Every year
You make a resolution
To change yourself.
This year
Make a resolution
To be yourself.
- Author unknown
A Moment of Pause is a chance to take time out from your busy day and centre yourself into that still point deep within you that is often overlooked. We all need to restore and replenish our inner resources so that we stay resilient to the many demands of our increasingly busy and often unbalanced lives.
Use this moment in whatever way best suits you, either by sitting in silence or connecting with the passages, poems and quotations I offer you below. They are a reflection of my own spiritual practice and are drawn from many resources, and not meant to be prescriptive in any way.
So join me in this moment with the centering thoughts below, or set aside some time to follow one of the guided meditations on my Meditation page.
Every year
You make a resolution
To change yourself.
This year
Make a resolution
To be yourself.
- Author unknown
May you awaken to the mystery of being here
And enter the quiet immensity of your own presence
May you have joy and peace in the temple of your senses
May you receive great encouragement when new frontiers beckon
May you respond to the call of your gift
And find the courage to follow its path
May the flame of anger free you from falsity
May warmth of heart keep your presence aflame and anxiety never linger about you
May your outer dignity mirror an inner dignity of soul
May you take time to celebrate the quiet miracles that seek no attention
May you be consoled in the secret symmetry of your soul
May you experience each day as a sacred gift
Woven around the heart of wonder
- John O’Donohue
And the forest replied a resounding “Yes”
Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Carrying her sweetest fragrance of a newly born spring
Her unbidden breeze spoke
“Yes, Yes, Yes”
Into my lungs she travelled
“Yes, Yes, Yes”
Her purest mystery
Of an embrace of trust
Into my heart she travelled
“Yes, Yes, Yes”
My eyes sting from the love of her
And my heart aches at the magnificence of her
“Yes, Yes, Yes”
I breath her In
And she fills me
The simplicity of her
“Yes, Yes, Yes”
My breath In, with her breath
In, she says
In
I breath In, her
“Yes, Yes, Yes”
- Elisa Bragg
Going to the same stagnant well
To Slake your thirst
Will leave you
Dehydrated
- Elisa Bragg
Whoever, whatever, however, wherever and if ever you are
Let me find you and connect with you.
Allow me to sync with you.
I want to be enveloped by you, surrounded by you and constantly be accompanied by you.
So that you guide me and steer me to be the best version of myself that I can be.
So that through my actions, my behaviour and my way of being, I can allow the feeling of happiness,
Of pride, of security and contentment to flourish in those that I love.
So that I too can know how to receive and accept the love and support of others.
So that I am able to rediscover how to love myself and have an awareness of my self worth.
To be able to act with humility and gratitude in all that I do.
And then through my actions, I may feel fulfilled in myself and with myself and thereby,
Understanding and accepting that I am enough
- DC
There's a city, draped in net
Fisherman net
And in the half light, in the half light
It looks like every tower
Is covered in webs
Moving and glistening and rocking
It's babies in rhythm
As the spider of time is climbing
Over the ruins
There were hundreds of people living here
Sails at the windows
And the planes came crashing down
And many a pilot drowned
And the speed boats flying above
Put your hand over the side of the boat
What do you feel?
My mother and her little brown jug
It held her milk
And now it holds our memories
I can hear her singing
"Little brown jug don't I love thee"
"Little brown jug don't I love thee"
Ho ho ho, hee hee hee
I hear her laughing
She is standing in the kitchen
As we come in…
I hear her laughing
She is standing in the kitchen
As we come in the back door
See it fall
See it fall
Oh little spider climbing out of a broken jug
And the pieces will lay there a while
In a house draped in net
In a room filled with coral
Sails at the window
Forests of masts
Put your hand over the side of the boat
Put your hand over the side of the boat
What do you feel?
- Kate Bush
Movement that appears to block.
Be certain that what you are doing - or not doing - is timely.
There are no ‘missed opportunities’.
You have simply to recognise that not all opportunities are open to you,
That not all possibilities are for you.
The opportunity at hand may be precisely to avoid action.
If you are feeling at a loss,
Unclear about the need to act,
Consider what is timely to your nature and remember,
What is yours will come to you.
- Ralph Blum, from the Book of Runes
God, grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change
The courage to change the things I can
And the wisdom to know the difference.
- Reinhold Niebuhr
Now we will count to twelve
And we will all keep still
For once on the face of the earth
Let’s not speak in any language
Let’s stop for a second
And not move our arms so much.
It would be an exotic moment
Without rush, without engines
We would all be together
In a sudden strangeness.
Fisherman in the cold sea
Would not harm whales
And the man gathering salt
Would not look at his hurt hands.
Those who prepare green wars
Wars with gas, wars with fire
Victories with no survivors
Would put on clean clothes
And walk about with their brothers
In the shade, doing nothing.
What I want should not be confused with total inactivity.
Life is what it is about.
If we were not so single-minded about keeping our lives moving
And for once could do nothing
Perhaps a huge silence might interrupt this sadness
Of never understanding ourselves
And of threatening ourselves with death.
Now I’ll count up to twelve
And you keep quiet, and I will go.
- Pablo Neruda
Yes there is fear.
Yes there is isolation.
Yes there is panic buying.
Yes there is sickness.
Yes there is even death.
But, they say that in Wuhan after so many years of noise,
You can hear the birds again.
They say that after just a few weeks of quiet,
The sky is no longer thick with fumes,
But blue and grey and clear.
They say that in the streets of Assisi,
People are singing to each other across the empty squares,
Keeping their windows open so that those who are alone,
May hear the sounds of family around them.
They say that a hotel in the West of Ireland,
Is offering free meals and delivery to the housebound.
