life: acoustic & amplified
poetry, quotes & thoughts about life
Archive for the month “October, 2012”
on this and every day
Beannacht
On the day when
the weight deadens
on your shoulders
and you stumble,
may the clay dance
to balance you.
And when your eyes
freeze behind
the grey window
and the ghost of loss
gets into you,
may the flock of colors,
indigo, red, green
and azure blue
come to awaken in you
a meadow of delight.
When the canvas frays
in the curach of thought
and a stain of ocean blackens beneath you,
may there come across the waters
a path of yellow moonlight
to bring you safely home.
May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
may the clarity of light be yours,
may the fluency of the ocean be yours,
may the protection of the ancestors be yours.
And so may a slow
wind work these words
of love around you,
an invisible cloak
to mind your life.
John O’Donohue
Presents
I give you an emptiness,
I give you a plenitude,
unwrap them carefully.
— one’s as fragile as the other —
and when you thank me
I’ll pretend not to notice the doubt in your voice
When you say they’re just what you wanted.
Put them on the table by your bed.
When you wake in the morning
they’ll have gone through the door if sleep
Into your head. Wherever you go
they’ll go with you and
wherever you are they’ll wonder,
smiling about the fullness
you can’t add to and the emptiness
that you can’t fill.
Norman MacCaig
Relax and let all of life flow through you…even the bad days! 🙂
Man needs reckless courage to descend into the abyss of himself. -Yeats
There is a strange paradox in the soul: if you try to avoid or remove the awkward quality; it will pursue you. In fact, the only way to still its unease is to transform it, to let it become something creative and positive that contributes to who you are.
In actual fact, these demons do not account for all the subconscious. The primal energy of our soul holds a wonderful warmth and welcome for us. One of the reasons we were sent onto the earth was to make this connection with ourselves, this inner friendship. 
The demons will haunt us, if we remain afraid. Each inner demon holds a precious blessing that will heal and free you. To receive this gift, you have to lay aside your fear and take the risk of loss and change that every inner encounter offers (edited) – John O’Donohue in Anam Cara
New newsletter – thoughts on Good and Evil at www.songsfromthevalley.com
more thoughts on ‘but if not…’
Job said, “I cry to you and you do not answer me;
I stand, and you merely look at me.”
Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind:
“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you have understanding.
Who determined its measurements—
surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?
On what were its bases sunk?
Who laid its cornerstone
when the morning stars sang together
and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy?
Or who shut in the sea with
when it burst out from the womb?”
—Job. 30.20, 38.4-8
We want answers.
God gives us presence,
but not answers.
Loving attention, gazing at us from within,
faithful companionship,
walking with us through this amazing Creation,
all of it fashioned in a love and wisdom
that we can’t comprehend,
with wild art and crazy beauty
and boundless love–
this Creation that holds us and births us
and cherishes us even in our mortal unravelings,
offers us delights in its steady hands,
even in our tragedies–
reverence that ours can’t even imitate,
purpose that the human mind can’t read
any better than the poetry of the time before time,
forgiveness, mercy and delight–
but not answers.
Beyond all suffering and pleasure,
reason and meaning,
our desperate clutch at making sense,
the love God gives us
doesn’t need to become any less
than perfect mystery.
No answer,
just God.
______________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
http://www.unfoldinglight.net
We tend to want what we want. Especially in our leaps of faith. I think most of us decide what we think we want before we take the leap of faith. I know for many years I had this vision of what life would be when I leap off the cliff. I had plans a – zz, and when things started going off track then I would try something new. I always had a new plan.
Over years of walking in faith, in which life was in NO WAY how I thought it should be, I came to a place in my healing where I asked the question, ‘What if my life never gets better? What if THIS is the life God wants for me. What if I die here in obscurity, in poverty, in pain, in a terrible relationship, with unresolved business, in hunger, never knowing my children, or doing anything very worthy as far as the world is concerned? What if this is my life? What if I never get to heal, hold my grandchildren, or help anyone else through tough times, or use what I have been through for good, or even eat good food again? What if never gets better?’
When I came to this question I was about 11 years into the journey. I had walked through 11 really bad years. I mean REALLY bad years. I had held onto my faith in this walk through year after year, always believing there was a reason. I had hit walls a few times, but always got back up. Always believed it would get better. Making very difficult choices towards healing, towards joy, living in thankfulness. Continuing to have hope during the darkness when the light within me was, sometimes, only a tiny flame trying to hold on during a wind storm of magnificent proportions.
Suddenly I came face to face with the horrible truth. All of these years it just kept being bad, getting badder. There was no movement in a better direction and suddenly I had to face this brutal truth. Maybe this was what I was supposed to be doing. Maybe this was it for me! Bam! In your face. What now? I had thought there was a glorious purpose for me. I had visualized standing on a world stage singing to many people and sharing my story. That was my vision. What if it was MY vision. It was a great vision…I had thought that God had placed those desires in my heart…but if not….what then? Could I accept it? Could I continue to praise? Could I bring God glory in the gray? Could I say, ‘not my will, but thine be done’?
And so a choice was upon me.
And as I lay there thinking of this most startling and horrid thought, the words of Job came to me, ‘though he slay me, still will I trust Him’ – Job 13:15. My obedience was all I was able to give to this God of such magnitude and mystery who I had experienced on this journey of grace and miracles. I wouldn’t trade this love, peace and joy for anything this world could offer me. Being uncomfortable, being hungry was a small price to pay. I would follow on, and die right there if that was God’s plan.
