AustinGranny.com - Butterflies

Imagine yourself
a caterpillar.
There's an awful shrug and, suddenly,
You're beautiful
for as long as you live.
— Stephen Dunn

And we are put on Earth a little space, that we may learn to bear the beams of love.
— William Blake

We must risk delight. We can do without pleasure,
but not delight. Not enjoyment. We must have
the stubbornness to accept our gladness
in the ruthless furnace of this world. — Jack Gilbert

The little space within the heart is as great as the vast universe.
The heavens and the earth are there, and the sun and the moon and the stars.
Fire and lightening and winds are there,
and all that now is and all that is not.
— The Upanishads

Our true home is in the present moment.
To live in the present moment is a miracle.
The miracle is not to walk on water.
The miracle is to walk on the green Earth in the present moment,
to appreciate the peace and beauty that are available now.

Peace is all around us--
in the world and in nature--
and within us--
in our bodies and our spirits.
Once we learn to touch this peace,
we will be healed and transformed.
It is not a matter of faith;
it is a matter of practice.
— Thich Nhat Hanh

And we pray, not for new earth or heaven,
but to be quiet in heart, and in eye clear.
What we need is here.
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes.
And Koko whispered
that if I stepped out of my body I would break into blossom.

Whether the bees have thoughts, we cannot say,
But the hind part of the worm wiggles the most,
Minnows can hear, and butterflies, yellow and blue,
Rejoice in the language of smells and dancing,
Therefore I reject the world of the dog
Though he hear a note higher than C
And the thrush stopped in the middle of his song.
And I acknowledge my foolishness with God...
— first lines from "The Longing." by Theodore Roethke

Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile,
but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.
— Thich Nhat Hanh

How often when I stop to look at something in nature that appears to be quite ordinary,
does it become, on closer inspection, extraordinary — reason enough, I've decided, to pause and let nature come to me rather than continually persue it. To sit and be brushed by a butterfly's wings is not an experience to disdain.
— from Appalachian Spring by Michael Frayn

I wanted safety in blue distance, illimitable, uninhabited.
I wanted ... the grandeur of free solitude.
I wanted to smell Wisconsin north woods again.
— Donald Culross Peattie

It is not the glittering weapon that fights the fight, but rather the brave heart. — Proverb

There's only now…
There's only here...
Give in to love...
Or live in fear...
No other path...
No other way...
No day but today...
No day but today.
— Jonathan Larson, American Playwright