life: acoustic & amplified
poetry, quotes & thoughts about life
Archive for the month “November, 2012”
for love of leaves
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leave subsides to leaf .
So Eden sank to grief, …
Nothing gold can stay.
– Robert Frost
All summer, the chlorophyll of the leaf, all that green, absorbs the sun and releases food and it this cycle of chlorophyll that cloaks the leaves’ pure colors.
Shalom kneels under the pear tree, picks herself a yellow leaf, gold for a pocket.
I finger the edge of a scarlet one.
“But come the fall of the year, come November — the chlorophyll ebbs. And the green dims.”
Shalom holds up an ember leaf.
“And there it is — the leaf’s true colors!”
Shalom whispers, bowed over her gilded leaf — “You mean this leaf was always this colour?”
And I nod.
All this brilliance, all this God glory — it is always here.
But life can blind and truth can hide in plain sight and the ways of God burn underneath everything.
Life has blinding cycles of its own — but our God is always blazing glory.
And when you whisper thanks to God — you glimpse the glory of God and pure grace colors your world.
And I pick up a pen to thank through the fall days.
And the dark ebbs and the shadows dim –
and all the trees and the thankful ignite with the true colours of the glorious now.
A Holy Experience
http://www.aholyexperience.com/
Heart and Mind
It is important to make decisions from a place of balance in your life by taking a breath and checking in with heart and mind.
Each of the myriad decisions we make every day has the potential to have a deep impact on our lives. Some choices touch us to our very cores, awakening poignant feelings within us. Others seem at first to be simple but prove to be confusingly complex. We make the best decisions when we approach the decision-making process from a balanced emotional and intellectual foundation. When we have achieved equilibrium in our hearts and in our minds, we can clearly see both sides of an issue or alternative. Likewise, we can accept compromise as a natural fact of life. Instead of relying solely on our feelings or our rationality, we utilize both in equal measure, empowering ourselves to come to a life-affirming and balanced conclusion.
Balance within and balance without go hand in hand. When you are called upon to choose between two or more options, whether they are attractive or distasteful, you should understand all you can about the choice ahead of you before moving forward. If you do not come to the decision from a place of balance, you risk making choices that are irrational and overly emotional or are wholly logical and don’t take your feelings into account. In bringing your thoughts and emotions together during the decision-making process, you ensure that you are taking everything possible into account before moving forward. Nothing is left up to chance, and you have ample opportunity to determine which options are in accordance with your values.
Though some major decisions may oblige you to act and react quickly, most will allow you an abundance of time in which to mull over your choices. If you doubt your ability to approach your options in a balanced fashion, take an extended time-out before responding to the decision. This will give you the interlude you need to make certain that your thoughts and feelings are in equilibrium. As you practice achieving balance, you will ultimately reach a state of mind in which you can easily make decisions that honor every aspect of the self.
election and beyond
Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory.
No matter what choices we make today,
what wisdom or folly we give authority,
what greed or compassion we give voice,
what prophets or scoundrels we give power,
no matter who wins and loses,
God is at work in the world,
and the world belongs wholly to God.
Our work and our choices matter,
and God uses them as a master uses tools;
but God also has far greater, unseen powers,
at work in the world beyond our knowing,
before whom all our laws and leaders are puny.
Whatever dreams or fears we empower today
it will not be enough:
we have neither saved nor ended the world.
Grace will abide; and the work will go on:
the gentle man with holes in his hands
will continue to feed the hungry and heal the sick
and tear down the scaffolding of evil,
will continue to die with the outcast
and rise with healing in his wings
and his children in his arms,
and will continue to call his laborers
into the field to lay their hands
on the great harvest of life.
Make your choices today (and everyday),
and cry out with the voice of peace and mercy.
And trust that greater by
than all our human triumphs and suffering,
greater than our nations
and the walls be build around them
is the Realm of one whose power and glory
is infinite, the steady, healing hand of One
whose very name is Love.
