Preface

There comes a point once we’ve lived long enough, when the harvest produced in our soil is more than is needed by one’s soul. May it not go to waste. Here we pause to offer some produce pickings from the fertile garden that has been granted to us.

Why Pause?
Why pause to share produce pickings? Plain and simple, because those who have had the good fortune of witnessing and participating in the cultivation and harvest of fruits and flowers must share these with those who may be nurtured by them.

Why pause? We pause because when pausing we can contemplate what is present in the present on this plane. We pause because while pausing we can reflect on what was present in the past. We pause because by pausing we prepare ourselves for the future’s probable and possible presents.

Why pause? A humble haiku answers:

Before proceeding,                       
pause and stop, look and listen.
Breathe > feel > think > ask > act.

What for?
What good are so many words? Another haiku offers a response:

Hot alphabet soup,
warm quilt made of sentences.
To read on cold nights.

Proceed?
We offer for your consideration a collection of words for reflection and response via conversation, and, perhaps, application. According to their content and format, the text in this Pausing series is organized as: Probings, Ponderings, Prayers, Poems, Portraits, Passages, Parables, Projects.

The photographs, taken with a smartphone, simply illustrate pauses with pixels.