On the tiny limestone island
an angel buzzes to Gobnait
in a dream, disrupts her plans,
sends her in search of nine white deer.

She wanders for miles across
sea and land until at last
they appear and rather than
running toward them

she falls gently to wet ground,
sits in silence as light crawls across sky,
lets their long legs approach
and their soft, curious noses surround her.

Breathing slowly, she slides back
onto grass and clover and knows
nothing surpasses this moment,
a heaven of hooves and dew.

Is there a place for each of us,
where we no longer yearn to be elsewhere?
Where our work is to simply soften,
wait, and pay close attention?

She smiles as bees gather eagerly
around her too, wings humming softly
as they collect essence of wildflowers,
transmuting labor into gold.

~Christine Valters Paintner

this ideal of pure joy is not a sentimental and shallow endeavor…..it is soft like water and strong like the rock that flows beneath it….

inquiry for today~  can you resist the underlying cynicism that is so tempting? can you love today?

touch simplicity

Live a simple life with an affluent spirit.

~Ayako Isayama

Save