell in which for one instant to confine a thought; that ideas cannot be dislocated by racks, nor crushed in iron boots, nor burned with fire. Surely it is sublime to think that the brain is a castle, and that within its curious bastions and winding halls the soul, in spite of all worlds and all beings, is the supreme sovereign of itself.”
–Robert Green Ingersoll
Inspired by this post by Robin. Thank you Robin!
Morning Trip (323)
“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”
–Howard Thurman, The Living Wisdom of Howard Thurman: A Visionary for Our Time
Morning Trip (319)
“I think we must surrender the despair of unexpected cruelties and extend the wonder of unexpected kindnesses to ourselves and to each other…We deserve each other and each other’s generosity.”
–Maya Angelou
Elisa's Spot 