At the Pond

One summer

   I went every morning

      to the edge of a pond where

         a huddle of just-hatched geese

would paddle to me

   and clamber

      up the marshy slope

         and over my body,

peeping and staring—

   such sweetness every day

      which the grown ones watched,

         for whatever reason,

serenely.

   Not there, however, but here

      is where the story begins.

         Nature has many mysteries,

some of them severe. 

   Five of the young geese grew

      heavy of chest and

         bold of wing

while the sixth waited and waited

   in its gauze-feathers, its body

      that would not grow.

         And then it was fall.

And this is what I think

   everything is about:

      the way

         I was glad

for those five and two

   that flew away,

      and the way I hold in my heart the wingless one

         that had to stay.

—Mary Oliver

Evidence, p. 34-35

In your personal or professional life, what is leaving and what is staying behind?

This is our monthly offering of Words of Courage. It is our hope that the words that you read and the questions you consider will en-courage you to engage fully in your work in the world.

These Words of Courage contributed by Ann Faulkner, a CRNT facilitator.

Reconnecting  Who You Are With What You Do.

For more information, please visit our website at CourageNorthTexas.org

In your professional life, do you take the time to reflect on the good work you do or is it "just another day in the office"?

Photo Mandala © Donna Bearden

These images and words are a monthly offering from Courage & Renewal – North Texas. It is our hope that they will provide a moment of refreshment, of reflection, of renewal – and will enable you to live and work more whole heartedly.

"Reconnecting Who You Are With What You Do."

For more information please visit our website at www.CourageNorthTexas.org

Deep Summer 

The mockingbird

opens his throat

among the thorns

for his own reasons

but doesn’t mind

if we pause

to listen

and learn something

or ourselves;

he doesn’t stop, he nods

his gray head

with the frightfully bright eyes,

he flirts

his supple tail,

he says:

listen, if you would listen. 

There’s no end

to good talk,

to passion songs,

to the melodies

that say

this branch,

this tree is mine,

to the wholesome

happiness

of being alive

on a patch

of this green earth

in the deep

pleasures of summer.

What a bird!

Your clocks, he says plainly,

which are always ticking,

do not have to be listened to.

The spirit of his every word.

Mary Oliver, Evidence, 2009

What are you choosing to listen to?

This is our monthly offering of Words of Courage. It is our hope that the words that you read and the questions you consider will en-courage you to engage fully in your work in the world.

These "Words of Courage" contributed by Ann Faulkner, a CRNT facilitator.

"Reconnecting Who You Are With What You Do."
For more information, please visit our website at www.couragenorthtexas.org

Have you enjoyed the monthly Images of Renewal that Donna creates?

If so, you will certainly enjoy our latest offering, Courage & the Creative Process, which Donna and I are hosting on August 7, 2009 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. 

Sign up today for a chance to express your creativity through art and play.  It is sure to be an imaginative day of exploration and reflection!

 Photo Mandala © Donna Bearden

These images and words are a monthly offering from Courage & Renewal – North Texas. It is our hope that they will provide a moment of refreshment, of reflection, of renewal – and will enable you to live and work more whole heartedly.

For more information, please visit our website: www.CourageNorthTexas.org

"Reconnecting Who You Are With What You Do."

Whether you are staying home or travelling abroad, you will always be connected to us.  We would love to hear your stories, thoughts and responses.  Tell us what’s happening!

For more information, please visit our website www.CourageNorthTexas.org

"Reconnecting Who You Are With What You Do."

We built a house
together, one without a roof.
All night it opened
to dark, abundant emptiness—
the questions without answers.

Gradually those questions
became stars. Red dwarfs and blue giants
consoled me, allowed the darkness
inside to be, to sprout like a safe seed,
slowly with grace.

In that house, all those days,
those years of your patient presence,
I learned to live
under freedom’s open sky,
with the walls of kindness
surrounding me.

In the beginning, what I knew could
fill volumes and teach me
nothing. Now I look to the shadows,
the starry questions and inhale,
every exhalation a Thank You.

 -Rebecca del Rio

Has there been a time in your life or work, where you have found solace in life’s unanswered questions? 

This is our monthly offering of Words of Courage. It is our hope that the words that you read and the questions you consider will en-courage you to engage fully in your work in the world.

These "Words of Courage" contributed by Ann Faulkner, a CRNT facilitator.

For more information visit our website: www.CourageNorthTexas.org

"Reconnecting Who You Are With What You Do."

"Joy and woe are woven fine,

A clothing for the soul divine;

Under every grief and pine

Runs a joy with silken twine."

-From "Auguries of Innocence" by William Blake 

What is the joy that runs through your grief and woe? 

What other paradoxes are woven through your life?

Photo Mandala © Donna Bearden

These images and words are a monthly offering from Courage & Renewal – North Texas. It is our hope that they will provide a moment of refreshment, of reflection, of renewal – and will enable you to live and work more whole heartedly

For more information visit our website www.CourageNorthTexas.org

"Reconnecting Who You Are With What You Do"

The following is the last stanza of a longer poem by John O’Donohue.

from For Loneliness

Allow all your loneliness time
to dissolve the shell of dross
that had closed around you;
choose in this severe silence
to hear the one true voice
your rushed life fears;
cradle yourself like a child
learning to trust what emerges,
so that gradually
you may come to know
that deep in that black hole
you will find that blue flower
that holds the mystical light
which will illuminate in you
the glimmer of springtime.
                   —John O’Donohue  

These "Words of Courage" contibuted by Ann Faulkner, a CRNT facilitator.

 For more information, please visit our website www.CourageNorthTexas.org

"Reconnecting Who You Are With What You Do."

If you have met me (Nate’),  you know that I LOVE the work I do for Courage & Renewal- North Texas.  I am also very fond of the the Images of Renewal and Words of Courage that are contributed monthly by our friends, Donna Bearden  and Ann Faulkner, respectively. 
And apparently, I am not the only one…

"…the "images of renewal" you send are so welcome.  They’re a bright spot in my e-mail."

"This was so completely beautiful! Thank you so much for the hope and courage you offer. I love your new messages….GREAT idea!"

"Thanks for this, Cindy. I love Wendell Berry, but I don’t recall having seen this before. I look forward to May’s words!"

" love it!"

"Thanks for the email. I have to say that I must have finally found my real work and come to my real journey because I am truly baffled.  I do continue to sing and embrace each new day…"

"Loved the previous mandala–it is up in a corner of my desktop, and this one will soon join it."

 Thank you for your kind words!   Please feel free to post your own words of courage or thoughts anytime, right here on our blog in the comments section below. 

All the Best,
Nate’  

For more information, please visit our website www.CourageNorthTexas.org

"Reconnecting Who You Are With What You Do."

Aerodynamically the honey bee shouldn’t

be able to fly. 

That’s what they say. 

Big body.  Small wings.  Not at all designed for flying.

But they forgot to tell the honey bee.

In what areas of your life or work have others said you should not be able to fly, but you fly beautifully anyway?

Photo Mandala © Donna Bearden

These images and words are a monthly offering from Courage & Renewal- North Texas.  It is our hope that they will provide a moment of refreshment, of reflection, of renewal – and will enable you to live and work more whole heartedly.

For more information visit our website www.CourageNorthTexas.org

"Reconnecting Who You Are With What You Do."