#contemplation — Public Fediverse posts

“Love isn’t just the language of the soul, but love is what feeds the soul.”

#contemplation #zen #philosophy

sans titre by Emile Horizon

https://tmblr.co/Z7VXvxjPhN60WW00

#infinite #silence #dream #deep #shadows #beauty #contemplation #poem #staircases #flickr #thingsdavidlikes

The world can only be grasped by action, not by contemplation.
-- Jacob Bronowski

⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #JacobBronowski #Action #Contemplation

⬇ #Photography #Panorama #BartolomeIsland #PinnacleRock #Galapagos

The world can only be grasped by action, not by contemplation.
-- Jacob Bronowski

⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #JacobBronowski #Action #Contemplation

⬇ #Photography #Panorama #BartolomeIsland #PinnacleRock #Galapagos

The world can only be grasped by action, not by contemplation.
-- Jacob Bronowski

⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #JacobBronowski #Action #Contemplation

⬇ #Photography #Panorama #BartolomeIsland #PinnacleRock #Galapagos

The world can only be grasped by action, not by contemplation.
-- Jacob Bronowski

⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #JacobBronowski #Action #Contemplation

⬇ #Photography #Panorama #BartolomeIsland #PinnacleRock #Galapagos

The world can only be grasped by action, not by contemplation.
-- Jacob Bronowski

⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #JacobBronowski #Action #Contemplation

⬇ #Photography #Panorama #BartolomeIsland #PinnacleRock #Galapagos

The Sacred Arithmetic of My Years

A Reflection on Turning Fifty-Nine on May 24, 2026

I do not believe that numbers control my life or determine my future. I do not look to numerology as prophecy or as a replacement for faith in God. Still, I find myself drawn to the symbolic possibilities hidden within dates, names, anniversaries, and coincidences. I have always been one to look beneath the surface of things, to wonder whether something ordinary might contain a whisper of something deeper.

And so, on this birthday, I find myself looking at the numbers of my own life: 5 / 24 / 1967.

Today, I turn fifty-nine. I enter another year grateful for life, even while longing to feel more fully alive within my own body. I have not been feeling well physically, and that has weighed on me. There is so much I want to do, so much I want to create, so much ministry and imagination still stirring within me. It is a strange and sometimes painful thing to feel my spirit reaching outward while my body asks me to slow down.

Perhaps that is why I find myself lingering over these numbers. Not because they can tell me what will happen, but because they give me another language with which to consider who I have been, who I am becoming, and what I still hope to offer.

My full birth date reduces to the number 7:

5 + 2 + 4 + 1 + 9 + 6 + 7 = 34; 3 + 4 = 7.

Seven is often understood as the number of the seeker, the contemplative, the mystic, the one who is drawn toward the deeper questions. I recognize myself in that description. I have never been especially satisfied with what lies only on the surface. I want to know what things mean. I want to know what suffering means, what beauty means, what history means, what faith means, what it means to walk faithfully through a world so broken and yet so astonishingly alive.

I have spent my life seeking God in scripture, in ministry, in music, in stories, in strange fragments of history, in imagined worlds, in the wounds of people, in the possibility of peace, and even in my own unanswered questions. I have often felt that I live somewhere along the border between contemplation and creation, between the desire to understand the world and the desire to reimagine it.

Seven also carries sacred meaning in scripture. It is the rhythm of creation moving toward Sabbath. It is fullness, completion, holy rest. Perhaps there is a word for me in that. I have spent much of my life asking what more I should do, what more I should make, what more I should accomplish. Perhaps the question of this birthday is gentler: What within me is asking to become whole? What in my life needs not more striving, but Sabbath?

I was born on the twenty-fourth day of the month:

2 + 4 = 6.

Six is associated with love, care, responsibility, home, beauty, healing, and service. Here, too, I recognize something of my life. I have given much of myself to ministry, to caring for others, to the church, to my family, to the hope that something I say or create might encourage someone, heal something, reconcile something, or simply remind someone that they are not alone.

The number twenty-four seems especially fitting: the tenderness and relationship of two joined with the grounding and craftsmanship of four, becoming six—a number of care and beauty. Much of what I love involves bringing things together: faith and imagination, peace and play, history and story, pain and hope, scraps of wood arranged into inlay, scattered ideas gathered into poems, songs, sermons, games, or worlds.