______________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
http://www.unfoldinglight.net
The Surrender
I went to school this morning
In the world frosted and glittering
I watched a golden tree
Freely unloading itself
In the beautiful a-bun-dance of autumn
I watched in silence from a distant bench
And then I stood with the tree
and accepted the flow of life
the circle of season
It surprised me
It was a musical process
this sound of surrender
Filling me
I felt the soft plops of berries
the whisper dance of leaves on my hat
The drum beat leading the celebration dance
of..
letting go
freedom
re-birth to come
at my feet
I was a witness to the grand nature of trees
It taught me lessons
in minutes
answers I have been searching for
for years
I trust dreaming
Everything is the poetry of love
AL 11/5/12
Today I will do what others won’t, so tomorrow I can accomplish what others can’t. ~ Jerry Rice
For the past 5 years I have published a newsletter called Songs from the Valley. I really had no idea how to do it, or what the result would be, I just enjoyed creating the first issue so much I committed to creating it for one year.
The first year was a time of figuring out what this publication would become. In March, of 2008, I featured my first artist, in April, I decided to publish two issues a month. By May, it began to take shape around a subject, rather than putting in random hodge-podge inspiration and in December, I decided that I would continue to create and publish it – that it truly was one of the best things I had ever done in my life. In 2010 I started a website and on March 18, 2011, I started this daily, poetry and quotes blog, to go along with the 2 issues a month.
I have been asked many times how I do it, how I find time. As I look back over the past five years, I see the actions that are reflected in the quote above. I made it happen by living my life in a way that others haven’t. It’s not about me being right or wrong, it’s just about what you want. I want to be all I can be and not aim low. When I started the newsletter, I wanted to create something good that my children, grandchildren and even great-grandchildren, could find one day, and know who I am, what I loved, how I live my life, what I stood for and what I learned about life. As I look back over the body of work, I am so blessed by how I have spent my time, the hours were well worth the effort! I am extremely grateful for what I have accomplished.
As this year of 2012 comes quickly to a close, I feel the time for something new is happening. It is time for things to shift and I am not sure the newsletter will continue to be the same. There are new things being born, and I feel the end of this particular publication may be ending, to make way for something new and exciting. I am not sure exactly what it will be, as of yet, but I feel things stirring around in my heart, in my imagination. Inspiration is bubbling and brewing and my music is coming to the forefront of this next phase of life upcoming. It is exciting and feels important. I ask for your prayers as I figure these things out and begin to incorporate new areas of discipline into my going, and begin to accomplish my highest calling from a heart of love.
www.songsfromthevalley.com for current issue on Place featuring artist Beverly Erschell http://www.beverlyerschell.com/
Lucky Leaves
Oh, these lucky leaves
That release themselves
Fall into the river and float
Away
Some of them remember
To stick their stems above
The stream and sail along
Longer than the others
That forget from one year
To the next
It’s important to remember
Because it is so easy to forget the One thing
That helps us sail along
With the Stream
Rick Mayher 11/4/12
owning your life is vital!
I waited and waited, for something to happen. It never did.
I pleaded and pleaded, for something to change. It never did.
I prayed and prayed, for love to find me. It never did.
One day, after years of suffering, I decided I could no longer idly watch my life pass by.
The voice within me spoke loudly and said: “Beautiful woman, if you want something to happen, make it happen.
If you want a change in your life, make that change.
If you wish for love to find you, first learn to love yourself.
Open your heart and dare to LIVE your life”……
Patience may be a virtue, but in life, one must take ownership.
Linda Vitagliano
Happy Mindful Writing Day: Nov 1st
Writing Small Stones is just downright good!
A tiny song within a thoughtful poem of well-placed words
strung together like a ribbon of twinkle lights
calling us to the party –
there will be dancing
http://www.writingourwayhome.com/
http://www.ahandfulofstones.com/
life: acoustic & amplified 