fall

Listen to silence

Listen to silence. It has so much to say.
~ Rumi

Ripe for harvest

Open your eyes and look at the fields. They are ripe for harvest.
~ John 4:35

As I Watche'd The Ploughman Ploughing

As I watch'd the ploughman ploughing,
Or the sower sowing in the fields, or the harvester harvesting,
I saw there, too, O life and death, your analogies;
(Life, life is the tillage, and Death is the harvest according.)
~ Walt Whitman, "As I Watche'd The Ploughman Ploughing,” in LEAVES OF GRASS

You are beyond that

You are the Silence
Beyond birth, beyond death, beyond experiences,
Beyond doubts, beyond opinions.
Beyond whatever it is your body is going through,
Whatever thoughts your mind thinks.
You are beyond that.

~ Robert Adams in SILENCE OF THE HEART

Harvest Moon – The Mockingbird Sings in the Night

No sky could hold
so much light -
and here comes the brimming,
the flooding and streaming
out of the clouds
and into the leaves,
glazing the creeks,
the smallest ditches!
And so many stars!
The sky seems stretched
like an old black cloth;
behind it, all
the celestial fire
we ever dreamed of!
And the moon steps lower,
quietly changing
her luminous masks, brushing
everything as she passes
with her slow hands
and soft lips -
clusters of dark grapes,
apples swinging like lost planets,
melons cool and heavy as bodies -
and the mockingbird wakes
in his hidden castle;
out of the silver tangle
of thorns and leaves
he flutters and tumbles,
spilling long
ribbons of music
over forest and river,
copse and cloud -
all heaven and all earth.
~ Mary Oliver, "Harvest Moon – The Mockingbird Sings in the Night,” in TWELVE MOONS

A life of grateful receptivity

To live a contemplative life is to be open enough to see, free enough to hear, real enough to respond. It is a life, and so has its own rhythms of darkness, dying-rising. Simply enough, it is a life of grateful receptivity, or wordless awe, of silent simplicity.
~ S. Marie Baha in MEDITATIONS ON NATURE, MEDITATIONS ON SILENCE

Go deep into the silence

Go deep into the silence. Absorb it. Let it scare you. Let it reshape you and expand your awareness.
~ Pythagoras, as quoted in GOLDEN: THE POWER OF SILENCE IN A WORLD OF NOISE by Justin Zorn and Leigh Mars

Psalm 105

Gentle us, O Compassionate One, that
We tread the earth lightly
And with grace,
Spreading peace, goodness, and love,
Without harm to any creature.
For in gentle serenity is strength
And assurance;

Confusion and suspicion find
No home here.
In all things may we be be grateful,
Our hearts open to joy.
~ Nan Merrill from her interpretation of "Psalm 105” in PSALMS FOR PRAYING

Dig their roots and reach out for others

Surviving is for those who have no hope...as God’s child you were meant to thrive... You were meant to dig deep and reach out...Balanced believers dig their roots and reach out for others.
~ Mark Hall in THRIVE

The water of wisdom

She will give the bread of understanding to eat,
And the water of wisdom to drink.

~ Joyce Rupp from her interpretation of Ecclesiastes in THE STAR IN MY HEART: EXPERIENCING SOPHIA
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