Kate Vogt's Blog, page 3

REFLECTION – wordless wisdom

Who speaks the sound of an echo?
Who paints the image in a mirror?
Where are the spectacles in a dream?
Nowhere at all – that’s the nature of mind!

Tree-Leaf Woman

As the sun began to set, the pond became still.   I was hiking with my most cherished friend Jay around a small body of water in Northern California.  Walking a trail high above the water’s surface, we were feeling gusts of wind at the higher elevation, yet visually experiencing the calmness below.

We continued our walk in silence.   ...

MOUNTAIN – Prayerful Reverence

The birds have vanished down the sky.
Now the last cloud drains away.

We sit together, the mountain and me,
until only the mountain remains.

Li Po
Translated by Sam Hamill

It’s an early winter morning here in the Northern Hemisphere.   Daybreak seems far away, with The Big Dipper and other nighttime constellations still glistening in the sky.  As I settle in to watch the slow and gentle transition from darkness to light, I’m noticing a faint, yet clear, silhouette of a mountain ridge in the dis...

A CUP OF TEA

Be a gardener,
dig and ditch,
toil and sweat,
and turn the earth upside down
and seek the deepness
and water the plants in time.
Continue this labor and make sweet floods to run
and noble and abundant fruits to spring.

Julian of Norwich

In my resting from recovering from a long journey to the other side of the planet, I find myself lingering over my morning cup of tea.  There is no particular type of tea:  it might be a green tea or a lovely herbal blend that a friend gave me that turns the wate...

WATER – sacred currents

losing its name
a river
enters the sea

John Sandbach

I recently returned from a short trip to India.  Although life has taken me there several times, I am always appreciative of India’s palpable reminder of the constant changing nature of existence.  Everything finds a way to keep moving forward, seemingly flowing toward an unseen, yet sacred, destination, like a river returning to the sea.

I feel that the inherent sacredness within ongoing currents of all life is best symbolized by bodies of wa...

MOON – precious friend

Midnight. No waves,
no wind, the empty boat
is flooded with moonlight.

Døgen Zenji

It is another new moon.  Only a few days ago there was a brilliant smile in the sky.  Now, as though taking a silent pause, the moon is briefly invisible to our human eyes.  Still, in her silence, she is fully present.

A couple of decades ago, I realized I that I was only noticing the moon when she melted the night’s darkness in her fullness.  Wherever I was in the world, I couldn’t miss the magic of her nighttime...

GREEN – invitation to harmonious peacefulness

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I’ll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase each other
doesn’t make any sense.

Rumi
Translated by Coleman Barks

As I stepped off the funicular, I felt like I had stepped into a vast sea of emeralds.  There was pure, bright green for as far as my eyes could see.  Even if I had closed my eyes, every cell in my body was registering and joyfully singi...

EUCALYPTUS – living weeds

The great sea has set me in motion, set me adrift,
moving me like a weed in a river.

The sky and strong wind have moved the spirit inside me
till I am carried away trembling with joy.

Uvavnuk

The road darkened as we wound our way toward the coastline just north of San Francisco.    In the minutes prior to this recent turn in the road, the surrounding hillsides had glistened as the plants basked in the midday light, but, the stand of eucalyptus trees in this section of the highway had swallowed m...

POPPIES – humble luminosity

The weight of arrogance is such
that no bird can fly
carrying it.

And the man who feels superior
to others, that man
cannot dance,

the real dance when the soul takes God
into its arms and you both fall
onto your knees in
gratitude,

a blessed gratitude
for life.

St. John of the Cross

 

Bits of shredded paper had flown into the bush.  That is what I thought as I looked far ahead along the pathway up a local hill.  Before my mind could begin generating a reason for that apparent trash’s whereabouts...

FEATHER – gift of eternity

One instant is eternity;
eternity is the now.
When you see through this one instant,
you see through the one who sees.

Wu-Men
Translated by Stephen Mitchell

As I opened the front door for my early morning walk, I expected to see the porch covered with leaves.  Instead, I was greeted by blue sky and calm air.  The only leaves to be seen were quietly glistening in the sunlight, securely tethered to the tree branches.  I found myself feeling everything had momentarily paused.  It was a new day, a ...

DRAGONFLY

In
His
loving eyes
your every thought, word, and movement
is always, always

beautiful.

Hafiz
Translated by Daniel Ladinsky

I stared at the leafless geranium plant.  Yesterday this plant being had been filled with red buds and an abundance of leaves.  Just as my heart was torn between sadness for the plant and happiness for the sated deer, a blue dragonfly landed on the bare stock.

Change is rarely easy, but everything is born, lives and dies of change.  That is the message I imagined hearing fr...