Category: Walking & Wandering

Posted in Change, Climate collapse, Earth, Garden, Gifts, Gratitude, How to love the world, In these strange times, Into the Wilderness, Love, Photography, Quotes, Spirit, Spiritual practices, Spring, Thresholds, Virginia, Walking & Wandering

In the presence of everything

Posted on by Robin
Sunrise clouds

Silence is not the absence of something but the presence of everything . . . It is the presence of time, undisturbed. It can be felt within the chest. Silence nurtures our nature, our human nature, and lets us know who we are. Left with a more receptive mind and a more attuned ear, we become better listeners not only to nature but to each other. Silence can be carried like embers from a fire. Silence can be found, and silence can find you. Silence can be lost and also recovered. But silence cannot be imagined, although most people think so. To experience the soul-swelling wonder of silence, you must hear it.

~ Gordon Hempton in ONE SQUARE INCH OF SILENCE

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Posted in Earth, Eastern Shore, Gifts, Gratitude, Health & Well-Being, Heartfulness, How to love the world, In these strange times, Into the Wilderness, Maryland, Nature, Photography, Quotes, Sky, Spirit, The Big Move, Thresholds, Walking & Wandering, Winter

A ramble and a wander

Posted on by Robin
Tiny sunburst in a tree.

The Way It Is
by William Stafford

There’s a thread you follow. It goes among
things that change. But it doesn’t change.
People wonder about what you are pursuing.
You have to explain about the thread.
But it is hard for others to see.
While you hold it you can’t get lost.
Tragedies happen; people get hurt
or die; and you suffer and get old.
Nothing you do can stop time’s unfolding.
You don’t ever let go of the thread.

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Posted in Aging, Earth, Eastern Shore, Gifts, Gratitude, How to love the world, In these strange times, Other than human, Photography, Quotes, Spirit, Spiritual practices, The Big Move, The Body Beautiful, Thresholds, Walking & Wandering, Water, Weather, Winter, Wonder, Yoga

A winter storm on the way

Posted on by Robin
A fox in the meadow on a snow day.

Take some time today to move your body.  Our bodies are a gift and it is important to take care of them.  We can choose to move in so many ways.  Find what works best for you and spend the time to give your body some love and movement.  Your mind will thank you by becoming clearer, too.  It is easy to stay put, but movement makes the day feel richer, our bodies feel stronger, and our minds more aware.  How will you move today?

~ Emily Silva, Sunrise Gratitude, January 14

You have a spirit of fire within you.  It is the light that shines within.  It fuels your passion and keeps you going when you know something is important.  Each morning, you have the chance to calibrate your light as the sun rises.  Imagine your inner fire rising within.  Will it be a bright flame that burns slowly and evenly or a burst of energy, creating a shock of illumination?  Our lights may differ every day, but they never go out.

~ Emily Silva, Sunrise Gratitude, January 22

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Posted in Aging, Beginnings, Cats, Change, Death, Earth, Eastern Shore, Exploring, Gifts, Gratitude, Grief, Heartfulness, How to love the world, In these strange times, Life, Maryland, Nature, Photography, Quotes, Spirit, Spiritual practices, Walking & Wandering, Winter

A Monday meander: As the sun rises on another calendar year

Posted on by Robin
Offerings, remembrances.

In the winter I am writing about there was much darkness. Darkness of nature, darkness of event, darkness of spirit, the sprawling darkness of not knowing. We speak of the light of reason, I would speak here of the darkness of the world and the light of… but I don’t know what to call it, maybe hope, maybe faith, but not a shaped faith, only, say, a gesture or continuum of gestures… Because my work day begins early, it begins in winter in the huge, tense blackness of the world.

— Mary Oliver

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Posted in Aging, Air, Autumn, Blogging, Change, Eastern Shore, Exploring, Gifts, Gratitude, Heartfulness, How to love the world, In these strange times, Life, Love, Maryland, Nature, Photography, Portals & Pathways, Quotes, Sky, Spirit, Spiritual practices, Thresholds, Walking & Wandering, Water, Wonder

A Monday meander: Not the last

Posted on by Robin
A December sunset from the dock.

This is my prayer: May we forgive ourselves and each other when we fall short, and may we all have the courage, faith and resolve to get up again and keep going, to once again ask the deeper questions and dare to touch that vulnerable place inside, to open the heart. May we have the courage to feel the human pain we all share. At the very heart of that pain is a jewel beyond all price. It is the bottomless presence at the heart of everything and the boundless awareness beholding it all, and it is the love that is trying to come forth even in the most broken and unskillful ways. Once we have discovered this jewel, this unconditional love, our work is in opening to it again and again, cultivating a growing faith in it and a faithfulness to it, and forgiving ourselves and others when we fail.

~ Joan Tollifson

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Posted in Air, Autumn, Blogging, Change, Earth, Endings, Exploring, Gifts, Gratitude, Heartfulness, Hiking, How to love the world, In these strange times, Life, Love, Luminous, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Photography, Portals & Pathways, Quotes, Spirit, Thresholds, Walking & Wandering, Water, Wonder, Woods

All good things…

Posted on by Robin
Somewhere along the way in October.

There are no privileged locations. If you stay put, your place may become a holy center, not because it gives you special access to the divine, but because in your stillness you hear what might be heard anywhere. All there is to see can be seen from anywhere in the universe, if you know how to look.

—Scott Russell Sanders, Staying Put

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Posted in Air, Alchemy, Autumn, Earth, Eastern Shore, Gifts, Gratitude, How to love the world, In these strange times, Listening, Photography, Portals & Pathways, Quotes, Simplicity, Spirit, Spiritual practices, Thresholds, Walking & Wandering, Water, Weather

A Monday meander: My joy is heavy

Posted on by Robin
Reflections of another time, another place.

To journey without being changed is to be a nomad. To change without journeying is to be a chameleon. To journey and be transformed by the journey is to be a pilgrim.

— Mark Nepo

Let change be a marker of possibility instead of something to be afraid of. Let change be the vehicle for getting closer to your truest self, to the kind of world you want to see, to all that has been asking to be released from your grip. Trust change can be a tool of alchemy, a doorway to more truth, more love, more presence.

— Lisa Olivera

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