Today a young woman I know is busy spreading fliers,
With her number through the neighbourhood,
So that the elders may have someone to call on.
Today Churches, Synagogues, Mosques and Temples,
Are preparing to welcome and shelter the homeless, the sick, the weary.
All over the world people are slowing down and reflecting.
All over the world people are looking at their neighbours in a new way.
All over the world people are waking up to a new reality.
To how big we really are.
To how little control we really have.
To what really matters.
To Love.
So we pray and we remember that yes there is fear.
But there does not have to be hate.
Yes there is isolation.
But there does not have to be loneliness.
Yes there is panic buying.
But there does not have to be meanness.
Yes there is sickness.
But there does not have to be disease of the soul.
Yes there is even death.
But there can always be a rebirth of love.
Wake to the choices you make as to how to live now.
Today, breathe.
Listen, behind the factory noises of your panic.
The birds are singing again.
The sky is clearing, Spring is coming,
And we are always encompassed by Love.
Open the windows of your soul.
And though you may not be able to touch across the empty square, Sing.
- Fr. Richard Hendrick, OFM - March 13th 2020
You sing, and your voice peels the husk
Of the day’s grain, your song with the sun and sky
The pine trees speak with their green tongue
All the birds of the winter whistle.
The sea fills its cellar with footfalls
with bells, chains, whimpers
The tools and the metals jangle
Wheels of the caravan creak.
But I hear only your voice, your voice
Soars with the zing and precision of an arrow
It drops with the gravity of rain.
Your voice scatters the tightest swords
And returns with its cargo of violets
It accompanies me through the sky.
- Pablo Nerudo
And the forest replied a resounding “Yes”
Her unbidden breeze
Carrying her sweetest fragrance of a newly born spring
“Yes, Yes, Yes”
Into my lungs she travelled
Her purest mystery of trust
Into my heart she travelled
“Yes, Yes, Yes”
Such an embrace
Touching every cell
Previously missed
Previously harmed
Previously loved
The simplicity of her
“Yes, Yes, Yes”
I breath her In
Her breath, breathing In, with my breath
In, she says
“Yes, Yes, Yes”
- Elisa Bragg
Something is a-changing
Underfoot and within
Strangely grounded
Strangely solid
Familiar temptations
Into masochistic dead ends
Seem less alluring
How so?
And do I really need to know?
I feel more
I am more
More of me
It’s the nuances
Those subtle shifts
Beyond the words
The energy is up
Sexual
Sensual
In most unexpected moments
And it’s collaborative
One can be fun
But more is definitely merrier
Eros
Emerging
In all its glory
And it is juicy
Juicy groundedness
- Hiten Joshi
Pause at the word for-give.
For-to-give.
Forgiveness is such a gift that “give” lives in the word.
Christian tradition has tried to make it a meek and passive word;
Turn the other cheek.
But the word contains the active word “give”, which reveals its truth.
- Michael Ventura
And don’t think the garden loses its ecstasy in winter.
It’s quite,
But the roots are down there riotous.
- Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
My barn having burned to the ground
I can now see the moon.
- Chinese Proverb
What did you notice?
The dew-snail
The low flying sparrow
The bat, on the wind, in the dark
Big chested geese, in the V of sleekest performance
The soft toad, patient in the hot sand
The sweet-hungry ants
The uproar of mice in the empty house
The tin music of the cricket’s body
The blouse of the goldenrod.
What did you hear?
The thrush greeting the morning
The little bluebirds in their hot box
The salty talk of the wren
Then the deep cup of the hour of silence.
When did you admire?
The oaks, letting down their dark and hairy fruit
The carrot, rising in its elongated waist
The onion, sheet after sheet, curved inward to the pale green wand
At the end of summer the brassy dust, the almost liquid beauty of the flowers
Then the ferns scrawled black by the frost.
What astonished you?
The swallows making their dip and turn over the water.
What would you like to see again?
My dog, her energy and exuberance, her willingness, her language beyond all nimbleness of tongue
Her recklessness, her loyalty, her sweetness, her strong legs, her curled black lip, her snap.
What was most tender?
Queen Anne’s lace, with its parsnip root
The everlasting in its bonnets of wool
The kinks and turns of the tupelo’s body
The tall blank banks of sand
The clam, clamped down.
What was most wonderful?
The sea and its wide shoulders
The sea and its triangles
The sea lying back units long athlete’s spine.
What did you think was happening?
The green beast of the hummingbird
The eye of the pond
The wet face of the lily
The bright, puckered knee of the broken oak
The red tulip of the fox’s mouth
The up-swing, the down-pour, the frayed sleeve of the first snow -
So the gods shake us from our sleep.
- Mary Oliver - RIP
(I am so grateful for you)
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness
That most frightens us.
We ask ourselves
Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small
Does not serve the world.
There's nothing enlightened about shrinking
So that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine,
As children do.
We were born to make manifest
The glory of God that is within us.
It's not just in some of us;
It's in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine,
We unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we're liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others.
- Marianne Williamson
I am a woman
I have a vagina
I have a womb
My vagina and my womb are a place of power
It is my power
An innate power that belongs to woman
It belongs to me
And I decide how to use it
Pleasure
Children
All creativity
Universes are born out of my sacred vagina
Out of my sacred womb
A place of beauty
Sanctity
Sovereignty
Sensuality
Serenity
How blessed am I to be a woman in all of my glory
I am grateful to you universe for making me a woman
- Elisa Bragg
I want to know if you can see beauty
even when it’s not pretty
every day
and if you can source your own life
from its presence.
- Oriah Mountain Dreamer