For everyone you touch, you also reach everyone they will ever know… and everyone they will ever know… and everyone they will ever know… So for the rest of all time, your kindness will be felt, in waves that will spread, long after you move on.
#notesfromtheuniverse http://www.tut.com/Inspiration/nftu
Sweet Darkness
When your eyes are tired
the world is tired also.
When your vision has gone
no part of the world can find you.
Time to go into the dark
where the night has eyes
to recognize its own.
There you can be sure
you are not beyond love.
The dark will be your womb
tonight.
The night will give you a horizon
further than you can see.
You must learn one thing.
The world was made to be free in.
Give up all the other worlds
except the one to which you belong.
Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet
confinement of your aloneness
to learn
anything or anyone
that does not bring you alive
is too small for you.
🔥
– David Whyte
I sense infinity
I open myself to the unlimited
and with that opening
I glimpse unending love
I breathe the cold morning air
Absorb the sunlight dancing on the water
take in the sight of millions of diamonds
on blue velvet
and I struggle,
reaching, to open fully
to take in this message
to understand this beauty
I sit in silence
I listen in wonder
I stay in that moment
for eternity
it is for eternity
as I walk home
I ask my soul’s questions:
How will I allow God to love me?
How will I allow love to touch me?
☀️
AL
photo by Fisherman Dan @ Branford, CT
Oh yes, this is mighty and good
by Barbara Endel
Fos•ter (encourage or promote the development of (something, typically something regarded as good); bring up
Is it self-less or selfish to foster?
What place does love have? When you know it’s only temporary?
How hard is it to say good-bye?
Have you ever fostered?
For the dog it is their happy ending; uniting with a forever family
But what about you?
Is it enough to foster this phenomenal exchange…
to help foster the collection of their energy, to re-group, feel safe, experience love, joy, and the simple pleasure of a warm bed, enough food, and a trusting hand?
The answer is… it has to be, they are counting on us.
On Saturday I start fostering…the development of something typically regarded as good.
Every now and then
we leave off our pious yearnings,
and even our righteous ire,
and sit down to the hard work of being sad for the world.
It takes guts,
God knows—
not anger but sorrow;
it tires prophets and psalmists alike.
The wolf that cries in the long valley,
the sea that chants its lament
over and over with sighs and tears,
the hermit on sore knees,
the angels at their posts
taking turns offering up their aching hearts,
even Christ weeping,
they can’t do it alone.
In the end
it is the broken hearted
in whom we find the deepest companionship.
We come away wet with grief
yet oddly strengthened
with the fibers of hope.
In grief for the world
we touch its worth.
In sorrow we find each other,
and there,
the substance of joy.
Weird, isn’t it,
how that alone
is the healing balm we ask? __________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
“Only he who cries… is permitted to sing…” is what Bonhoeffer said.
Only those authentic enough to lament, are authentic enough to love.
When everything is stripped away and you have nothing left and in all your bare vulnerability, there is communion with God.
– Ann Voskamp
💙
I am bare naked
Down to my bones
Even my comfortable skin is gone
I shiver as the cold blows through me
I have cried many tears
My song has been watered to full growth
Being alive does not come without cost
We love
we lose
we grieve
We lament
We love
We commune
We learn
We choose
to continue to make the choices
to love
to bring the song
that fills spring with joy
and the whole world
With light and love
AL
And here’s what made it happen…
They tell me –
Not to…
Don’t…
Forget the writer,
leave her be,
Focus on some other things,
words need not be free
They say no need to share adventures..
Stuff the stories,
hide your truths
Don’t capture the experience, it’s really of no use
They say
other things need my attention, my energy,
For God’s sake, earn a wage –
I’ll tell you what that does for me –
…finally, finally…finally –
sends me to the page
And all the walls and stops crash-tumble-trickle down
I sit furious-
typing –
damn punctuation, tense, pronoun
Does it really matter if they she he we agree?
It’s time to tell my story – for once, for now – for ME
💜
– Robin OK
http://www.creativecollaborativeretreats.com
And then there comes a moment
when all you have suffered
all you have learned
all you have lost and found
rise up and become
and suddenly you are
here
you are
who you dreamed of being
so many years ago
suddenly you have arrived
at what you caught glimpses of
for so many years
and the search,
the free fall of broken dreams,
broken hearts
broken everything
tumbling down rabbit holes
stumbling over the feet
of your own lack of knowledge
is over
you find yourself on solid ground
stable
steady
raising your Ebenezer
those tributes to God
for all the mighty stones of help
building this foundation on the solid rocks
you know so well
and though the pilgrimage may continue
though the journey is definitely not over
though life is fragile
and security an illusion
there is a new sureness to your step
a trusting unshakable
a calm in it all
a new assurance of provision
a new traveling song to be sung as you walk forward
always forward
always pilgrim ready for new adventures
forgetting the names of what lay behind
you press on to your calling
the prize set before
reveling in the mercies ever new
for each new day
there is no stopping now
you have found something
which cannot ever be taken
you have arrived here by your own determination
reached a place
both spiritual and physical
a place of such magnitude
the light shines from every angle
it has sealed up the oldest sores
bound up the deepest wounds
satisfied the deepest longings
changed everything
settled old scores with finality
no longer will you settle for less than you deserve
no more will you tolerate anything less than your best and highest offerings
you must be all you can be
gratitude fills you for this place
a place so lovely
it can bear up
even under the weight
of our hearts wildest desires
with just this simple name
it resounds inside our souls like a bell –
home
yes, beloved,
you are home.
right where you belong.
❤️
AL
I am blown away. Simply no words to describ my joy and proudness…❤️
In my dreams I am fishing with my father.
A tap on the door at dawn and the smell of coffee, eggs, and toast in the air.
