life: acoustic & amplified

poetry, quotes & thoughts about life

Archive for the month “February, 2014”

praying always

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There are prayers that God hears
That may not even noticed
by the prayer –
The eyes lifted in awe to a sunset.
The beach comber picking up tiny rocks as she grieves huge losses.
The deep breath before entering the office of the abusive, power-hungry boss.
The smell of your first cup of coffee.
The watery laughter through brimming tears of the overwhelmed new mother.
The patience of the store clerk doing his best with the impatient standing in line.
The open smiles of the people who know the secret of choosing to live life well.
The accomplished weariness at the end of a good days work with a friend.
The ride to home after 17 years of waiting.
The beautiful silence of a couple sitting together holding hands.
Candles burning in the darkness their shadows dancing on the walls.
The smell of an old library.
The many tastes of freedom.
Sharing gifts with others because you know there is ALWAYS enough.
Finding something special on the sidewalk.
The list never ends –
It’s why we are told to pray continually –
Keep naming.
Stay aware.
Living as if everything is the miracle that it truly is –
Everything is grace.
Our world is the spoken word of God,
we breathe the very breath of God, which brought us to life,
and, as God said,
It is very good.

AL 2/18/14

My soul, wait silently for God alone, for my expectation is from him. Psalm 62:5
Our prayers lay the track down on which God’s power can come.
– Watchman Nee

“Let this truth go as deep in you as possible: that life is already here, arrived. You are standing on the goal. Don’t ask about the path.” – Osho

Here I am standing on the goal!

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It is for freedom that Christ sets us free. Galatians 5:1

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Happy Freedom Day!
Gratitude is a vaccine, an antitoxin, and an antiseptic.
– John Henry Jowett

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It’s my sixth Annual Freedom Day
I have reached home
I have stood up against many demons and bullies
I have not settled or compromised
I have won battles against comfort and discomfort
I have done my work – I am whole and healed from the inside out.
I have slain scarcity – I live where wealth and abundance flow.
I stand tall and am walking brave
I go where the boat takes me
God’s hand holds me
My Jesus guides
The spirit glows warm within –
breath by breath
I drive towards the church
excited
and realize how hungry I am
I feel led to trust again
Give all I have this morning
a gift of great gratitude.
To see the salvation of God
is my joy.
I look in my wallet
as I pull into Dunkin’ Donuts drive thru
Do I give this to church?
Then a flash back to 6 years ago
A Dunkin’ Donuts in Woburn, MA
A 100$ bill given in a tip jar of thanks
for my safe deliverance.
and I know this is my place this chilly, wonderful winterful morning.
I order
Then explain to the young girl taking my last 100$
This is my Freedom Day!
Don’t ever settle for less than you are worth!!
The manager and others hurry over to hear more,
to cheer me and say thank you.
I drive away so very happy –
hoping whoever needed that message got it!
Yes, it is Freedom Day!
It is for freedom we have been set free –
Pass it on!!!
xoxo

AL 2/16/14

I want to join!

The League of Quiet Persons meets
monthly. Its quarters are a cavernous
warehouse away from traffic. Its
business is not to discuss business.
Minutes are read silently and tacitly approved.
Members listen to rain argue with corrugated
iron, a furnace with itself. Glances
are learnéd. It is not so much refuge
from noise the members seek in such company
as implicit permission not to speak,
not to answer or to answer for,
not to pose, chat, persuade, or expound.
Podium and gravel have been banned,
indeed are viewed as weaponry.
A microphone? The horror.
Several Quiet Persons interviewed
had no comment. A recorded voice
at the main office murmured only, “You
have reached the League of Quiet
Persons. After the tone, listen.”

“Mum Is the Word” by Hans Ostrom

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balloons floating through the blue skies of my mind ❤️

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On this day of your life I believe God wants you to know…

…that just when it looks like life is falling apart, it may
be falling together for the first time.

I have learned to trust the process of life, and not so
much the outcome. Destinations have not nearly as
much value as journeys.