Yet care has its shadow. I can so easily feel that I ought to be stronger than I am, more productive than I am, more helpful than I am. I can feel guilty when my body interrupts my hopes or when weariness makes me less able to give. But perhaps this number does not only remind me of my call to care for others. Perhaps it also reminds me that I am a creature worthy of care. I do not have to earn rest. I do not have to apologize for needing healing. I am not valuable only when I am producing, preaching, creating, or carrying someone else.

May, the fifth month, brings another number into my birthday: 5. And the year of my birth also reduces to five:

1 + 9 + 6 + 7 = 23; 2 + 3 = 5.

There is, then, a double current of five woven into my birthday. Five is associated with movement, change, freedom, curiosity, experience, creativity, and new possibilities. Again, I recognize myself. My mind rarely stays in one place for long. A passing historical note can become a story. A phrase can become a song. A forgotten disaster can become a gothic meditation on memory. A theological idea can become a game, a world, an image, a spoken word piece, or an invitation to peace.

This past year has been filled with creative stirring. Stories, images, reflections, PeaceGrooves, imagined kingdoms, spiritual meditations, music, ministry, and new possibilities have continued to rise within me. Sometimes I hardly know what to do with all of it. My imagination feels crowded with doors, and behind each one is another room I want to enter.

And yet five also carries a restlessness. It wants to move. It wants freedom. It wants to run down every road and follow every spark. When my body does not feel well, that restlessness becomes painful. There are days when I feel as though my spirit is already racing ahead while my flesh is standing at the roadside, trying to catch its breath.

I do not want simply to exist. I want to be well enough to live. I want strength to minister, strength to love, strength to create, strength to bring into the world at least some portion of what continues to be born within me.

The month and day of my birth together yield the number 11:

5 + 2 + 4 = 11.

Eleven is often associated with heightened sensitivity, spiritual intuition, imagination, vision, and an unusual awareness of meaning. Reduced, it becomes 2, the number of relationship, compassion, receptivity, and peacemaking.

Perhaps this is part of why I feel things as deeply as I do. Beauty can overwhelm me. Failure can wound me. A story from the past can haunt me. A work of art can awaken something in me. The suffering of the world can feel almost unbearable. I find myself unable simply to accept violence, ugliness, cruelty, or indifference as the normal order of things. Something in me continues to insist that another world is possible, that peace is not foolishness, that imagination matters, that reconciliation is not weakness, that grace is still stronger than fear.

This sensitivity has not always been easy to carry. It means I can become discouraged. It means I can long deeply to be seen, heard, understood, or affirmed. It means I sometimes experience disappointment with an intensity that others may not recognize. But it is also part of the gift I have been given. It is part of what allows me to preach, to write, to create, to listen, to notice, to care.

Perhaps I should not spend so much energy wishing I were less sensitive. Perhaps I should ask God to help me carry that sensitivity with wisdom, humility, and courage.

The numerological pattern for the year beginning with this birthday gives me the number 3:

5 + 2 + 4 + 2 + 0 + 2 + 6 = 21; 2 + 1 = 3.

Three is the number of expression, creativity, voice, imagination, communication, music, storytelling, and joy. I cannot help but smile at that. At a time when I am so aware of physical limitation, the number for the year ahead is not silence or retreat, but expression. It is voice.

Write the stories. Sing the songs. Make the images. Build the worlds. Speak of peace. Preach the goodness of God. Let the things that have long lived inside me take form.

Perhaps I do not need to wait until everything is ideal. Perhaps I do not need to wait until I feel completely strong, completely confident, completely certain that anyone will notice or understand. Perhaps creativity itself is one of the ways I bear witness to life. Perhaps every story, every song, every reflection, every act of beauty is my small refusal to let suffering or discouragement have the final word.

And then there is the number of my age itself: 59.

5 + 9 = 14; 1 + 4 = 5.

Once again, I arrive at five: movement, change, possibility, new roads.

Fifty-nine is a threshold. It is not yet sixty, though I can see sixty from here. There is a temptation at this stage of life to look backward with regret, measuring what has not happened, what recognition has not come, what dreams remain unfinished, what strength seems less certain than it once did. I know that temptation well. I have wondered whether I have done enough with what I have been given. I have feared that some of my deepest gifts might remain unheard or unseen.

But perhaps fifty-nine is not a year for mourning what has not been. Perhaps it is a year for gathering what is still alive. Perhaps it is a year for listening closely to the call that has never quite left me alone. Perhaps it is a year for opening the doors that remain before me rather than staring only at the ones that seemed to close.

