Living Tree Poetry

“In the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you.”
Leo Tolstoy

“Hurry is an unpleasant thing in itself, but also very unpleasant for whoever is around it. Some people came into my room and rushed in and rushed out and even when they were there they were not there – they were in the moment ahead or the moment behind. Some people who came in just for a moment were all there, completely in that moment.
Live from day to day, just from day to day. If you do so, you worry less and live more richly. If you let yourself be absorbed completely, if you surrender completely to the moments as they pass, you live more richly those moments.”
Anne Morrow Lindbergh

“In the monastic tradition, statio is the practice of stopping one thing before beginning another. It is the acknowledgment that in the space of transition and threshold is a sacred dimension, a holy pause full of possibility. This place between is a place of stillness, where we let go of what came before and prepare ourselves to enter fully into what comes next. When we pause between activities or spaces or moments in our day, we open ourselves to the possibility of discovering a new kind of presence to the ‘in between times.’”
Christine Valters Paintner

“Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”
Mark 6:31

My Prayer today is for rest.  For the calm and peace that has at its core a deep confidence.  We all appreciate those whose quiet presence bears deep rest, who walk gently in this world with wisdom and grace.  When the breath relaxes and the heart beats slow, how available we become to each other?  And how much we miss, if we don’t with intent slow down.  I like to believe, like Christine Valters Painter refers to, that the real stuff happens between moments.  Opportunities, possibilities, insights, real connection that word or touch can’t bridge.  Life’s richness sometimes lies not on the gilded surface, but between the cracks. Today I pray we would draw out the wealth in each moment and give it to one another.

Artwork:  Frederick Lord Leighton (Garden of Bright Images)

These are drawn from daily prayers and reflections I write for my Chaplaincy colleagues.