Brian Norsman

[revsailor1]

The Inner Sea Remember the description of creation in which God’s Spirit hovers over the chaos and brings forth life in the world. This inner sea is our meeting place with God who hovers over the waters of our chaos within and without – who breathes life into us and pulls our partners from our very side and breathes life into them too. God does not want us to be alone. This silence is the time when God breathes the breath of life into you – breathes into your body his love for you – and brings forth from your body love for others and for all creation. This silence is God’s gift of love to you. -Richard Carter, The City is My Monastery: A Contemporary Rule of Life 📷 Credit: Liz Tauer https://www.instagram.com/p/CLorfFpl-BI/?igshid=e9yfnz0zone8

[revsailor1]

BELOVED IS WHERE WE BEGIN If you would enter into the wilderness, do not begin without a blessing. Do not leave without hearing who you are: Beloved, named by the One who has traveled this path before you. Do not go without letting it echo in your ears, and if you find it is hard to let it into your heart, do not despair. That is what this journey is for. I cannot promise this blessing will free you from danger, from fear, from hunger or thirst, from the scorching of sun or the fall of the night. But I can tell you that on this path there will be help. I can tell you that on this way there will be rest. I can tell you that you will know the strange graces that come to our aid only on a road such as this, that fly to meet us bearing comfort and strength, that come alongside us for no other cause than to lean themselves toward our ear and with their curious insistence whisper our name: Beloved. Beloved. Beloved. —Jan Richardson from Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons https://www.instagram.com/p/CLjpDCNFYti/?igshid=5ies6b7691qe

[revsailor1]

Beloved Child of God so Fine Be Still in the Quiet of Time Be Loved by Grace and Love Divine Be love to the World of Mine Photo by Therese Lake from the Contemplative Photography Group, a contemplative photography group designated to companion one another and receive photos that move our souls. Come journey with fellow contemplatives at https://www.facebook.com/groups/contemplativephotography https://www.instagram.com/p/CLerCCSlxom/?igshid=t6699bm2sd6d

[revsailor1]

In this season of giving, many of us are looking for the perfect gifts to give our family or friends or coworkers. But there is only one perfect gift. It is the priceless gift that God gave to all of humanity on that first Christmas, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. Allow yourself to receive God's gift of the Christ Child with great joy, and share his love and blessings with others every chance you get. -Henri Nouwen #Merry #Christmas https://www.instagram.com/p/CJOfV08l0hw/?igshid=j3m7hc1pq792

[revsailor1]

Happy Anniversary to my most beautiful partner in life... #15Years #Sena #Blessed https://www.instagram.com/p/CGGpO5Gjszl/?igshid=oxvwhr0qwcf8

[revsailor1]

Yesterday I texted someone in gratitude... “Praise God from whom all blessings flow.” My phone autocorrect changed the word “flow” to “glow.”Initially, I had a few choice words. I quickly and humbly changed my mind. I liked that. Today may you “Praise God from whom all blessings GLOW! Pause, slow down, and look for the GLOW or burning bush. You might even find the GLOW of a double rainbow promise... (at St. Andrew's Lutheran Church MN) https://www.instagram.com/p/CFzbs34DI7W/?igshid=yum8pv4glq2m

[revsailor1]

A Prayer When the Way is Not Clear MY LORD GOD, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore, I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone. Amen. - Thomas Merton (at Stillwater, Minnesota) https://www.instagram.com/p/CFKLhWPDPm0/?igshid=1sl0u0lrg59n3

[revsailor1]

And, so school finally begins again for G. Have a blessed year kid! #TimeFlies (at Stillwater, Minnesota) https://www.instagram.com/p/CEkjtCQjAnb/?igshid=1ufvmu1lbt60r

[revsailor1]

What in your life is calling you? When all the meetings are adjourned And the lists laid aside And the wild iris blooms By itself In the dark forest, What still pulls at your soul? -Tewa Collective What is pulling at your soul today? Calling you? 📸 @briannorsman (at Holy Wisdom Monastery) https://www.instagram.com/p/CAI3UGTDf2A/?igshid=1p5rigscbmkjb

[revsailor1]

Sometime all you need is a rainbow 🌈 of promise... (at Stillwater, Minnesota) https://www.instagram.com/p/B_d9yY5DvUI/?igshid=21stuj6hk1ph