When I gather these numbers together, they seem to form a kind of portrait:

7 — I am a seeker, drawn toward mystery, contemplation, and the deep questions of God and life.
6 — I am a caregiver, a pastor, a lover of beauty, home, healing, and reconciliation.
11/2 — I am sensitive to meaning, to suffering, to vision, and to the fragile possibility of peace.
5 — I am restless with creativity, longing for freedom, movement, renewal, and life.
3 — I am entering a year of voice, expression, story, music, and joy.

These numbers do not define me. God does. But perhaps they name something true about the way grace has moved through my years.

I am fifty-nine years old today. I am grateful, though I am tired. I am hopeful, though I am not entirely well. I am surrounded by unfinished ideas, unanswered questions, creative longings, ministry responsibilities, and the quiet awareness that life is precious precisely because it is not endless.

I want to be well. I want to feel strength returning to my body. I want more years with my wife, more years of ministry, more years of creating, more years of discovering the hidden beauty of this world and offering whatever beauty I can in return. I want to continue seeking the goodness of God in the land of the living.

And perhaps that is enough for this birthday: not certainty, not achievement, not proof that everything I have hoped for will come to pass, but the grace to stand at this threshold and say:

I am still here.
I am still seeking.
I am still loving.
I am still imagining.
I am still creating.
I am still hoping.
And by the mercy of God, I am still becoming.

Prayer at Fifty-Nine

God of all my years,
gather the seeker in me.
Strengthen the caregiver in me.
Steady the restless creator in me.
Heal what is weary in me.
Comfort what is afraid in me.
Awaken what is still waiting to be born.

Teach me to receive rest without guilt,
care without embarrassment,
and life itself as grace.

Let this year not be measured only
by what I accomplish,
but by how faithfully I love,
how courageously I create,
how deeply I listen,
and how fully I trust Your goodness.

Give me strength for the road ahead,
joy in the work still before me,
and peace in the knowledge
that I have never walked alone.

May I see Your goodness,
again and again,
in the land of the living.

Amen.

WildWords – Lord of the Flies

The flies come first
as rumor,

black letters of punctuation
in the cellar air,

small restless witnesses
to what I have not buried.

They find the hidden place
before I do,

the sweetness gone sour,
the secret body
given back to its elements.

I thought death
would announce itself
with trumpets,

or thunder,

or at least
a proper lament.

But here it is
in wings,

in the frantic scripture
of a thousand tiny bodies

writing circles
around the bulb.

Lord of the flies,
lord of the unclean corners,
lord of what ripens
when I refuse to look,

you do not create the death.

You only reveal it.

You rise from the wound
and make it audible.

You gather
where something has ended
and been left unnamed.

So I stand in the basement
with paper strips hanging
like sad yellow prayers,

with poison in the air,
with a broom in my hand,

and I know
this is not only about flies.

Something in me
has also gone untended.

Some old grief
has softened in the dark.

Some resentment
has been born in bitter warmth.

Some fear
has bred in the damp boxes
of the soul.

And the outer world,
faithful as a mirror,
begins to reflect what is within.

The dead thing calls forth wings.

The buried thing
becomes a cloud.

Lord above,
but Lord beneath even this,

teach me to descend
without disgust,

to find what has died,
to name it,
to remove it,

to open the window
where I can,

to let the clean wind
do its slow ministry.

For even the fly
is a witness,

even decay
is a kind of bell,

even infestation
can become annunciation

if it leads me
to the hidden corpse,

if it leads me
to the truth,

if it leads me
at last

to bury what is dead
and bless what still
wants to live.

WildWords – Lord of the Flies

The flies come first
as rumor,

black letters of punctuation
in the cellar air,

small restless witnesses
to what I have not buried.

They find the hidden place
before I do,

the sweetness gone sour,
the secret body
given back to its elements.

I thought death
would announce itself
with trumpets,

or thunder,

or at least
a proper lament.

But here it is
in wings,

in the frantic scripture
of a thousand tiny bodies

writing circles
around the bulb.

Lord of the flies,
lord of the unclean corners,
lord of what ripens
when I refuse to look,

you do not create the death.

You only reveal it.

You rise from the wound
and make it audible.

You gather
where something has ended
and been left unnamed.

So I stand in the basement
with paper strips hanging
like sad yellow prayers,

with poison in the air,
with a broom in my hand,

and I know
this is not only about flies.

