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Gratefulness
Enjoy this practice as a stand-alone experience or as the fifth of an eight-day series inspired by Br. David's appreciation of and experience with haiku.
Don’t look too hard to “find” a haiku. Let it find you. Be open, receptive, welcoming. ~ Zee Zahava
Welcome.
As haiku becomes a regular practice, we discover that paying attention — teamed with “forgetting ourselves” and connecting to the truth of our belonging — serve to inspire and nourish a sense of wonder, curiosity, and play. We begin, in the words of Tom Clausen, to “feel inspiration in moments freely found anyplace, anytime, anywhere.” We find ourselves with greater capacity to be open, receptive, and welcoming as we allow haiku to “find” us.
Haiku and calligraphy by Br. David Steindl-Rast
Tom Clausen observes that “Haiku return to us the wonder and curiosity we had as a child.” And yes, a childlike perspective is available to us in every moment. As Br. David has said, “That child is in every one of us, a child for whom the cosmos is alive.”
Today we invite you to move through your day experiencing the world around you with the wonder and curiosity of a child. Be curious and expansive. Experiment with being joyful, fearless, and a bit silly. Allow yourself to make playful connections and to notice the way that something out of place like a crooked flagstone may be offering you comfort, delight, or surprise. Be open, receptive, and welcoming; allowing a haiku (or more than one!) to find you.
When you are ready, write your haiku in a notebook and feel free to share it, along with any additional discoveries, in the reflection area below.
Enjoy the full eight-day Exploring Haiku practice.
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It’s the Easter holiday What shall we do today? Don’t know. Let’s have fun
sign: Forsythia glorious, golden delight! No Pruning Allowed.
Stroll, after the rain Birds sing and plants steal the show With its heart shaped leaves
Lesson: the winner is in the eyes of the beholder ! If bird wins, then the winner is in the ears of the listener. Someday we win, someday we lose. Cest la vie!
Yesterday winter winds Today daffodils peeking at sunshine Seasons playing tag
Raindrops gleam on budding twigs like unshed tears – not a crybaby!
~~ Chill spring rain – puddles and mud to splash in.
Today, be curious, Be joyful, fearless, silly. Be your inner child!
Today, be open, Be receptive, be welcoming. Experience wonder!
Snow on roof tops Snow on trees and daffodils Spring in my heart
Slept in this morning Warm covers swaddled, wombed The birth of day, delayed
Phone reminder 6am “Litter box change” Monday, monday, meow, me
My cat sleeps with me.
prism hangs in window red,green,yellow dots on wall morning ignited
Snow on bird feeder Melts into sparkling droplets Sunlit diamonds
Blanketed under clutter Go out and play How? Just Be Amazed
Sadly I found trying to do something with the abandonment of a child much harder than I thought thanks to my loud to do list. It was so intense I decided to pay attention to that.
flowering tree hums with a hundred gleaners— springtime harvest
Starting a journey Home in the rearview mirror Peaches in a bag
From yesterdays walk . . .
Buzzing “gatekeepers” circling around my head I also live here
Mosquitos, blood sucking mothers Give life to protein snacks for bats and humminbirds Bring me no disease I know my place in your food chain.
You me one love My skin, your fur, we purr-rr the joy of kitten
Chattering music Attention to this moment Birdsong is a gift
See, hear, touch, taste, smell Sensational acts of being Life to the full.
A spring morning, walking down the road, the sun smiling across the horizon, a re-lenting sense of wanting to run, to dance, turn my face to the sun. As Mary Oliver wrote, “Why I Wake Early,”: “Watch, now, how I start the day,/in happiness, in kindness.” Sensational this being human.
Thank you. A wonderful expression of being guided by by heart in joy
Thunder rolls flashing earth awakens Refreshed alive
wet hands surround clay wheel spins and center opens air bubble laughing
Write an entry in your private gratefulness journal
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