So maybe you should let things fall apart at this
juncture if that’s what’s happening. Don’t hang on so
tenaciously. The nice thing about things falling apart is
that you can pick up only the pieces that you want…

…and you know exactly why I told you this today…

Love, Your Friend
Neale Donald Walsh
http://www.nealedonaldwalsch.com

it’s all about choices…

I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses.
Choose life so that you and your descendants may live.
—Deuteronomy 30.19

It’s not a game show with two doors,
a test with a right and a wrong answer.
It’s not reward or punishment.
It’s life, and we have to choose it,
embrace life or ignore it, receive it or not,
choose to give life or to diminish life,
to extend blessing or curse.
Life is not the reward for picking the right answer;
it’s the thing that itself is worth picking.

Your life is part of all of Life.
Choose to be a part of it instead of being separate.
Choose all of Life, not just your own little lifelet.

The choices are seldom two, right or wrong.
They are manifold, a thicket of tangled roots,
a thousand ways to harm a neighbor,
bless a stranger, set someone free.

When you see life, any life, notice it. Bow to it.
When you have the chance to enrich a life, choose that.
When someone has hurt you, give blessing, not curse.

Where there is injustice, anything that diminishes life,
choose what gives life instead.
It will not always be easy to live out that choice.
But the choosing will make you strong.

The life that is given to you, freely and without limit—
choose it, or you’ll miss it entirely.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
http://www.unfoldinglight.net

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the space between is very full

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Somewhere in the in-between
I’ll meet you there.
Somewhere between the friends benches
from one to infinity –
and the Constable’s at the BAM
Between unexpected Mondays
and snow storms of epic proportion.
Somewhere in the in-between
of stained-glass Tiffany windows
and those in the old, cold, beautiful church –
that’s where you’ll see me waiting.
Somewhere in the in-between,
on a street corner with our names intersecting,
on a spring day, before the flowers bloom,
or falling on my behind in a pile of snow, in the middle of winter,
laughing, and loving, weather of all sorts,
that’s where I’ll be hangin’ out, gettin’ rained on.
Somewhere in the in-between
of Louis’ Wonderful World,
Sam and Ruby singing the truth,
Cause Ain’t Love Somethin?
and Suzane Vega not allowing the wish for Caramel,
there’s where I’ll be.
That’s where I’ll always be,
waiting for an adventure with you.
Somewhere in the in-between
of stars, dust, lovers, Anam Cara – soul friend, kindness, beauty and truth,
Right there blazing glory, in the middle of the gray.
Yes, somewhere in between the in-between,
I’ll meet you right there,
my dearest, darling friend,
I’ll see you there,
Cause that’s where we always meet,
where we’ve always known each other.
Somewhere in the in-between
of heaven and earth.

AL 10/02/13

Sent from my iPhone

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Men for hundreds of years tried to get closer to God by building steeples on their houses of worship. As if grander and grander churches actually had something to do with God. Love is how we all get as close to God as living humans can get. Humans have been to the moon and will one day go even more distant into the cosmos. But what always is needed beyond all of that, and in spite of all of that, is love. The ability and desire to give our emotions when we don’t know what might happen. Daring always to reach out. – Anamcara

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true freedom

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living life with kindness, beauty and truth. ❤️

we got it all

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Nothing is Lost
by Noel Coward

Deep in our sub-conscious, we are told
Lie all our memories, lie all the notes
Of all the music we have ever heard
And all the phrases those we loved have spoken,
Sorrows and losses time has since consoled,
Family jokes, out-moded anecdotes
Each sentimental souvenir and token
Everything seen, experienced, each word
Addressed to us in infancy, before
Before we could even know or understand
The implications of our wonderland.
There they all are, the legendary lies
The birthday treats, the sights, the sounds, the tears
Forgotten debris of forgotten years
Waiting to be recalled, waiting to rise
Before our world dissolves before our eyes
Waiting for some small, intimate reminder,
A word, a tune, a known familiar scent
An echo from the past when, innocent
We looked upon the present with delight
And doubted not the future would be kinder
And never knew the loneliness of night.

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