Something in me
has also gone untended.

Some old grief
has softened in the dark.

Some resentment
has been born in bitter warmth.

Some fear
has bred in the damp boxes
of the soul.

And the outer world,
faithful as a mirror,
begins to reflect what is within.

The dead thing calls forth wings.

The buried thing
becomes a cloud.

Lord above,
but Lord beneath even this,

teach me to descend
without disgust,

to find what has died,
to name it,
to remove it,

to open the window
where I can,

to let the clean wind
do its slow ministry.

For even the fly
is a witness,

even decay
is a kind of bell,

even infestation
can become annunciation

if it leads me
to the hidden corpse,

if it leads me
to the truth,

if it leads me
at last

to bury what is dead
and bless what still
wants to live.

'Transparenz' #FotoVorschlag

#NikonZ6 #NikonZ #NIKON Z 6 | 70 mm | f/10 | 1/30 | ISO 500 | 18.04.2020

#hess_photography #Photography #Fotografie #Landscapephotography #Landschaftsfotografie #water #glass #reflection #blackandwhite #nature #architecture #sailboat #stillness #contemplation #monochrome

Correspondence charts - bullshit or deep insight? I argue that they're both, and both insights and bullshit are useful in their own ways!

https://www.xenofact.com/2026/05/20/connection-contemplation-and-useful-bullshit/

#correspondence #meditation #creativity #contemplation #bullshit

Correspondence charts - bullshit or deep insight? I argue that they're both, and both insights and bullshit are useful in their own ways!

https://www.xenofact.com/2026/05/20/connection-contemplation-and-useful-bullshit/

#correspondence #meditation #creativity #contemplation #bullshit

Correspondence charts - bullshit or deep insight? I argue that they're both, and both insights and bullshit are useful in their own ways!

https://www.xenofact.com/2026/05/20/connection-contemplation-and-useful-bullshit/

#correspondence #meditation #creativity #contemplation #bullshit

Connection, Contemplation, and Useful Bullshit

Connection, Contemplation, and Useful Bullshit

Connection, Contemplation, and Useful Bullshit

“A life that is lived by what others think of you isn’t life at all but rather an existence of constant wondering about what it could have been.”

#contemplation #zen #philosophy

“Love begins where our expectations end.”

#contemplation #zen #philosophy

“When our thoughts become words and actions follow them, we subconsciously permit others to follow our steps, a responsibility not many of us understand the gravity of.”

#contemplation #zen #philosophy

“The darkest times build the strongest bonds between people.”

#contemplation #zen #philosophy

“The downfall of humankind is the belief that one is better than others because of wealth, power, status, social influence, or physical beauty and that one is allowed to rule over others. Eradicate the idea of superiority, and you eradicate what is truly wrong with humanity: its ego.”

#contemplation #zen #philosophy

“The downfall of humankind is the belief that one is better than others because of wealth, power, status, social influence, or physical beauty and that one is allowed to rule over others. Eradicate the idea of superiority, and you eradicate what is truly wrong with humanity: its ego.”

#contemplation #zen #philosophy

“The downfall of humankind is the belief that one is better than others because of wealth, power, status, social influence, or physical beauty and that one is allowed to rule over others. Eradicate the idea of superiority, and you eradicate what is truly wrong with humanity: its ego.”

#contemplation #zen #philosophy

“Respect is earned through decency.”

#contemplation #zen #philosophy

“Respect is earned through decency.”

#contemplation #zen #philosophy

“Respect is earned through decency.”

#contemplation #zen #philosophy

Music Meditation – musical sounds for meditative practice #contemplation #inspiration #meditation #music #sound

Music Meditation - musical sou...

Music Meditation – musical sounds for meditative practice #contemplation #inspiration #meditation #music #sound https://muz4now.com/2023/music-meditation-musical-sounds-for-meditative-practice

https://www.europesays.com/be-fr/107218/ Pensions : La Suède a un système basé sur la responsabilisation de ses futurs retraités… Devrait-on s’en inspirer ? #aged #BE #BEFr #beard #beauty #Belgique #Belgium #character #charm #cold #contemplation #cozy #Culture #elderly #emotion #environment #Expérience #expression #gentle #happiness #joy #kindness #landscape #lifestyle #man #nature #nostalgia #outdoor #peaceful #personality #portrait #résilience #smile #snow #Solitude #Style #warmth #weather #winter #wisdom

“Love begins where our expectations end.”

