living fully

Light for the Journey: Alive With Closed Eyes: A Reflection on Risk, Wonder, and Light

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What if the bravest thing you could do today is leap—without needing to see the landing?

“I will take the sun in my mouth
and leap into the ripe air 
Alive 
with closed eyes
to dash against darkness”
― E.E. Cummings

 Reflection

This brief yet blazing image invites us into courage without calculation. To “take the sun in my mouth” is to accept life fully—heat, brilliance, and risk included. With closed eyes, the leap becomes an act of trust rather than control. Cummings suggests that aliveness is not cautious; it is wholehearted. We don’t wait for darkness to disappear—we move through it, carried by vitality and wonder. The poem reminds us that meaning is found not by standing safely on the edge, but by choosing engagement, even when outcomes are uncertain. To live awake is to leap anyway.

Something to Think About:

Where in your life might you be called to leap—trusting your inner light more than your fear of the dark?

Awaken Your Inner Puppy: Rekindle the Joy of Living Spontaneously

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When was the last time you leapt into life without hesitation—like a dog racing toward a freezing lake just for the thrill of it?

A good friend lives in the northern climate of the US. It may be in the mid 80s in San Antonio but my friend’s temperature this morning is in the low 30s. When my friend went running with her two dogs, she ran in a park with a trail that leads to a large lake. The dogs are allowed to be off leash and she lets them have a free run. She carries a lease with her in case she needs to restrain the dogs, but that has not been a problem for her. When they were 100 m away from the lake the younger of the two dogs took off and headed straight to the lake. The younger dog jumped in the lake and swam out 30 m. The older dog put a foot in the water when they reached the lake and decided it was too cold. I always want to have the spirit of the younger dog. Spontaneous, carefree, and filled with the desire to enjoy life and all that it offers. When we grow older we tend to lose that carefree spirit. What’s something spontaneous and carefree that you can do today to let a fire under the youthful energy that you still have inside you

What’s one spontaneous thing you could do today to reconnect with your playful, carefree spirit?

here’s to opening and upward ~ A Poem by e. e. cummings

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Opening and Upward: Living with Joy

In here’s to opening and upward, e. e. cummings toasts life’s beauty, urging us to feel joy beyond reason and celebrate love, nature, and wonder.

here’s to opening and upward

e. e. cummings

here’s to opening and upward, to leaf and to sap
and to your(in my arms flowering so new)
self whose eyes smell of the sound of rain

and here’s to silent certainly mountains;and to
a disappearing poet of always,snow
and to morning;and to morning’s beautiful friend
twilight(and a first dream called ocean)and

let must or if be damned with whomever’s afraid
down with ought with because with every brain
which thinks it thinks,nor dares to feel(but up
with joy;and up with laughing and drunkenness)

here’s to one undiscoverable guess
of whose mad skill each world of blood is made
(whose fatal songs are moving in the moon

Source

Joy ~ A Poem by Carl Sandburg

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Let Joy Take You: Carl Sandburg’s Fierce Call to Live Fully
Joy isn’t meant to be tiptoed around—it’s meant to be seized, clutched, and embraced until it shakes your ribs.

Joy

Carl Sandburg

Let a joy keep you.
Reach out your hands
And take it when it runs by,
As the Apache dancer
Clutches his woman.
I have seen them
Live long and laugh loud,
Sent on singing, singing,
Smashed to the heart
Under the ribs
With a terrible love.
Joy always,
Joy everywhere—
Let joy kill you!
Keep away from the little deaths.

Source

Reflection:

Carl Sandburg’s Joy is not a polite suggestion—it’s a command to grab joy with both hands before it slips away. The poem’s imagery moves from the lighthearted to the visceral, showing joy as something that can strike deep, even painfully, yet still sustain and energize us. The Apache dancer’s grasp is not gentle, but urgent—just as life’s moments of joy often demand our full, unhesitating embrace. Sandburg warns us against “the little deaths”—those small, soul-numbing surrenders to apathy, routine, or fear. His is a call to live not halfway, but all the way, even if joy, in its intensity, overwhelms us. It’s an invitation to be shattered open, not closed off—to risk the beautiful pain of living wide awake.

Three Questions to Dive Deeper:

  1. What are your “little deaths,” and how can you avoid letting them steal your vitality?
  2. When was the last time you held onto joy with the urgency Sandburg describes?
  3. How might embracing joy “smash you to the heart” in a way that transforms your life?

Light for the Journey: Created for Joy, Not Just Pleasure—A Thomas Merton Wake-Up Call

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Pleasure fades, joy transforms. Learn the difference, and you’ll discover life’s truest calling.

Do not look for rest in any pleasure, because you were not created for pleasure: you were created for joy. And if you do not know the difference between pleasure and joy you have not yet begun to live. ~ Thomas Merton

Reflection:

Thomas Merton draws a bold line between pleasure and joy—a line that defines the quality of our lives. Pleasure is fleeting, like a spark in the dark; it warms for a moment and then disappears. Joy, however, is a steady flame, lighting the path of purpose, meaning, and love. Pleasure often asks nothing of us but the willingness to receive. Joy asks for everything—our attention, our courage, our openness to life’s deeper currents. To seek only pleasure is to skim the surface of living. To seek joy is to dive into its depths, to discover why you are here, and to live in harmony with your true nature. Merton’s challenge is clear: know the difference, and begin to truly live.

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