The exquisite and the extraordinary

When you open your heart to unicorns and dragons and magic, you leave yourself vulnerable and exposed. This means that you are in a perfect place to experience the extraordinary beauty of this life, but also to suffer the exquisiteness of its pain as well.

You can’t have one without the other, it seems. Two sides of the one coin. To move through both beauty and pain can be as excruciating in their own ways as the other. The thing is to draw upon the internal resources that we squirrel away for the good and the bad times, to allow the emotions to flow through us and to retain our sense of self at all cost.

Even though it might seem like the hardest thing in the world.

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Starbursts

I miss this place, and I miss you guys. Life right now is about snatching precious starburst moments with beloved friends and family, as well as listening to my body and what it needs from me right now. Apparently what I need is a lot of sleep and plenty of caffeine. Yes, you’re correct – they do seem to be mutually incompatible.

I hope you are all well, and happy. I’m thinking of you.

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Sunday reflections #64

Life is your art.  An open, aware heart is your camera.  A oneness with your world is your film.  Your bright eyes and easy smile is your museum.

Ansel Adams

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Three things vol.18

Sometimes it’s easy to forget to appreciate the beauty of the buildings around us.  We are fortunate in my home town to have many examples of beautiful Victorian buildings dotted around our urban centre – the intricacies and detail that were included by the architects and builders of these edifices is incredible.

Oh yes, and this is only two things this week.  Perhaps you can imagine a third one for me instead?

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Sunday reflections #4

…I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

excerpt from The Summer Day
Mary Oliver

[Photo credit]

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