He and I load the poles and the coffee thermos silently. That old coffee thermos that has held about a million gallons of coffee.
The buzz from the motor and the smell of boat oil linger as if it was yesterday.
The boat emerges from the fog like a sun ray through the clouds; we are the only ones out this chilly, foggy morning, making it even more special.
The easy banter.
The bets about catching the first fish.
We glide to our favorite fishing spot and anchor the boat.
I ask for his advice about depth; like I have asked for advice all my life
My bobber hits the water like it has a thousand times.
I watch the…
View original post 50 more words
Am so very, very blessed to be a part of this story. To glimpse the beauty of this relationship, to be a part of this healing for yourself and others. Thank you, my poet!
Is there such a thing?
Melting on the inside every single time you look into those amber eyes?
Every single time?
No matter if it’s the first or the thousandth or the millionth?
It’s almost closing time;
“It’s not too late” she says.
“It’s never too late for second Chances.”
She walked toward me holding this cinnamon colored puppy
He had just been woken up; still a little confused.
She had that hopeful look on her face, evaluating the chances of him finding a home;
Or was it Chance finding me a home?
I took him in my arms like a baby, and the skies that cold February day really did part;
When he turned his head, at that instant the sunshine broke through the clouds and lit up those beautiful amber eyes;
hitting my heart so deeply
I’m in love already; how can that happen so…
View original post 112 more words
So incredibly blessed yo be a part of this evolving, stupendously inspiring story!! 💞💞💞💞
Source: A Million Pieces
Respectfully given,
exalted being
full of grace,
remember to forget:
surrender struggles to catch it’s breath,
then falls soft
as evening prayers at twilight,
gathering into the corners of our hearts
before falling full
onto the center of our living circle,
free and happy as a Friday night.
next morning’s sun fills us,
each day, each season.
nurture moves with grace,
evolving slowly thru
our caring hands,
our grieving hearts,
our shared experience,
our acts of courage,
the healing salt of our tears,
the energy generation of our joy.
with pieces of our true love,
we fly flags,
of prayer,
of peace,
of poems,
of our own making
to heal the worlds –
within us/
without us.
we allow –
simply complex.
we understand –
clearly unclear.
we stand and fill our world with
the beauty,
the mystery,
of sound,
of hum,
of laughter,
of voice,
of music,
protecting us
from lesser gods,
the terror all around.
love is the shield,
love is the answer,
love is the choice,
love is our glory,
our salvation,
crowning us
sons and daughters
of the King.
at times,
in spite of our broken pieces,
our refusal to believe,
even our darkened hearts.
–
astonishing,
isn’t it?
❣
AL
A sob in the night
awakens us from dreams,
a crack opens in the wall
and in seeps the dark stream
with pieces of broken things in it,
and blood, and our own ragged edge,
and in seeps the light,
and the voice singing.
We want to pull the wall around us,
the sorrow pouring in,
but it is breached now,
it is only an illusion,
and we are out in the dangerous light,
the fragile street,
tender as everyone else,
ready to duck, ready to weep.
We are all refugees now,
foreigners, except to foreigners.
It’s the egg that is cracked,
the stone rolled away.
If there is a place for love,
for your own brave soul, this is it.
The cord in another’s heart
knotted in yours,
the hand reaching for you
you can reach out to.
Terror and the stillness,
and the voice singing.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
and for each person in this world 🙏🏻
THE SEA IN YOU
When I wake under the moon,
I do not know who I have become unless
I move closer to you, obeying the give and take
of the earth as it breathes the slender length
of your body, so that in breathing with the tide
that breathes in you, and moving with you
as you come and go, and following you, half in light
and half in dark, I feel the first firm edge of my floating palm
touch and then trace the pale light of your shoulder
to the faint, moon-lit shadow of your smooth cheek,
and drawing my finger through the pearl water of your skin,
I sense the breath on your lips touch and then warm
the finest, furthest, most unknown edge of my sense of self,
so that I come to you under the moon
as if I had swum under the deepest arch of the ocean,
to find you living where no one could possibly live,
and to feel you breathing, where no one could
possibly breathe, and I touch your skin as I would
touch a pale whispering spirit of the tides that my arms
try to hold with the wrong kind of strength and my lips
try to speak with the wrong kind of love and I follow
you through the ocean night listening for your breath
in my helpless calling to love you as I should, and I lie
next to you in your sleep as I would next to the sea,
overwhelmed by the rest that arrives in me and by the weight
that is taken from me and what, by morning,
is left on the shore of my waking joy.
…
THE SEA IN YOU by David Whyte
It is the great mystery of life
That to every part
there is a counterpart
the polarity is the great gift
Also the great curse
The friction keeps us learning
else we die, even as we live.
Gravity keeps on earth
Anti-gravity surrounds us a few miles above
without both we would not exist.
Trees breathe carbon in
Exhale oxygen
We do the opposite.
The sun and moon
are in the perfect spots for us to survive.
We fight change,
though it is the one thing
that truly allows us to become.
We want to have answers –
Cut.
Dry.
Concrete.
We want to KNOW
Yet the great mystery of life is letting the mystery be greater than us
while inhaling the small parts we can comprehend
and using them to create good with our part.
seeing new every day.
evolving slowly.
The yin.
—
The yang.
Within the darkness
We find the light.
With letting go of the other
We finally own our oneness.
Within the deepest sorrow
We release ourselves
for our most complete joy.
When we give ourselves empty
we receive back waves of abundance and are filled fresh.
We want what glitters,
but find the best gifts
are always on the bottom shelf,
sometimes a little dusty from not being used.
Each and every day, in order to find our way into the unlimited potential of our highest self
we must first commit to our holy and unique calling,
our own glorious belovedness.
AL
💜
Photos found on http://www.pinterest.com
life: acoustic & amplified 