Collecting Phrases
It's May Day, a celebration of workers but more traditionally a celebration of flowers and summer's swift approach. I'm sharing one page of lines from my florilegium1. I have a little notebook where I jot down lines that I find interesting, expressive, and thought-provoking.
I've always kept notebooks of quotes that I like. I have discovered that jotting down single lines is equally helpful in a different way. I love when a single line can convey a profound truth. When I find a single line that catches my breath or causes me to pause, I know there is an author who took their time to reflect, edit and craft with precision and intention.
A collection of lines can be used in different ways. Sometimes I find myself keeping a single line close through the week. It can become a mantra and prayer.
I listened to a podcast that took single lines from Harry Potter, selected by the two podcast hosts, and put the lines together to see what truth could be gleaned from hearing the lines in different ways. For example, from my list below, if I took the phrase efficacy of calmness and my heart is fixed firmly together, I might start to consider the cause and effect relationship between calmness and a heart that is firmly fixed. I might question when I last noticed my heart firmly fixed. I might consider how my heart is better able to become fixed when I stumble into calmness.
These lines are smaller and deeper. They remind me that just a few words are all it takes to create a pause, inspire new thought, challenge or delight.
Here is my list. Take your time as you read through. Notice what lines grab you or cause you to start thinking2.
efficacy of calmness
fear cannot live where love, grace, and gentleness abide
let your heart be clear and simple and your soul filled with light
my heart is fixed firmly
purpose of the human journey is to live openly and honestly
enliven our compassion
infused with what matters
journey from innocent to experience
There is no they-we are the they
Informed by what we love
our walk in the world is always precarious as we find our way between burden and grace
A blessing for collecting
May you find words and phrases that glitter and sparkle. As you read books, newspapers, and social media posts, may your spirit be enlivened and your mind engaged by words and ideas that dance. As you gather those lines and words like crumbs may they uncover the truths and insights your heart needs for this stage of your journey.
Start your own florilegium. Jot down short phrases or single sentences that catch your attention. (make sure you note where you found them. I wish I had done that from the start! Now I use abbreviations and have a list of sources on one page to see where I found the phrase!)
Pick a phrase from the list above and let it be your prayer or mantra this week. Walk with it, learn from it, and use it to infuse your prayers and contemplations.
Choose two phrases to put together and see what they teach you.
Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic by Sam Quinones
Each year I try and read a few informational books. Books that invite me into places and things that are unknown to me or culturally significant. This book fell into that category. I didn't enjoy this book. Some sections were anxiety-producing and heart-breaking. I read this book because it felt important to learn about something that happened around me and may still be hidden in plain sight.
Dreamland is the story of pill mills and Black Tar Heroin. It's a macro-level look at what happened in the United States from the mid-'90s through the mid-2010s. It's about a shift in the medical community regarding the treatment of pain. It's a book I'm so glad I read, I hated reading it, and I highly recommend it. In other words, it's really complicated and important.
“Like no other particle on earth, the morphine molecule seemed to possess heaven and hell. It allowed for modern surgery, saving and improving too many lives to count. It stunted and ended too many lives to count with addiction and overdose. Discussing it, you could invoke some of humankind’s greatest cultural creations and deepest questions: Faust, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, discussions on the fundamental nature of man and human behavior, of free will and slavery, of God and evolution. Studying the molecule you naturally wandered into questions like, Can mankind achieve happiness without pain? Would that happiness even be worth it? Can we have it all?”
― Sam Quinones, Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic
Love Poems from God: Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West by Daniel Ladinsky
It's my goal to read one book of poetry each month this year. My April book was Love Poems from God. I loved this book. It contained edited and modern translations of poetry from poets like Rumi, St. Francis, Kabi, Meister Eckhard, and St. Teresa; in other words, a very eclectic collection. The poets and translations by Ladinsky were beautiful, and some were laugh-out-loud funny.
“BIRDS DON’T BRAG ABOUT FLYING Birds don’t brag about flying the way we do. They don’t write books about it and then give workshops, they don’t take on disciples and spoil their own air time. Who could dance and achieve liftoff with a bunch of whackos tugging on you?”
― Daniel Ladinsky, Love Poems from God: Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West
This week I had my favorite conversation of the month, and it's recorded so you can listen in! Once a month (for two years recorded and three years plus total, Davin, Michael, and I have met to share a haiku and our reflections on haiku's from the other two.) I hope you'll take some time to listen in.
Visit Michael’s Profound Living to see our Haiku cards from April.
I try to pay attention to words or phrases that stand out in my reading and listening. There is a spiritual practice called Florliledgium that collects short, interesting pieces {words that “sparkle” up} and puts them together. This is kind of like that. Watching for things that sparkle. Gathering them and seeing how they work together and what message, mantra, or new idea might arise.
A Practice:
Read slowly.
Notice if a word or phrase stands out to you.
How do the words make you feel?
Is there an invitation?
This week I’m sharing quotes from books that I’ve finished in the past couple of months.
“We need to mourn what we’ve lost before we can see what we still have’,”
― Pádraig Ó Tuama, Borders and Belonging: The Book of Ruth: A Story for Our Times
“It’s about acquiring a vision that allows us to see what has always been here, within us. It’s about the quality and intensity of our existence. It’s about the possibility of actually being present, instead of being caught without even realizing it in the endless stories the ego tells; from the second we wake up, dividing us from what’s already right here, dividing us from each other and ourselves, dividing us from what we consider good, or god. It’s about really waking up to the fact that our system of understanding the world is no longer serving us.”
― Meggan Watterson, Mary Magdalene Revealed: The First Apostle, Her Feminist Gospel & the Christianity We Haven't Tried Yet
“The deepest transformations in our lives come down to something very simple: We learn to respond, not react, to what is going on inside us.”
― Tara Brach, Radical Compassion: Learning to Love Yourself and Your World with the Practice of RAIN
“Imagination is theology; we can only believe what we can imagine. And our cultural landscape hasn’t given us many tools to imagine a non-white, non-male God.”
― Christena Cleveland, God Is a Black Woman
“If we take an honest look at the mistakes we've made, we'll see that many of them were a reaction to unnamed fear within us.”
― Mark E. Thibodeaux, God's Voice Within: The Ignatian Way to Discover God's Will
I didn't start noting where I found these lines until a few pages after this page, so I can't identify the sources for these quotes! Several are from Praying the Psalms: An Invitation to Wholeness by Nan C. Merrill and probably a few lines from the Center for Action and Contemplation Daily Meditations.