JAF Creations

 

 

Hundreds of Flowers in the Spring,

The Moon in Autumn,

A cool breeze in Summer,

And Snow in Winter;

Iif useless things do not hang in your mind,

Every Season is a good season for you.

13^th  Century Zen Master Mumon.

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Do not let the day slip through your fingers, but live it fully now, this breath, this moment, catapulting you into full awareness. Time is precious, minutes disappearing like water into sand, unless you choose to pay attention. Since you do not know the number of your days, treat each as if it is your last. Be that compassionate with yourself, that open and loving to others, that determined to give what is yours to give and to let in the energy and wonder of this world. Experience everything, writing, relating, eating, doing all the little necessary tasks of life as if for the first time…pushing nothing aside as unimportant. You have received these same reminders many times before, this time, take them into your soul. For if you choose to live this way, you will be rich beyond measure, grateful beyond words, and the day of your death will arrive with no regrets.

Danna Faulds

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And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight inside the bud, was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.

Anais Nin

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We have not come here to take prisoners,

But to surrender ever more deeply to freedom and joy.

We have not come into this exquisite world

To hold ourselves hostage from Love.

Run my dear,

From anything that may not strengthen

Your precious budding wings...

 

For we have not come here to take prisoners

Or to confine our wonderous spirits,

But to experience ever more deeply

Our divine courage, freedom, and

Light!

Hafiz.

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And in the sweetness of friendship

Let there be Laughter and sharing of pleasures.

For in the dew of little things

The heart finds its morning

And is refreshed.

Kahlil Gibran

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The Summer Day, by Mary Oliver

Who made the world?

Who made the Swan, and the Black Bear?

Who made the grasshopper?

This grasshopper I mean-

The one who has flung herself out of the grass,

The one who is eating sugar out of my hand,

Who is moving her jaws back and forth

Instead of up and down-

Who is gazing around with her

Enormous and complicated eyes.

 

Now she lifts her pale forearms

And thoroughly washes her face.

Now she snaps her wings open,

And floats away.

 

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've 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?

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Don't ask what the world needs.

Ask what makes you come alive

And go do it.

Because what the world needs

Is people who have come alive.

Harold Thurman.  

 

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