William Stafford Quotes

We have to get back to the beauty of just being alive in this present moment.

I am breathing in and out. Realizing this, I began to notice that each moment was not without its beauty.

Wherever we are we have the capacity to enjoy the sunshine, the presence of each other and the wonder of our breathing.

The ability to relax and be mindfully present in the moment comes naturally when we are grateful.

In a meadow full of flowers, you cannot walk through and breathe those smells and see all those colors and remain angry. We have to support the beauty, the poetry, of life.

What is the good of your stars and trees, your sunrise and the wind, if they do not enter into our daily lives?

When people ask me what the most important thing is in life, I answer: 'Just breathe.'

Learning how to be still, to really be still and let life happen - that stillness becomes a radiance.

Arranging a bowl of flowers in the morning can give a sense of quiet in a crowded day - like writing a poem or saying a prayer.

Existence itself does not feel horrible; it feels like an ecstasy, rather, which we have only to be still to experience.

Unending joy is actually closer to us than our own skin, and there is nothing we have to do or get or be to experience it. All we have to do is stop driving it away.

At some point in life the world's beauty becomes enough. You don't need to photograph, paint or even remember it. It is enough.

When you master the art of being fully awake to this moment, you bestow a precious gift on your soul - the experience of love. Being present is the art of the soul.

I just like being present.

Have you not noticed that love is silence? It may be while holding the hand of another, or looking lovingly at a child, or taking in the beauty of an evening. Love has no past or future, and so it is with this extraordinary state of silence.

I try to take each moment at a time.

Yoga always helps me slow down, be present, and be grateful for my health and well-being.

Let your ears hear without trying to hear. Let the mind think without trying to think and without trying to stop it. That is practice.

Zen is everywhere.... But for you, Zen is right here.

Love is when I smile and breathe deeply down to my toes. I've given myself a gift of caring for myself and learned a new way to look at my issues. And I'm lying in some fresh sheets looking out the window at some visual beauty... a mountain, an ocean, a stream, a forest. A lovely man lying next to me or my babies sleeping.

To listen to the silence, wherever you are, is an easy and direct way of becoming present. Even if there is noise, there is always some silence underneath and in between the sounds. Listening to the silence immediately creates stillness inside you.

Whenever you step out of the noise of thinking, that is meditation, and a different state of consciousness arises.

I am alarmed when it happens that I have walked a mile into the woods bodily, without getting there in spirit. In my afternoon walk I would fain forget all my morning occupations and my obligations to Society. But it sometimes happens that I cannot easily shake off the village. The thought of some work will run in my head and I am not where my body is - I am out of my senses. In my walks I would fain return to my senses. What business have I in the woods, if I am thinking of something out of the woods?

Presence is a state of inner spaciousness