Like a poet sitting in wait for words slippery and shy to meander toward and gather just long enough to reveal what is beyond them, we have only to become still before these flickering bids for our waking wonder.
Renée, Do you feel that your tiny home helps these reflections take this form? If you had a house with blinds to dust and a mortgage to cover, family boots kicked off right in the path to the door (assuming grown kids visiting and lapsing back into childhood behaviors), would the words of expression land elsewhere? I cannot help but think that your willingness to live small is expressing itself once again in your openness to living on this wondrous scale. As usual, the words and photos dance.
“Red sky at night, sailor’s delight. Red sky at morning, sailor’s warning.” Great photos. If you took them the day the storm came, the mackerel sky forebodes it. The fishes and the birds stirring also foretell severe weather. The wise sailor takes heed as he also revels in the wonder.
"Could we say that wonder is a burst of feeling?" I pull this line out of many others that will slowly root themselves in the soft fertile places in my head - I am learning to know. In all senses, to me, wonder can be felt, and, as such become part of the embodiment or culmination of wholeness. I believe these parts must be gathered over time, to be nurtured and cultivated as one would a giving garden. The more attention we attend to wonder the more it reveals.
So often your writings stir within me a whole host of thoughts that I feel I must echo back to you. Not so this time. Your words have stilled me in their perfection. This quote in particular: "We are never one without Other, never an enclosed unit, and so never without inner fleshy awareness that we need . . . the light of a new day, the air that carries a song, the beauty of a breath and grandeur of every living Other and It all." Exquisite. I am so deeply looking forward to Awakening Wonder! ❤️
This is delightful (I think there is a better word but it's not coming to mind!) - wonder as a burst of feeling. Absolutely! That's why we want more of it. Your words about the need that IS and the uncertainty of its fulfillment feel like the essence of our human condition and gather us to consider the path to surrender.
This essay contains many facets of loveliness Renee, the kind that we need in our world right now. Generosity (scholarship), beauty (images), change (weather and the river), wonder and contemplation.
Renée, you are always poetic, but today your poetry is stunning; and the pictures add to the poetry, or should I say, are the poetry. "...our yen not so much to understand what it is as to be entranced with that it is." That expresses the true miracle of seeing and being in awe of the unbelievable beauty around us all the time. And appreciating the true miracle that anything is here at all, and that we are actually able to experience it all with our senses. I know I've quoted this Mary Oliver poem before, but it is so apt here. "Truly there are mysteries too marvelous to be understood. How grass can be nourishing in the mouths of lambs. How rivers and stones are forever in allegiance with gravity, while we ourselves dream of rising. How two hands touch and the bonds will never be broken. How some come from delight or scars of damage to the comfort of a poem. Let me keep my distance always from those who think they know the answers, and let me keep company always with those who say, "Look!" and laugh in astonishment, and bow their heads." I'm trying to practice bowing my head more.
I needed this reminder today. In time I will be ripe for your teaching. Congratulations for helping others awaken to that which is dormant waiting to be unearthed.
Renée, Do you feel that your tiny home helps these reflections take this form? If you had a house with blinds to dust and a mortgage to cover, family boots kicked off right in the path to the door (assuming grown kids visiting and lapsing back into childhood behaviors), would the words of expression land elsewhere? I cannot help but think that your willingness to live small is expressing itself once again in your openness to living on this wondrous scale. As usual, the words and photos dance.
We truly live amongst mysteries too miraculous to be understood. We can only live in wonder of them. ✨
“Red sky at night, sailor’s delight. Red sky at morning, sailor’s warning.” Great photos. If you took them the day the storm came, the mackerel sky forebodes it. The fishes and the birds stirring also foretell severe weather. The wise sailor takes heed as he also revels in the wonder.
Dear Renée of wondrous words,
"Could we say that wonder is a burst of feeling?" I pull this line out of many others that will slowly root themselves in the soft fertile places in my head - I am learning to know. In all senses, to me, wonder can be felt, and, as such become part of the embodiment or culmination of wholeness. I believe these parts must be gathered over time, to be nurtured and cultivated as one would a giving garden. The more attention we attend to wonder the more it reveals.
As always with love and thanks x
So often your writings stir within me a whole host of thoughts that I feel I must echo back to you. Not so this time. Your words have stilled me in their perfection. This quote in particular: "We are never one without Other, never an enclosed unit, and so never without inner fleshy awareness that we need . . . the light of a new day, the air that carries a song, the beauty of a breath and grandeur of every living Other and It all." Exquisite. I am so deeply looking forward to Awakening Wonder! ❤️
This is delightful (I think there is a better word but it's not coming to mind!) - wonder as a burst of feeling. Absolutely! That's why we want more of it. Your words about the need that IS and the uncertainty of its fulfillment feel like the essence of our human condition and gather us to consider the path to surrender.
This essay contains many facets of loveliness Renee, the kind that we need in our world right now. Generosity (scholarship), beauty (images), change (weather and the river), wonder and contemplation.
Thank you.
Ah, yes....beautifully expressed.
Renée, you are always poetic, but today your poetry is stunning; and the pictures add to the poetry, or should I say, are the poetry. "...our yen not so much to understand what it is as to be entranced with that it is." That expresses the true miracle of seeing and being in awe of the unbelievable beauty around us all the time. And appreciating the true miracle that anything is here at all, and that we are actually able to experience it all with our senses. I know I've quoted this Mary Oliver poem before, but it is so apt here. "Truly there are mysteries too marvelous to be understood. How grass can be nourishing in the mouths of lambs. How rivers and stones are forever in allegiance with gravity, while we ourselves dream of rising. How two hands touch and the bonds will never be broken. How some come from delight or scars of damage to the comfort of a poem. Let me keep my distance always from those who think they know the answers, and let me keep company always with those who say, "Look!" and laugh in astonishment, and bow their heads." I'm trying to practice bowing my head more.
I needed this reminder today. In time I will be ripe for your teaching. Congratulations for helping others awaken to that which is dormant waiting to be unearthed.