If You Look Softly Enough

Yes, this builds a bit on yesterday’s post, “If You Look Closely Enough.” The photo is from a daytime walk on campus at University of Texas Arlington. I was drawn to the red. I was drawn to the carpet of greenery on the grounds surrounding it. I was drawn to look softly. To let the image blur slightly before me, to see the flowered eyes show themselves in the meadow.

Soft eyes are also part of the invitation that I’m interested in as I work with groups. To look for what only can be seen with welcome of beauty. This too is the kind of work that interests me. Beneath the surface and beneath the patterned reductive habit that so many of us adopt, there lays an essential place for artistry, for poetry, and for mystery.

For me there is no doubt that such invitation to see, to look softly, brings forward images and movies that are at the core of the crisp solutions that we so seek and need. It’s a bit of the common phrase, “slow down to speed up.” It’s also, more deeply, invitation to practice, “commit to beauty — inner and outer will guide — from that unique and good things can show themselves.”

One Reply to “If You Look Softly Enough”

  1. “commit to beauty — inner and outer will guide — from that unique and good things can show themselves.”

    I’m in the midst of a decision and struggling to find the way that is “right.”

    My mind argues both ways. And my heart is uncertain. Because of your writing here, I am going out to the labyrinth to settle my heart and find the answer.

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Gifts of Circle - Question Cardsasd
Gifts of Circle is 30 short essays divided into 4 sections: 1) Circle's Bigger Purpose, 2) Circle's Practice, 3) Circle's First Requirements, and 4) Circle's Possibility for Men. From the Introduction: "Circle is what I turn to in the most comprehensive stories I know -- the stories of human beings trying to be kind and aware together, trying to make a difference in varied causes for which we need to go well together. Circle is also what I turn to in the most immediate needs that live right in front of me and in front of most of us -- sharing dreams and difficulties, exploring conflicts and coherences. Circle is what I turn to. Circle is what turns us to each other."

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This set of Note Cards (8 cards + envelopes)  quotes a few favorite passages from poems in Most Mornings. I offer them as inspiration. And leave room for you to write personal notes.

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