#contemplation #zen #philosophy

“Love begins where our expectations end.”

#contemplation #zen #philosophy

“Love begins where our expectations end.”

#contemplation #zen #philosophy

“People come and go in our lives. We can’t force them to stay if they are inclined to move on.”

#contemplation #zen #philosophy

“People come and go in our lives. We can’t force them to stay if they are inclined to move on.”

#contemplation #zen #philosophy

“The illusion about the existence of the past and future has proved to be distracting enough for us to miss out on the only thing that exists: an infinite present.”

#contemplation #zen #philosophy

“Tomorrow isn't guaranteed.”

#contemplation #zen #philosophy

“Smiles are often lies on display to avoid opening up about our struggles and sharing our pain with the world.”

#contemplation #zen #philosophy

“Love doesn’t exist and isn’t real without making sacrifices for others.”

#contemplation #zen #philosophy

“Love doesn’t exist and isn’t real without making sacrifices for others.”

#contemplation #zen #philosophy

“Love doesn’t exist and isn’t real without making sacrifices for others.”

#contemplation #zen #philosophy

“Love doesn’t exist and isn’t real without making sacrifices for others.”

#contemplation #zen #philosophy

“Love doesn’t exist and isn’t real without making sacrifices for others.”

#contemplation #zen #philosophy

Sitting on a bench, surrounded by nature and a breathtaking view, we’re reminded of the beauty of contemplation. Take a moment to reflect and let inspiration flow! 🌳✨

📍Bern 🧸, Switzerland 🇨🇭

#BreathtakingViews
#PeacefulMoments
#Contemplation
#Inspiration
#Mindfulness
#Reflection
#Nature

Sitting on a bench, surrounded by nature and a breathtaking view, we’re reminded of the beauty of contemplation. Take a moment to reflect and let inspiration flow! 🌳✨

📍Bern 🧸, Switzerland 🇨🇭

#BreathtakingViews
#PeacefulMoments
#Contemplation
#Inspiration
#Mindfulness
#Reflection
#Nature

Sitting on a bench, surrounded by nature and a breathtaking view, we’re reminded of the beauty of contemplation. Take a moment to reflect and let inspiration flow! 🌳✨

📍Bern 🧸, Switzerland 🇨🇭

#BreathtakingViews
#PeacefulMoments
#Contemplation
#Inspiration
#Mindfulness
#Reflection
#Nature

I care too much and do to little. #overwhelmed #contemplation

A quotation from Edward Morgan

A book is the only place I know in which you can examine a fragile thought without breaking it, or explore an explosive idea without fear that it will go off in your face. It is one of the few sources of information left that is served up without the silent black noise of a headline, the doomy hullabaloo of a commercial. It is one of the few havens remaining where a man’s mind can get both provocation and privacy.

Edward P. Morgan (1910-1993) American journalist
Essay (1955-08-15), “The Literary Bug Doesn’t Bite,” ABC Radio

More about this quote: wist.info/morgan-edward/72251/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #edwardmorgan #edwardpmorgan #book #commercial #consideration #contemplation #ideas #literature #message #reading #solitude

A quotation from Edward Morgan

A book is the only place I know in which you can examine a fragile thought without breaking it, or explore an explosive idea without fear that it will go off in your face. It is one of the few sources of information left that is served up without the silent black noise of a headline, the doomy hullabaloo of a commercial. It is one of the few havens remaining where a man’s mind can get both provocation and privacy.

Edward P. Morgan (1910-1993) American journalist
Essay (1955-08-15), “The Literary Bug Doesn’t Bite,” ABC Radio

More about this quote: wist.info/morgan-edward/72251/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #edwardmorgan #edwardpmorgan #book #commercial #consideration #contemplation #ideas #literature #message #reading #solitude

A quotation from Edward Morgan

A book is the only place I know in which you can examine a fragile thought without breaking it, or explore an explosive idea without fear that it will go off in your face. It is one of the few sources of information left that is served up without the silent black noise of a headline, the doomy hullabaloo of a commercial. It is one of the few havens remaining where a man’s mind can get both provocation and privacy.

Edward P. Morgan (1910-1993) American journalist
Essay (1955-08-15), “The Literary Bug Doesn’t Bite,” ABC Radio

More about this quote: wist.info/morgan-edward/72251/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #edwardmorgan #edwardpmorgan #book #commercial #consideration #contemplation #ideas #literature #message #reading #solitude