[revsailor1]

When we look into the heart, May our eyes have kindness And reverence of candlelight And when we come to search for God Let us first be robed in night, Put on the mind of morning To feel the rush of light Spread slowly inside The color and stillness Of a found world By John o’Donahue, For light (at Stillwater, Minnesota) https://www.instagram.com/p/B_NIP2pDZQb/?igshid=dsmertr14y2l

[revsailor1]

When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things The Peace if Wild Things, by Wendall Berry Photo Credit: @briannorsman . . . . . #contemplative #photography ##contemplativephotigraphy #pondlife #watercolor #water_reflection #trees #treesofinstagram #treesofinstagram #reflectiongram #reflection_super_pics #naturephotography #naturepic #mindful #mindfulwalk #wanderlust #pause #reflect #spring #springtime #photographs #peaceful #serene #sunsets #sunsetlover #pilgrimage #pilgrimagewithin (at Stillwater, Minnesota) https://www.instagram.com/p/B_JHlKOD-t2/?igshid=18f85iyafm1mn

[revsailor1]

This is the time to be slow, Lie low to the wall Until the bitter weather passes. Try, as best you can, not to let The wire brush of doubt Scrape from your heart All sense of yourself And your hesitant light. If you remain generous, Time will come good; And you will find your feet Again on fresh pastures of promise, Where the air will be kind And blushed with beginning. JOHN O'DONOHUE Excerpt from his books, To Bless the Space Between Us (US) / Benedictus (Europe) Photo: @briannorsman https://www.instagram.com/p/B-XPuIyDFBk/?igshid=124sifhnsl8sf

[revsailor1]

Pandemic What if you thought of it as the Jews consider the Sabbath— the most sacred of times? Cease from travel. Cease from buying and selling. Give up, just for now, on trying to make the world different than it is. Sing. Pray. Touch only those to whom you commit your life. Center down. And when your body has become still, reach out with your heart. Know that we are connected in ways that are terrifying and beautiful. (You could hardly deny it now.) Know that our lives are in one another’s hands. (Surely, that has come clear.) Do not reach out your hands. Reach out your heart. Reach out your words. Reach out all the tendrils of compassion that move, invisibly, where we cannot touch. Promise this world your love– for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, so long as we all shall live. –Lynn Ungar Photo Credit: @briannorsman https://www.instagram.com/p/B-E7RUdDChO/?igshid=16mkemdsdqe0x

[revsailor1]

Sea Fever I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky, And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by, And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking, And a gray mist on the sea's face, and a gray dawn breaking. I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied; And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying, And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying. I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life, To the gull's way and the whale's way, where the wind's like a whetted knife; And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover, And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over. Poem by John Masefield Photo Credit: @briannorsman #contemplative #photography #beach #tallships #ocean #instaphotography (at Santa Bárbara De Samaná, Samana, Dominican Republic) https://www.instagram.com/p/B-AjgEcjc40/?igshid=ckp4dac00pao

[revsailor1]

Morning Contemplation Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart, and try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Do not search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer. ~ Rainer Maria Rilke (Book of Hours) From @contemplativemonk Photo Credit: @briannorsman #contemplation #peace #hope #photography #poem #beach #waves #sunshine #sunnyday (at Las Terrenas) https://www.instagram.com/p/B94AC5vFDaq/?igshid=1uf033ahs9a3g

[revsailor1]

A Morning Offering I bless the night that nourished my heart To set the ghosts of longing free Into the flow and figure of dream That went to harvest from the dark Bread for the hunger no one sees. All that is eternal in me Welcomes the wonder of this day, The field of brightness it creates Offering time for each thing To arise and illuminate. I place on the altar of dawn: The quiet loyalty of breath, The tent of thought where I shelter, Waves of desire I am shore to And all beauty drawn to the eye. May my mind come alive today To the invisible geography That invites me to new frontiers, To break the dead shell of yesterdays, To risk being disturbed and changed. May I have the courage today To live the life that I would love, To postpone my dream no longer But do at last what I came here for And waste my heart on fear no more. By John O’Donohue https://www.instagram.com/p/B8jBWkrFL-a/?igshid=705thbyo1dzt