I began to understand what it means to ‘take up your cross daily’. To stop visualizing ‘better days’, but to find the grace to be in that particular moment and create my life each moment for God. Not in the future, but the right now. I began to understand why ‘mercies are new every morning’. I began to live, like Mother Teresa advised, ‘If you can’t feed one hundred, feed one’. I began to see, even more intensely, how important it is to live this moment. This moment is your life. We have no guarantee. Don’t wait. Don’t cling. Enter this moment and live it. It has changed me, and changed how I proceed, how I view success. How I experience my own belovedness. How I interact with the people who filter through my life every day. It lead me to begin the newsletter. It has lead me right here.
The hardest thing for me is to step out in faith without a plan. I want a plan. I have great plans! I have a wonderful imagination! I want ideas to try, and people to ask. I want to ‘make things happen’ – I can run myself in circles, stay busy doing nothing of value and make things look like I got it under control. I’m good at it! ha What I’m not so good at? Patience. Waiting. Resting. Letting go. I have learned I am free to choose – and I have decided to choose God.
I am currently living, once again, on the delicate limb of faith, hanging off a cliff with sharp rocks, raging water and hungry alligators down below me. It is a difficult, uncomfortable and exhausting place to be. I am living every moment with the choice of what I do in the space of ‘but if not…’
and, here I stand and I say, ‘give me grace for today, Lord. strengthen me in this moment and the next. My God is so big, I know there is only good from this love beyond my comprehension. Not my will. Move me out of the way. Help me let go. My God will deliver, but if not…I still will not stop my praise for my God who has poured out so much blessing on me. For all that’s been done for me! I am loved and I must pour out my love in return. Freely. I pour out my life as a puddle of praise and obedience. I have found this love that has healed my life and I am blessed beyond what I can ever comprehend! Blessed am I among women. In everything give thanks becaue everything is grace.
This is not the easy choice – but it the only choice which matters!
true beauty comes from the heart
She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellow’d to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impair’d the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o’er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.
And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!
“She Walks in Beauty” by Lord Byron
following
The one thing you lack is whatever you need to let go of.
Once you have unclenched your fists from your money
there is your health and your family,
your faith, your assurance, your feeling good.
The Beloved waits for you, while you are encumbered
with whatever you’d rather have than God.
The one thing is to go beyond your fear.
Whatever you are afraid to let go of
is what stands between you and coming to God
with open arms and empty hands,
trusting that what you’ve lost you will receive
a hundredfold in this age,
and in the age to come eternal life.
Take off that bulky coat of fear.
Allow yourself to come to a place
where what you treasure is paltry
compared to what you receive.
Thread the needle.
Let go of everything, now, in this moment.
In the perfect poverty of prayer
walk away from it all to God,
poor and naked, alone and without recourse.
Utterly needy and dependent, fall helplessly
into God’s waiting arms,
where you will receive,
Beloved,
you will receive.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
be soft. do not let the world make you hard – Kurt Vonnegut
photo by Nici Tietjen Derosie
http://artshapedworld.com/
http://artshapedworld.blogspot.com/
Just a few timeless life lessons we all learn on the road of life…
1. Beauty comes from within. – You will never be beautiful like me. You can only be beautiful like you. One does not become beautiful by trying to be beautiful. One becomes beautiful by finding beauty in what’s already within.
2. Pain has a purpose. – Pain doesn’t just show up in your life for no reason. It’s a sign that something in your life needs to change. This change takes strength. But remember, it’s not that those who are strong never get weak in the knees, or that they never gasp for a breath. It’s that while their knees are shaking, they force themselves to breathe and to take another step. Read The Road Less Traveled.
3. There are right people, and wrong people, for you. – There are fake people, and those who are true friends. There are people who take the heart out of you, and those who put it back. You have a choice of who to spend time with. True friends have an honest heart, and will go out of their way to help you when you need it most. Stick with the people who never let you down and keep their promises. You can’t fake that.
4. What you focus on grows. – Do not let the negativity wear off on you. Do not let the bitterness steal your sweetness. Promote what you love instead of discrediting what you dislike. When you choose to focus on the things you love, you end up finding more joy and more love in life.
5. What you don’t start today, won’t be finished by tomorrow. – There are seven days in the week and someday isn’t one of them. Ask yourself if what you’re doing today is getting you closer to where you want to be tomorrow. Read Getting Things Done.
6. Sometimes taking your own advice is hard. – You know what to do, but you can’t seem to accept your own good judgment. You’ve said the same exact words to others, but listening to your own words is a struggle. That’s why friends are priceless. Because sometimes you just need to hear it from someone other than yourself.
7. You can’t live your life solely for other people. – When writing the story of your life, don’t let someone else hold the pen. You’ve got to do what’s right for you, even if the people you love disagree with your dreams. Live your life so that when it’s time to ask where the time went, you can answer: “It went to joyful moments of self-discovery, to my search for passion, to doing work that felt like play, to standing up for what I believe in, and to exploring this beautiful world with an open heart. My time went to living MY life!”
8. Forgiveness is the first step to recovery. – Sometimes we don’t forgive people because they deserve it; we forgive them because they need it, because we need it, and because we cannot move forward without it. So cry, forgive, learn, and move on. Let your tears water the seeds of your future growth and happiness.
9. Your beliefs become your reality. – What you believe has more power than what you dream or wish or hope for. You become what you believe. Even though you cannot control everything that happens, you can control your attitude toward what happens. And in that, you will be mastering change rather than allowing it to master you. Read Awaken the Giant Within.
10. Success is rarely easy, but always worth it. – Those who have achieved their dreams know that life is about willpower and persistence. It’s about hanging on to hope when your heart has had enough, and giving even more when your mind and body want to give up. Yes, each step may get harder, but the view from the top is priceless, and well worth enduring the journey to get there.
http://www.marcandangel.com/2012/10/11/10-timeless-lessons/#more-473
life: acoustic & amplified 