Mind Set

a reflection on simplicity and an invitation for the Now

I recently recorded a new podcast on Tend the Flame about the simplicity of setting your mind in the morningmversus chattering ambiguously about mindset. This post has the visual image and the full John O’Donohue poem that I have selected for this year’s request of my own focus.

One of my poems for 2024:

To Learn From Animal Being

by John O'Donohue

Nearer to the earth's heart,

Deeper within its silence:

Animals know this world In a way we never will.

We who are ever

Distanced and distracted

By the parade of bright

Windows thought opens:

Their seamless presence

Is not fractured thus.

Stranded between time

Gone and time emerging,

We manage seldom

To be where we are:

Whereas they are always Looking out from The here and now.

May we learn to return

And rest in the beauty

Of animal being,

Learn to lean low,

Leave our locked minds,

And with freed senses

Feel the earth Breathing with us.

May we enter Into lightness of spirit,

And slip frequently into The feel of the wild.

Let the clear silence Of our animal being

Cleanse our hearts Of corrosive words.

May we learn to walk Upon the earth

With all their confidence

And clear-eyed stillness

So that our minds

Might be baptized

In the name of the wind And the light and the rain.

Wanted to add a little more sunshine to your inbox bb.

More soon,

Kate